U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused President Donald Trump on Saturday, October 17, of profiting from his office, writing that “Trump has abused the presidency and turned it into a personal grift machine, using the power of the office to benefit himself, his family, his brand, and his wealth.”
“It’s corruption. Plain and simple,” Warren wrote in the post on her account on X. The post did not name a company, contract or document.
The post came 12 days after Powerus Corporation, a drone maker that Warren’s Senate letters describe as backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, announced an $82 million order for counter-unmanned aerial systems. The company said on October 5 that the order was the second placed under an existing U.S. government indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, with deliveries expected over the next several quarters.
The October 5 release did not identify the government customer. Four days earlier, Powerus said in a merger announcement filed with securities regulators that it had completed its merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings and begun trading on Nasdaq as PUSA, and it listed a U.S. Air Force contract for its Guardian-2 counter-drone interceptor with a ceiling of up to $90 million.
Neither Powerus document names the Trump sons. In a March 24 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Warren and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote that a March 9 Powerus and Aureus Greenway release described the brothers as “notable investors of [the] combined company.”
The senators wrote in that letter that “the administration’s war in Iran reveals the extent to which drones are becoming an increasingly important battlefield weapon,” and that the involvement of the president’s children “cast a cloud of corruption and conflict of interest over any DoD contracts that this company may receive.” They asked Hegseth whether Powerus had won any Defense Department award.
The Powerus questions built on a January 22 letter from Warren, Blumenthal and Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey about contracts and loans to companies linked to Trump Jr. and the venture firm 1789 Capital, which the letter said he joined as a partner after his father’s election. The lawmakers wrote that this “could mean that the Trump family is profiting from funds appropriated by Congress to keep Americans safe,” according to Warren’s release.
That letter cited a $620 million loan to Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnet maker that it said received 1789 Capital investment. The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital announced the conditional loan on November 21, 2025, as part of a $700 million commitment, and its release does not mention Trump Jr. or 1789 Capital.
The January letter also noted that Vulcan and Defense Department officials had denied that Trump Jr. was involved in “any aspect” of the loan discussions. It separately said Unusual Machines, a drone company in which Trump Jr. reportedly holds a stake and serves as an advisory board member, “received a $12.8 million DoD contract in September 2025.”
The Defense Department answered the January letter on March 10, according to the March 24 letter, which said the response “failed to provide answers to the vast majority of questions.” The response has not been published and is described in the letter as on file with Warren’s office.
“Are Trump’s sons cashing in on the war their father started?” Warren wrote on April 14 in a post on her account, saying Powerus wanted to sell drones to countries under attack by Iran.
On May 6, Warren sent Hegseth written questions after a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, saying they came days after reports that Powerus had obtained a new Air Force contract. On June 2, she and other Democratic lawmakers wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles about a news report that the White House intervened in the Vulcan loan, calling it what “appears to be an egregious example of Trump administration corruption.”
On August 4, Warren, Blumenthal, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Representative Robert Garcia of California asked the Pentagon’s inspector general in a letter to investigate reports that $3.2 billion in government awards had gone to over a dozen companies with ties to the president’s sons. According to Warren’s release, the lawmakers said the sons are affiliated with 1789 Capital and American Ventures, which they said have invested in at least 15 defense-sector companies, and wrote that “the potential for corruption is obvious.”
Eric Trump responded on March 9 to a Wall Street Journal report that he and his brother were backing Powerus. “I happen to believe drones will be a much better investment than companies that still print newspapers,” he wrote in a post on X.
Trump Jr. wrote in an October 7 post that ABC News had deleted an article about companies tied to the brothers’ investments “because it’s false.” Eric Trump called the article a “bulls**t hit-piece” in an October 12 post and wrote that ABC “owes us answers.”
The “personal grift machine” and “corruption” language is Warren’s characterization, and her October 17 post did not mention Powerus, the Pentagon or the president’s sons; no post about the October 5 order was found on either of her X accounts. The Unusual Machines filing describes a $12.8 million “order for components supplying Strategic Logix’s” drone line and does not name the Defense Department as the customer, while the January letter calls it a “DoD contract.” Apart from the unpublished March 10 response, which the August letter described as an “unsatisfactory response,” no public Pentagon or White House reply to the senators’ letters or to Warren’s October 17 post was found on official channels, and neither son’s posts addressed Warren’s letters or the October 5 order.