'Corruption We Pay For': White House Uses Pentagon Funds to 10x the Value of a Company Trump Jr. Had Secretly Invested In

A ProPublica investigation has found that a senior White House adviser personally directed the Pentagon to issue its largest-ever strategic loan to a start-up in which Donald Trump Jr. had quietly taken an undisclosed stake just three months earlier.

Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company founded in 2023 by a Harvard Business School student and employing roughly 30 people, received a conditional Pentagon loan of £477 million ($620 million) in November 2025. The money was the largest single commitment ever made by the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital. According to ProPublica's investigation, published 28 May 2026 and based on Defence Department records and interviews with multiple Pentagon officials, the deal was not initiated through any standard application or review process.

It was triggered by a direct request from Peter Navarro, the president's senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing. The company's estimated valuation subsequently rose from approximately £154 million ($200 million) to nearly £1.54 billion ($2 billion), a tenfold increase financed in large part by public money.

Undisclosed Stake, Rushed Timeline and White House Call

In August 2025, Vulcan announced a £50 million ($65 million) Series A funding round. Among the investors was 1789 Capital, the venture capital firm where Trump Jr. serves as a named partner, a role he took on after his father's re-election in 2024. Neither 1789 Capital nor Vulcan has publicly disclosed the size of the stake taken. That investment was not reported publicly as a conflict of interest at the time.

Staff inside the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital learned of the White House request to fund Vulcan around September or October 2025, an official involved in the deal told ProPublica. What followed was, by the account of a second Pentagon source who was also not authorised to speak publicly, a process stripped of its usual safeguards. 'The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,' the source said. Staff worked late into the night over several weeks to push the loan through. Companies under normal consideration are typically vetted over many months.

Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was evaluating for funding at the time, Vulcan was the only one whose deal had been initiated by a direct aide to the president, a Pentagon official confirmed to ProPublica. The official Pentagon announcement, published 3 November 2025, described the loan as part of a broader £1.08 billion ($1.4 billion) partnership with ReElement Technologies, an Indiana rare-earth refiner that already worked with Vulcan.

The Commerce Department separately committed £38.5 million ($50 million) to acquire an equity stake in the company. The Pentagon would receive warrants in both firms. The funding was authorised under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump in July 2025.

Navarro, Trump Jr. and an Unexplained Paper Trail

Navarro and Trump Jr. have a documented personal relationship. Trump Jr. visited Navarro in a Miami federal prison while he was serving a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena related to the January 6th Capitol riot investigation. Navarro dedicated his most recent book to a small group of people he said had 'my back when it was against the wall,' and Trump Jr. was among them.

A week before the Vulcan loan was publicly announced, Trump Jr. hosted Navarro on his streaming show, where he encouraged his nearly two million subscribers to purchase Navarro's book. That interview aired shortly after word had already come from Navarro to Pentagon staff to proceed with the Vulcan loan, according to one of the defence officials who spoke to ProPublica.

In a separate episode from October 2025, the two men discussed the rare-earth mineral supply chain at length, the sector in which Vulcan operates. Trump Jr. referred to Navarro as 'my boy.' Navarro called Trump Jr. 'brother.' Neither mentioned Vulcan by name.

Navarro did not respond to ProPublica's questions. Vulcan also did not respond. A White House spokesperson issued a statement saying the administration is working 'in the best interest of the American people' and that the team, 'including Senior Counsellor Navarro and officials at the Department of War, is working together and with private industry to secure America's critical mineral supply chain at Trump Speed.'

Trump Jr.'s spokesperson said he 'has no knowledge about how this deal came together' and does not discuss his investments with government officials. A spokesperson for 1789 Capital stated the firm 'played no role' in Vulcan obtaining the loan and did not learn about it before the public announcement.

Congress Blocks Testimony on Trump Jr.

The Vulcan deal had already drawn congressional attention months before ProPublica's investigation landed. On 25 March 2026, Representative Maxine Dexter, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, forced a vote to subpoena Trump Jr. to testify under oath. The motion, backed by Full Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman of California, was blocked by Republican members of the committee. According to the official press release from Dexter's office, Republicans then shut down the hearing to prevent debate. Dexter stated, 'This is the oligarchy on full display, and I'm committed to ending corruption.'

The House Natural Resources Committee Democrats noted in their press release that the loan was issued without competitive bids and without the independent technical review that is normally required to verify a mineral project's viability before public funds are committed.

That requirement had been waived under Executive Order 14241, signed by Trump. A group of Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Andy Kim and Richard Blumenthal, had previously written to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in January 2026 demanding records of any contact between Pentagon officials and Trump Jr., according to IBTimes UK's reporting. No public response has been issued.

Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, put it plainly when ProPublica asked for his assessment of the arrangement. 'This is our money they're spending,' Painter said. 'This is corruption we pay for.'

ProPublica also reported that a separate company, Unusual Machines, a Florida drone parts manufacturer on whose advisory board Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds shares, is currently under review for an additional Pentagon loan, raising the prospect that the Vulcan deal may not be an isolated case.