U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) is calling on Congress to investigate what she describes as open corruption after a New York Times investigation revealed that President Trump’s sons stand to profit from a billion-dollar mining deal their father negotiated with Kazakhstan.
“President Trump and his sons are using our taxpayer money to line their own pockets,” Slotkin wrote on X Sunday. “The President continues to show the American people he is focused exclusively on his vanity projects and enriching himself at the expense of lowering their costs.”
The Michigan Democrat, a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, did not stop there. “We cannot allow this type of corruption to become normalized,” she wrote. “It should be condemned by everyone — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.”
What the Times Found
The Times reported that the Trump administration approved up to $1.6 billion in federal financing for Kaz Resources, a U.S. company granted access to one of the world’s largest untapped tungsten deposits in Kazakhstan. Tungsten is a critical metal used in missile warheads, fighter jets and computer chips.
President Trump personally called into a September 2025 meeting between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to help seal the deal. Within weeks, investors tied to Dominari Securities — a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — took a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity connected to the project.
The final agreement with Kazakhstan was signed on November 6, 2025 — six days after the Trump sons’ investment was made, an investment that was not publicly disclosed at the time.
A Pattern, Not an Outlier
The Times found that the Trump and Lutnick families have financial ties to at least 14 companies actively working with the federal government on critical minerals deals. Those projects have received or are being considered for more than $8.9 billion in total federal support.
Cantor Fitzgerald — overseen by Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s sons Brandon and Kyle — also helped raise $210 million for a related entity around the same time Lutnick was negotiating the Kazakhstan deal. Such capital raises typically net Cantor millions of dollars in fees.
Slotkin Wants Accountability
Slotkin said she looks forward to Congress fulfilling its role. “I look forward to Congress doing its Constitutional obligation to investigate and provide the American taxpayers the accountability they deserve,” she wrote.
The call echoes earlier efforts on Capitol Hill. Ranking members from the House Oversight, Natural Resources and Senate Budget committees previously sent letters to the administration and seven mining companies demanding answers, warning that oversight was “a matter of national security and public trust.”
The White House rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing. “The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to the Times.
Eric Trump said in a statement he “has always been a passive investor with absolutely no management role.” None of the $1.6 billion in proposed federal financing has been disbursed, as it remains subject to additional approvals.