Tracking the Trump family’s business deals and profits in his 2nd term

[0:00] In his second administration, President Trump's family, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, [0:04] and sons, Eric and Don Jr., are expanding their business ventures, earning hundreds of millions [0:10] of dollars and prompting fresh concerns about influence peddling and conflicts of interest. [0:16] Here again is Liz Landers. [0:19] This past weekend, as top American representatives descended upon Pakistan for peace talks with Iran, [0:25] the U.S. team, led by Vice President J.D. Vance and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, [0:31] Jared Kushner. He's emerged as one of the administration's key foreign policy advisers, [0:37] even though the White House confirms he holds no official government position. [0:41] Technically, I have not joined the administration, so I'm still just a volunteer, like other [0:46] businessmen who, you know, who volunteer to help the government when asked. [0:49] A volunteer tasked with negotiating sensitive matters of war and peace. [0:55] His full-time job is running a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm, Affinity Partners. [1:00] And that company has raised billions of dollars almost entirely from the Middle East, [1:05] the same region where Kushner is currently negotiating on behalf of the president. [1:11] Kushner founded Affinity Partners in 2021, after the first Trump administration, [1:15] and when his role as an official White House advisor had ended. [1:19] Maureen Farrell with The New York Times has been tracking his business deals. [1:22] He had a close relationship with Mohammed bin Salman during the first Trump administration. [1:29] Very shortly after he left the administration, Jared Kushner went back to Saudi Arabia, [1:34] this time as a fundraiser. And Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, or PIF, [1:40] invested $2 billion into Jared Kushner's investment fund. [1:46] When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump did not [1:51] come back to Washington. But then last summer, Kushner was dispatched by the president to work on the [1:56] war in Gaza. He and Whitcoff met with regional leaders and successfully brokered a peace agreement [2:02] to end the fighting and secure the release of hostages. After that deal was struck in October, [2:08] Kushner was asked during a 60 Minutes interview about his potential conflicts of interest. He said in part... [2:14] What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships [2:20] that we have throughout the world. If Steve and I didn't have these deep relationships, [2:24] the deal that we were able to help get done that freed these hostages would not have occurred. [2:30] Two months later, Kushner and Whitcoff traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin [2:35] to discuss a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine. And earlier this year, Kushner accompanied his [2:41] father-in-law during a trip to Davos, Switzerland for the high-flying World Economic Forum, a who's [2:47] who of business elites and world leaders. In a regulatory filing last month, Kushner's Affinity [2:53] Partners reported more than $6.1 billion in assets. About 99 percent of those assets belonged to non-U.S. [3:01] investors, with most of the funds tied to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. [3:06] And Affinity Partners was looking to raise more. Farrell was first to report in the New York Times [3:12] in March that Kushner had held preliminary talks with the Saudis about raising billions of additional [3:18] dollars for Affinity Partners. [3:20] He's out there negotiating peace deals with governments, working with various governments in [3:25] the Middle East. He's already been working with them in the private sector, investing their funds, [3:32] and getting big fees from these governments. So it raises all sorts of questions about [3:38] who is he working for? How does he draw the lines as this is all happening? [3:44] In a statement to PBS NewsHour, Affinity Partners acknowledged Kushner did speak with Saudi Arabia's [3:50] Public Investment Fund about raising new money, but only because it has an agreement to give the Saudis [3:55] right of first refusal. Quote, Affinity had early conversations with its anchor investor [4:01] and does not intend to take any additional capital while Jared is volunteering for the government. [4:06] An SEC-registered investment firm, Affinity has abided by all laws and regulations and will continue [4:12] to do so. As a government volunteer and not an employee, Kushner is exempt from the usual [4:18] financial disclosure laws. But Democratic members of Congress are still pressing the administration to [4:23] answer whether Kushner is using