Eric, Don Jr. invest in military drone company amid Iran war 

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Eric, Don Jr. invest in military drone company amid Iran war: Lindsey Granger | RISING

Eric, Don Jr. invest in military drone company amid Iran war: Lindsey Granger | RISING

The business of war has always been lucrative. But when the people making money are tied directly to the people making policy, it raises questions Americans should be asking.  

A new military drone company called Powerus, backed by investors including the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, is planning a strange corporate move: merging with a Florida golf course holding company to create a publicly traded drone business. The deal would combine a defense technology firm with a company that owns golf courses near Orlando, including Kissimmee Bay Country Club and Remington Golf Club. According to the announcement, those courses could even become testing grounds for drone systems.  

It’s an unusual pairing. But the bigger issue is who stands to benefit.  

Powerus says it builds autonomous drones for military and high-risk environments and wants to scale production to more than 10,000 drones a month. That’s a massive bet on a rapidly expanding market. The Pentagon has already launched initiatives like its Drone Dominance program, which plans to spend about $1.1 billion to buy hundreds of thousands of American-made drone systems by 2027.  

And that demand is growing partly because of policy decisions coming out of Washington, including bans on new Chinese-made drones, which have long dominated the global market.  

So the same administration shaping the rules of the industry also has family members investing heavily in companies that could fill the gap.  

A few days after the U.S. decided to go to war with Iran, Eric Trump wrote on X, “Drones are the wave of the future — Proud of this company and the work that they are doing to keep America safe,” linking to another drone company he invests in.  

Donald Trump Jr. is also connected to multiple defense-tech ventures. He sits on the board of drone component company Unusual Machines. Forbes reported, “Unusual Machines is at least the second company that appears to have activated an advisory board specifically to give Trump a role” and “granting him shares worth millions—then announcing at least $15.2 million in military-linked orders, including a direct U.S. Army buy.”  

The U.S. Army confirmed the order, but the company did not disclose the price charged to taxpayers.

This isn’t happening in isolation. The United States already spends more on its military than any other country — nearly $1 trillion in 2025, more than the next nine nations combined. President Trump has proposed raising that to $1.5 trillion by 2027.  

And throughout Washington, financial ties to the defense industry are common. Marc Berkowitz, who is Trump’s current assistant secretary of Defense for space policy, previously worked at Lockheed Martin and still owns between $1 million and $5 million in company stock.   

This is what critics call the modern version of wartime profiteering, when private companies generate enormous revenue from government defense contracts during periods of conflict or geopolitical tension.  

None of this proves wrongdoing. But it highlights something deeply uncomfortable: in a moment when Americans are still debating why the country is involved in global conflicts at all, the people closest to power appear positioned to profit from the weapons and technology used in them.  

And when war becomes this intertwined with business, it’s fair for people to question if it stops being just about national security. 

Lindsey Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.   

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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