Security officials and the business attempted to muddle concerns of cronyism when the Pentagon announced a$ 620 million product last year to a small North Carolina business linked to Donald Trump Jr.
The government’s eldest brother said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. Trump Jr., according to the Pentagon, did not contribute to the breakthrough agreement. And the company’s creator told reporters that his organization, Vulcan Elements, received no social favoritism.
However, according to discussions and Defense Department records that ProPublica reviewed, Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr., made the request to mortgage hundreds of millions of dollars to the company linked to him.
Of the dozens of firms the Pentagon was considering money at the time, Vulcan’s was the only offer initiated by a top aide to the president, said an official at the Pentagon who was not authorized to speak publicly.
According to another person who was involved in the package at the Pentagon but not authorized to speak about it, security officials asked Pentagon personnel to move at an exceptionally quick pace after receiving the White House demand. The team worked late night and with little rest to get the loan through in a matter of days, the source said.
The person said,” We have to get this done, the call came from the White House.”
The offer is one of many activities by the Trump administration that have helped businesses in which the Trump relatives holds bets. Numerous Trump-linked businesses have received state contracts and other perks, making Democratic politicians and good government experts to make accusations of self-dealing. But ProPublica’s monitoring on the Vulcan product represents the first time the giving of a deal from a national company has been instantly linked to White House treatment.
The Pentagon made a sizable monetary commitment with the loan in an effort to help the United States lessen its reliance on China’s crucial nutrient supply chains. The package was a dramatic win for Vulcan, a North Carolina rare-earth pole company launched just two years earlier. After the announcement of the bargain, projections of its valuation increased by tenfold. It was also a win for Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, which took a stake of unknown length in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the deal.
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And the mayor’s eldest son might soon have more positive information on the way. Among other firms under review for a Pentagon product was a device parts company that Trump Jr. advises and owns a stake in, according to one of the defence officials who spoke to ProPublica.
In recent years, Trump Jr. and Navarro have shared a close relationship. The government’s son visited Navarro in prison while he served time for defying a subpoena from lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump Jr. was one of the few persons Navarro honored with his most recent book because he had “my back against the wall.” And a week before the Vulcan deal was announced, Trump Jr. hosted Navarro— then the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing — on his streaming show, encouraging his roughly 2 million subscribers to purchase Navarro’s book. One of the defense officials involved in the deal claimed that that interview occurred shortly after Navarro’s announcement to Pentagon staff to make the sizable loan to Vulcan.
Navarro did not respond to questions from ProPublica sent to him directly. Vulcan didn’t either. A White House spokesperson said in a statement that the administration is working “in the best interest of the American people”, adding,” The President’s entire team, including Senior Counselor 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 claimed that the president’s son does not speak with Navarro about Vulcan and does not talk to him about companies he has invested in with federal government officials. He “has no knowledge about how this deal came together”, the spokesperson said. A spokeswoman for Trump Jr.’s venture capital, 1789 Capital, claimed it also did not learn about the deal before it went public and that it also played no part in Vulcan getting the loan.
” No company receives preferential treatment”, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The Department’s funding decisions are made solely based on external affiliations, investors, or political connections.
Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, said aides to the president should not be intervening in contracting and lending decisions by agencies, particularly in matters that financially benefit the president’s family.
” This is our money,” Painter said. ” This is corruption we pay for”.
The Pentagon division that signed the deal with Vulcan, the Office of Strategic Capital, aims to address a bipartisan issue: whether China’s dominance of rare earth elements and other crucial minerals threatens national security.
It is hard to overstate the country’s dominance in this arena. For instance, as of last year, China produced the world’s entire supply of samarium, an obscure rare-earth metal that makes up the magnets used to launch Tomahawk missiles and F-35 fighter jet engines. Other rare earths are central to the manufacturing of a vast array of commercial and military products, from car parts and semiconductors to drones.
Finding the raw materials is typically not difficult, but it’s difficult to tell them apart from the other materials they’re bonded to, and China largely controls this process. Virtually every advanced military in the world depends directly or indirectly on the country’s supply chain of rare earths. The danger of relying on a single supplier for these essential materials was highlighted last year when China announced it was limiting exports of some rare-earth metals.
The Office of Strategic Capital, started under the Biden administration, funds private companies that are working in this space or developing certain military technologies so that the U. S. can stop relying on its top rival to equip its own military.
The Trump administration dominated the effort, extending its lending authority from about$ 1 billion to about$ 200 billion. It also radically changed how the office operated, according to interviews with more than a dozen people who worked there or interacted with it from the private sector or other parts of the government.
The Biden administration had established a transparent application process for interested companies, with each firm being methodically vetted to ensure good bets, but it was acknowledged that it was drawn from a bureaucratic and slow process.
” The Trump administration is more interested in going out into the market and finding what it wants. One former Office of Strategic Capital official said,” We won’t wait for people to apply to us.”
