Donald Trump Jr.'s transformation into Washington power broker
When the crypto mining firm American Bitcoin announced plans to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange this week, the company called it a "major milestone" for a key stakeholder, Dominari Holdings — a little-known investment house that recently added a very recognizable name to its advisory board: Donald Trump Jr.
It was the latest maneuver in a series of high-stakes, and potentially lucrative business deals Trump Jr. and his younger brother Eric, also a Dominari adviser, stand to benefit from.
Since his father won the 2024 election, Trump Jr. has joined at least eight corporate boards or advisory committees, adding political clout and his famous family brand to companies that sell handguns, make drones, and offer healthcare services online.
During President Trump's second term, his son Donald Jr. has morphed from a lower profile presence in Washington to arguably the most visible heir to his father's political empire. The most overt symbol of that ascendence – and of the Trump family's unique blend of governing and deal-making, went public last month, with the announcement of a highly-exclusive private club, which is named "Executive Branch."
At the coming-out event, the cocktails flowed and servers passed caviar to A-list guests that included Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Attorney General Pam Bondi; Paul Atkins, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and FCC chair Brendan Carr. The Capital's buzzy newsletters revealed the club's eye-popping club membership fee: $500,000.
Private clubs have long been a fixture of official Washington, where lobbyists and well-heeled donors can mingle with members of Congress and high-ranking officials. But this venture launched by the president's oldest son is something new — and, according to critics, serves as the latest example of how the Trump family has turbo-charged Washington's pay-to-play culture.
"I don't think there has ever been anything comparable to this use of the presidency to advance private business interests," said Joseph Briffaut, a law professor who specializes in government ethics at Columbia Law School.
Critics fear a pay-to-play culture
To government watchdogs, the members-only social club embodies what they say is an increasingly brazen mingling of private business interests and government policy.
"It's unseemly and it undermines the public's faith that the government is operating in the public interest," said Brett Kappel, a veteran Washington, D.C., election lawyer.
Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor who has for years advocated for stronger ethics rules in the nation's capital, told CBS News she views the club as a blatant play to cash in with interest groups seeking access to the Trump administration.
"This is literally members bringing money into the pockets of Donald Trump Jr, and his business partners," Sloan said.
Trump Jr's allies disagree. They argue the extravagant membership fee actually cuts against the claim that it is a vehicle for influence peddling — because members are already so well connected.
"If your goal was to let as many people in as possible, you'd have every lobbyist in DC join," said one source familiar with the concept behind the club, pointing out that members who could afford the sky-high admission fee would likely already be well known in Washington's power corridors.
For his part, Trump Jr. disputes suggestions that he is cashing in on his father's name or testing any ethical boundaries.
"I'm a private citizen who has been a businessman my entire life," he said in a statement provided to CBS News. "It's laughable that the left-wing media thinks that I should lock myself in a padded room and cease what I've been doing for over 25 years to earn a living and provide for my five children," Trump Jr. added.
The White House calls Trump Jr's private sector dealings ethically sound, pointing out that President Trump's assets are held in a trust controlled by his family
The "Executive Branch" club is only one of the ways Trump Jr. has raised his profile during his father's second term. The president's son has rapidly expanded the family's crypto profile and continued to pursue real estate investments. He has also been a front-facing leader of the MAGA empire, supplanting his sister Ivanka and brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, as the most high-profile — and politically astute — Trump scion in Washington.
The "Trump bump"
The family business is a global enterprise. Recently, Trump Jr. made a whirlwind tour of several foreign nations, including Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria, where he looked in on real estate interests, delivered lucrative speeches and met with government leaders, according to The New York Times.
At home, Trump Jr.'s move to join a spree of corporate boards in the role of adviser or board member traces in part to his relationship with Omeed Malik, the financier and mega Trump donor who is also Trump Jr.'s co-founder in the DC social club.
Just days after the election, Malik brought on Trump Jr. as a partner in his venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, which says on its website that it invests in conservative companies and eschews "woke capitalism" and other left-wing causes, a deal a knowledgeable source said was in the works before the election. Trump Jr. soon joined the boards of arms retailer GrabAGun as well as the online health care company BlinkRX, both 1789 Capital properties.
It is not hard to see the impact when a company adds Trump Jr. to its board. When Dominari Holdings inc., a wealth management and banking services company, announced that it was bringing on both of the president's sons, its stock price shot up 83% to a record high, eventually settling down to 30%above where it was before Trump Jr. joined. Shortly thereafter, Dominari's CEO announced that the company was planning investments in AI and data centers, growth industries where the Trump administration has been massively rolling back regulations. In a company press release, CEO Kyle Wood he cited Trump Jr's and Eric Trump's "strategic insight" in both of those sectors.
And this week, the Bitcoin mining company owned partly by Trump sons Donald Jr. and Eric engineered a listing on the NASDAQ after merging with a smaller, publicly traded mining firm called Gryphon Digital Mining Inc. Dominari Holdings is effectively acting as the banker for the deal and has been reaching out to potential investors.
In another example of the so-called "Trump bump," the stock price of Unusual Machines, a Florida-based drone manufacturer, nearly doubled when the news hit that Trump Jr. was joining the board.
Unusual Machines, which manufactures its unmanned aerial vehicles and components in the US, is aiming to reduce American dependence on Chinese drones. But for the time being the company is reliant on Chinese parts, which means that the Trump administration's yo-yoing tariffs on China could hurt the company's bottom line. CEO Allan Evans has said he would not ask Trump Jr. to intervene with the federal government on the company's behalf for relief.
"I would never ask him to do anything or facilitate anything like that," Evans told the Wall Street Journal.
Trump Jr. and his defenders clap back at critics who suggest his moves to join board seats and champion business interests carry the echoes of past ventures by presidential relatives like Billy Carter, Neil Bush or Hunter Biden. They call him a skilled entrepreneur with a long record of business success who has capitalized on his position by making shrewd business decisions, cultivating lucrative connections among tech and finance leaders, all while building up a powerful political operation in Washington.
The Hunter Biden comparisons, in particular, have drawn a sharp response: "He became a 'businessman' after his dad got elected," Trump Jr. said in a social media post. "I joined a Venture Capital Firm that invests in private American companies - Nothing to do with the government."
MAGA power broker
"Don Jr. was an accomplished businessman long before his father got into politics and just continues to grow," said Sean Spicer, who served the president as press secretary in his first term and now hosts the Sean Spicer podcast.
Today, Spicer says Trump Jr. is the man to see. Spicer, who worked closely with the president's son during the first term, says has seen the evolution up close.
"If the phone rings and it's Don Jr., you better pick it up on the first ring," Spicer said. During the 2020 campaign Trump Jr. emerged as a potent asset for his father, stumping on the trail and fully embodying the MAGA brand. He flung "red meat" to the rapturous crowds at Trump rallies and showed an instinct for the jugular that reminded observers of Trump senior.
A big part of his success, his friends say, is an ability to blend with the grassroots MAGA world.
"Don Jr. isn't just a billionaire's son, he's one of us," said Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for Turning Point USA, the pre-eminent MAGA aligned youth organization and an associate of Trump Jr.
Trump Jr.'s inside and outside game makes him a unique player in Trump's Washington, his allies say -- someone with unparalleled clout within the administration who is also able to operate freely in the private sector.
He has forged close ties with powerful tech titans like Elon Musk and David O. Sacks, the angel investor who was a key figure in bringing a powerful and wealthy contingent of Silicon Valley over to Trump. Sacks is currently serving as the White House Czar for both Crypto and AI. Last month he became Member #1 of the Executive Branch club.
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