his influence for personal financial gain. [4:28] In a March 19 letter to the White House, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Robert Garcia wrote, [4:33] quote, His actions raise the potential for Mr. Kushner to be subject to conflicts of interest, [4:39] which could threaten the security of the American people. And Kushner isn't the only [4:43] member of the Trump family expanding their business interests. In their father's first term, [4:48] President Trump's sons, Don Jr. and Eric, mostly focus on managing the family business, [4:53] the Trump Organization's portfolio of hotels, golf resorts, and other real estate. [4:59] But not anymore. Kyle Kahn-Mullins is a reporter for Forbes. What changed? [5:04] KYLE KAHN- Well, what changed is that Donald Trump won the White House again. [5:07] And the Trumps have kind of stopped caring about the appearance of conflicts of interest. [5:12] KYLE KAHN- He has said since 2024, the Trump sons have been aggressively investing in a host of [5:17] emerging technologies, like cryptocurrency, where deregulation has significantly boosted [5:23] the Trump sons' fortunes. But it's a handful of other new business ventures that have been raising [5:29] the most attention lately. As the war in Iran escalated in the past month, the urgent need for [5:36] the U.S. to scale up its drone technology came into sharper focus. We learned Donald Trump Jr. and Eric [5:43] Trump have invested in at least three drone companies since 2024. The most recent deal [5:50] involves drone maker Power Us, which announced last month it would merge with a golf course holding [5:55] company backed by the Trump sons, with plans to create a new publicly traded company. [6:01] As Power Us looks to expand into military drone technology, it will compete for government contracts [6:06] under the Pentagon's $1.1 billion drone dominance initiative. After the Trump administration in December [6:13] banned all new foreign-made drones, citing national security. Power Us has also been pitching drone [6:19] interceptors to several Gulf nations to help them ward off Iranian drone attacks, positioning Power Us [6:26] and the Trump sons to potentially profit from a war their father began. And as that war continues to spike [6:33] global energy prices, the Trump sons' investment in nuclear fusion power has gained attention too. [6:38] The Trump media and technology group is announcing plans to merge with TAE Technologies. That is a fusion [6:45] power company. Late last year, President Trump's social media company, in which his son Don Jr. is [6:51] a member of the board, agreed to merge with TAE Technologies in a deal that would create one of the first [6:57] publicly traded nuclear fusion companies. The deal is valued at more than $6 billion. The company said they [7:04] intend to begin construction on the first utility-scale fusion power plant later this year. But first, [7:10] TAE needs to prove fusion power can work at scale. Scientists have spent decades trying to harness fusion, [7:18] the process that powers the sun, and progress has been incremental at best. [7:24] Don Jr. has also taken an active role in a range of business activities that fall outside the scope of [7:29] the Trump Organization. Since 2024, he has joined the boards of four companies and has been named [7:36] an advisor to six others. Why do you think he's involved with so many different organizations and businesses? [7:42] So, Don Jr., he's a man in demand. He has always been the more politically active, more politically [7:48] connected of the two brothers. So, if you're a company that's looking to get into the good graces of the federal government, [7:53] why would you not hire the president's outspoken son? [7:57] While they sometimes appear at White House events, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are not government [8:02] officials and are not subject to federal ethics rules or disclosure requirements. [8:06] They certainly do have a right to be making a living. That's absolutely true. [8:10] What the second Trump administration has kind of revealed is that all those ethics rules have turned [8:16] out to be a little bit like the Pirates Code from Pirates of the Caribbean, more like guidelines than actual rules. [8:22] Without those rules, the president's son-in-law and his two oldest sons have seen their fortunes dramatically increase. [8:29] Forbes estimated that the Trump brothers, Eric and Don Jr., they were worth about $40, [8:33] $50 million each before the 2024 election. About a year later, we valued Eric at $400 million, [8:39] and Donald Trump Jr. at about $300 million. So, they both multiplied their wealth many times over. [8:45] So, just for the PBS NewsHour, I'm Liz Landers. 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