The Trump Pentagon handed the reins to hard-charging former Wall Street executives, who have been recruiting others to make the leap from finance to government. According to a leaked presentation from a headhunter,” If you ever want to raise your own fund, you will gain access to fundraising channels that include royal families and foreign sovereign contacts.” ( It’s unclear whether the Pentagon approved the presentation. )
People who have worked with the office claim that the office’s new leaders want to close as many deals as possible, including loans and investments in exchange for ownership stakes. They said the new officials are relying more on their own personal networks, not applications, to choose companies to fund. A small number of other businesses have been chosen so far, including Korea Zinc, a metal refiner, MP Materials, a Nevada rare-earth mining company, and ReElement Technologies, an Indiana producer of rare-earth elements and battery metals that collaborates with Vulcan. The Pentagon’s announcement said the loans to Vulcan and ReElement were conditional on the firms fulfilling certain legal and financial requirements but did not detail them.
The Pentagon may ultimately not lend to ReElement due to concerns over the company’s revenue projections and ability to scale up its technology that were discovered after the conditional loan was announced, according to Bloomberg last week.
Because of its size and connection to Trump Jr., the Vulcan deal has drawn the most scrutiny. A group of Democratic senators resisted providing an accounting of how the company received the loan and claimed that the Trump family’s conflicts of interest might be” a source of waste for taxpayer dollars and a threat to national security” ( The Pentagon’s response did not address how Vulcan was selected, explaining only how the department addresses conflicts that arise from its employees ‘ financial holdings, not those of the president’s family. ) Republicans blocked Democrats in the House’s attempt to subpoena Trump Jr.’s testimony on the Vulcan deal, but they were denied. ” Donald Trump Jr. must be made to answer whether the president’s son illegally profited from his father’s presidency”, Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter said earlier this year.
A student at Harvard Business School launched Vulcan in 2023. The private company quickly began securing a series of relatively small defense contracts, beginning during the Biden administration. According to an interview with its founder published that month, the company’s first manufacturing facility was in March 2025. At the time, the company had less than$ 10 million in funding available. The kind of rare-earth magnets the company focuses on are needed for critical military technologies, including drones and satellites.
Vulcan announced$ 65 million in investments in August 2025, including$ 65 million from the venture firm Trump Jr. joined as a partner after his father won a second term. Neither 1789 nor Vulcan has publicly disclosed how much of a stake the venture firm has taken.
A senior official in the Office of Strategic Capital reported that staff members in the Office of Strategic Capital were informed of the White House’s request to loan Vulcan around September or October. It’s unclear how the White House request was delivered or if it was presented as an order or a recommendation. The person claimed that while companies that are considered for funding are typically vetted for many months, this deal was finalized within weeks because the White House had made them a priority.
Asked about the Vulcan deal being expedited, the Pentagon spokesperson said defense officials balance “lightning speed with rigorous diligence to close high-impact deals that directly strengthen America’s defense and empower our warfighters”.
The Pentagon made its plans to lend$ 620 million to the business in November and$ 80 million to ReElement, its partner, in November. The company would also get$ 50 million in incentives from the Commerce Department. The government would then acquire a$ 50 million stake in Vulcan with the option to purchase more later.
Vulcan, which at the time had fewer than 50 employees, said it would use the windfall to build a large new facility that would churn out thousands of tons of magnets a year. It stated that it intended to increase in the upcoming years, creating hundreds of new jobs.
The deal was good news for Vulcan’s investors, including Trump Jr.’s firm. Estimates of Vulcan’s value decreased from around$ 200 million to around$ 2 billion when 1789 Capital first invested, according to Bloomberg.
Navarro’s role in initiating the deal was not publicly disclosed. The loan was a win for someone Navarro considered a dear friend, even if he didn’t discuss it with Trump Jr. In an October episode of Trump Jr.’s streaming show,” Triggered”, the two showed a close bond. The president’s son referred to Navarro as “my boy” and praised him for his “jacked” physique while incarcerated. Navarro called Trump Jr. “brother” and thanked him for his support “in my hardest of times”. ( Navarro claimed that because he was protected by executive privilege, he was wrongly imprisoned for not complying with a congressional subpoena. )
Although Vulcan was not mentioned, the two spoke about rare earths, a topic Navarro has frequently discussed publicly. China has shown itself as a nation with a rare-earth problem of using the weaponization of their manufacturing and supply chains to impose pressure on all other nations that might violate the Chinese dream of dominance, according to Navarro. ” That’s what we’re fighting now”.
The Office of Strategic Capital is expected to deploy billions more in loans in the coming months to critical mineral and military technology companies.
Unusual Machines, a Florida drone parts manufacturer, was one of the companies under investigation, according to a Defense official. Trump Jr. sits on the company’s advisory board and holds millions of dollars worth of shares. When the Pentagon won a contract to produce drone engines for the Army last year, it was accused of cronyism.
Executives at other companies hoping for Pentagon loans or other types of investments are scrambling to figure out how to get in front of the right people.
Patriot Critical Minerals, the CEO of Nevada, claimed that Brodie Sutherland had hired a lobbyist. That person knew someone who was previously connected to the Office of Strategic Capital and was able to introduce the company to a current staffer.
Sutherland said that the majority of what it is is “is who you know”.
Speaking to ProPublica last month, he said his company had had conversations with Pentagon staff and he was optimistic the firm could get funding.
” Whether you need someone on the inside track to get it across the line, I don’t know,” he said. ” We’re hopeful you don’t need to be chums with Trump Jr. to get a project across”.
Sutherland’s business had been considered for a loan before it was rejected, according to Defense Department records that ProPublica recently reviewed. The records did not say why. Sutherland expressed his hope that his business could one day receive some form of Pentagon funding.
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