Trump Brothers: Profiting from War

Modern merchants of death stand to make millions.

In the middle of March, as the war raged between Iran, Israel, and the United States, it was reported the Trump brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, were positioned to make a deal with the Pentagon. American Ventures, a venture capital firm, holds stakes in three crucial defense companies—Powerus, Xtend, and Unusual Machines, and all three manufacture military drones. American Ventures backs Powerus, a Florida-based startup advancing drone technology with a focus on West Asia. Xtend, an “AI-powered platform” designed for “mission critical operations,” is an Israeli company. Unusual Machines, based in Orlando, Florida, is partnered with Powerus to manufacture “counter-UAS Systems.”

“Donald Trump’s sons are making a bold business move tied to the expanding military drone market, positioning themselves to potentially profit from defense spending during their father’s administration,” BallerAlert reported.

Bloomberg put an approximate dollar figure on the American Ventures investment portfolio: nearly $750 million across the three Florida-based companies, all of which are pursuing Defense Department contracts under the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance initiative, which targets $1.1 billion in drone procurement over the next two years, according to DroneXL, a news site reporting on drone technology. The Drone Dominance initiative plans to purchase over 200,000 drones by early 2028.

“Co-founded by former U.S. Army Special Operations veterans, Powerus builds autonomous drone systems for military and commercial use,” The Hill reported on March 10, 2026. Brett Velicovich, a former US Army intelligence and special operations soldier, is president and COO of Powerus. Velicovich served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was an Army special operations intelligence analyst and former Delta Force. The combat veteran was once regarded as the “world’s most dangerous drone expert.” During an interview, he declared he knows, as a victim of an attack in Iraq attributed to Iran, the “evil of the Iranian regime all too well.” More likely, the Shia resistance to the US occupation of Iraq was responsible. Velicovich is credited with helping to track down and assassinate the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Omar al-Baghdad. He also helped track Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the Trump administration while visiting Baghdad on a peace mission.

Appearing on the Mark Levin Show, Velicovich said if he was “advising the President, I would tell him now is not the time to let up” on bombing Iran. “President Trump is doing right now exactly what a commander-in-chief is supposed to do,” Velicovich told Levin. “He arrogantly claims diplomacy is surrender and brags the Trump administration is intentionally forcing a battlefield confrontation,” according to an X post. “At no point does Levin disclose that Velicovich may stand to profit off the war expanding,” posted Chris Menahan of Information Liberation.

Fox News resident war hawk, and Trump’s former special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, is on the advisory board of Powerus as a “strategic advisor,” likely the same role he performs at Fox News. In addition to involvement with Powerus, Kellogg holds “leadership positions” at Oracle Corporation, CACI International, and Cubic Defense Applications. Oracle is a one of eight Pentagon “technology partners” providing advanced AI tools for classified military networks. CACI International, one of Fortune’s 500 Largest Companies, provides information technology services to the War Department, Homeland Security, and the intelligence community. Cubic Defense Applications offers “enhanced warfighting readiness” to the US Army, the Department of the Navy, and the US Air Force.

“I think we should finish the job, Kellogg told Fox News. “The blockade has been executed brilliantly, but it should be pushed to the point where Iran is broken economically, militarily and politically.” Kellogg added that his “analogy is Sherman’s march through the South: break the regime by breaking its survival 4X.” Sherman’s March to the Sea is considered a form of total war. General Sherman aimed to break the will of the Confederate people by causing significant destruction to civilian infrastructure and resources.

The Israeli company “Xtend holds a ‘multi-million-dollar’ Defense Department contract for attack systems and keeps its U.S. headquarters in Tampa, near US Central Command, per Bloomberg,” according to Drone XL. In addition, the company, founded in Tel Aviv and headquartered in Tampa, won a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply a human-guided AI drone operating system, a contract valued at approximately $1.67 million.

Xtend CEO, Aviv Shapira, was an IDF soldier and “the youngest [missile] test director in the Air Force,” according to Globes, an Israeli website. Rubi Liani, co-founder and CTO, served in the Israeli Navy for twelve years.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it will implement the “Gaza model” in Lebanon, including the illegal demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister, stated at the end of March that the Israeli army would operate in Lebanon “similar to the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun.”

B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based Israeli nonprofit organization documenting human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, notes: “Indeed, Israel has been carrying out repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, electricity and water facilities, bridges, roads, and more. Over the past month, Israel has killed more than a thousand people in Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, and erased entire villages.”

In June, 2025, President Trump signed one of his many executive orders, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” that called for the Pentagon “to scale up domestic drone production, strengthen the U.S. drone industrial base, and prioritize American-made unmanned aircraft across agencies to the maximum extent allowed by law,” reported Quartz. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration barred imports of new models of foreign drones and critical components, thus allowing companies such as Powerus and Xtend to dominate the market.

According to Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at the nonpartisan ethics watchdog Project on Government Oversight, the Trump investment deals on warfighting drone tech “at a minimum present the appearance of impropriety.”

While the Trump Organization maintains its innocence, experts caution that the absence of a clear distinction between policy decisions and family interests poses unprecedented ethical challenges. Trump Jr., as a partner in 1789, a Palm Beach, Florida-based “patriotic capitalist” venture capital and growth equity firm, suggested “the firm influences U.S. policy outright” and “understand[s] what the administration wants to do, because [the firm] helped craft some of the messaging.”

“The emerging military tech sector has deep ties to the administration, starting with vice-president J.D. Vance’s relationship with Palantir founder Peter Thiel, who employed Vance and helped fund his Senate run,” notes William Hartung, a Quincy Institute senior research fellow. “The fact that Donald Trump Jr.—not only the president’s son but a close political advisor and unofficial spokesperson—will now profit personally from the fate of specific military tech firms adds an even more profound conflict-of-interest.”

The Trump clan shares notoriety with past war profiteers, including the G Farben/Bayer/Rockefeller alliance responsible for German chemical and pharmaceutical production, Ford Motor and General Motors, ITT, the Chase National and Morgan banks, and a number of German industrialists such as Flick, Renault, Schneider, and Krupp, involved with German chemical and pharmaceutical production during the First and Second World Wars.