June 28, 2026
The theory that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have been "back-roomed"—banished to some shadowy corporate basement away from the action—doesn't survive contact with the evidence. Since their father returned to the White House, the Trump sons have been anything but invisible. They've simply traded the political rally circuit for a sprawling, fast-multiplying business empire that ethics experts say has eviscerated the boundary between the presidency and private profit.
Unlike their first term, when Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner held official West Wing titles, neither Don Jr. nor Eric holds any government position. NBC News reported in December 2024 that Don Jr. planned to focus on "outside interests" and "business pursuits" rather than any White House role. That decision has proven extraordinarily lucrative. According to PBS NewsHour, Forbes estimated that Eric Trump's net worth surged from roughly $40–50 million before the 2024 election to approximately $400 million a year later, while Donald Trump Jr.'s wealth jumped to about $300 million.
The brothers' most conspicuous play has been in prediction markets—platforms that allow users to bet on real-world events and are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, whose leadership is appointed by the president. The New York Times reported in January 2026 that leading prediction firms now share a common denominator: Donald Trump Jr. In January 2025, Kalshi—a CFTC-regulated exchange—announced Trump Jr. as a "strategic advisor," a paid position. By mid-2025, the platform had granted him an equity stake worth approximately $300,000. Then in August 2025, his venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, invested "double-digit millions" in Polymarket, Kalshi's chief rival, and Trump Jr. joined Polymarket's advisory board.
The Polymarket investment was particularly notable because the company, which had been barred from U.S. operations under a 2022 settlement with the Biden administration, was actively seeking reentry. It had recently acquired QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange, and announced that federal investigations by the DOJ and CFTC had been closed. Axios reported that 1789 Capital "waited to invest until there was a clear legal path for U.S. market entry." The regulatory environment has shifted dramatically. In June 2026, the CFTC proposed new rules that would bar certain sports-related prediction contracts while leaving most markets open. The proposal came as Kalshi and Polymarket's combined monthly trading volume had quadrupled to $24 billion. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has aggressively defended the commission's jurisdiction over these markets, filing amicus briefs against state efforts to regulate them.
The prediction markets are just one slice of a much larger crypto empire. According to a House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff report citing Reuters, the Trump family raked in more than $800 million from crypto asset sales in the first half of 2025 alone. The White House and Trump Organization have denied any ethical problems, stating the president has "no involvement" in family business deals and that the company is "fully compliant with all applicable ethics and conflicts of interest laws."
World Liberty Financial, launched by the Trump sons and their associates in late 2024, sells governance tokens and stablecoins. President Trump is listed on the company's website as "co-founder emeritus," while Don Jr., Eric, and Barron Trump are listed as co-founders. The company has struck deals with foreign investors, including a $100 million token purchase by an entity linked to a Chinese businessman under investigation in Britain for money laundering. The crypto windfall has coincided with a wholesale reversal of regulatory posture. The Trump administration's Justice Department disbanded its crypto enforcement team, the SEC paused or dropped lawsuits against crypto firms, and regulators scrapped guidance warning banks about crypto risks. The administration also championed the GENIUS Act, which would ease stablecoin regulation—just as World Liberty began issuing its own stablecoin.
Beyond crypto and prediction markets, the brothers have constructed a $1 billion investment network. The Financial Times reported in May 2026 that Eric and Donald Trump Jr. invested in American Ventures, an entity controlled by Dominari Holdings, which has raised over $1 billion across 21 vehicles backing companies in AI, drones, nuclear energy, and data centers—sectors heavily promoted by the White House. The drone angle is particularly striking. Powerus, a drone company backed by both brothers, is pursuing a reverse merger while targeting Pentagon contracts under the administration's $1.1 billion drone dominance initiative. The company has also pitched drone intercepts to Gulf nations facing Iranian attacks. PBS NewsHour reported that this positions the Trump sons to "potentially profit from a war their father began."
The pattern extends across multiple companies. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington documented that after Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of drone maker Unusual Machines in late 2024, the company secured a 3,500-unit order from the U.S. Army—its largest government contract to date. After he joined e-commerce platform PublicSquare, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau closed a years-long investigation into its subsidiary. After he joined digital pharmacy BlinkRx, the company launched a program aligned with President Trump's direct-to-consumer drug initiative, and co-hosted a pharmaceutical summit with 1789 Capital at the Executive Branch club.
The brothers have also conducted an aggressive foreign deal spree. Le Monde reported that they have met with high-level officials from at least eight foreign governments—including Serbia, Hungary, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—as the Trump Organization pursues at least 22 international developments. In Serbia, Don Jr. met with President Aleksandar Vučić about a Trump International Hotel project on the site of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense. In Qatar, Eric Trump appeared alongside a government minister at a signing event for a new development backed by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. In Scotland, Eric met with the First Minister about the family's golf courses and "Scotland's investment potential."
Back in Washington, Don Jr. co-founded a private club called "Executive Branch" in Georgetown, charging initiation fees up to $500,000. The club, which bars reporters and the public, has been described as a gathering place for Trump-aligned venture capitalists and crypto executives.
The legal framework that enables all of this is remarkably porous. As private citizens, the Trump sons are not subject to federal conflict-of-interest laws that govern White House employees. And as NPR's Eric Lipton has reported, the president and vice president are the only executive branch officials explicitly exempt from the federal criminal statute banning officials from taking actions that financially benefit their families.
Eric Trump has been candid about the family's strategic shift. "The first term we did everything imaginable to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and frankly, we got crushed anyway," he told the New York Times in October 2024. "We can't just sit out in perpetuity, and I won't." Ethics experts and historians see something unprecedented. "I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere," one expert told congressional investigators. Princeton presidential historian Julian Zelizer told the Associated Press, "I don't think there's any line right now between policy decisions and political calculations and the interest of the Trump family." When asked about conflicts recently, Donald Trump Jr. was more blunt: "Frankly, it's gotten old."
Whether this constitutes illegal corruption or merely exploits a legal loophole depends on one's interpretation of ethics law. What is not in dispute is that the "back room" theory has it exactly backward: the Trump sons haven't retreated from influence—they've monetized it.