A group of lawmakers pressed the White House for answers this week after a ProPublica investigation showed that a senior presidential aide had stepped in to help obtain a $620 million Pentagon loan for a startup connected to the president’s eldest son. The lawmakers, a group of Democrats that includes several senators, wrote that ProPublica’s reporting “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars.” Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, and Mazie Hirono from Hawaii, along with several representatives. Jason Crow of Colorado and Mike Levin of California. Last year, the Pentagon said it would provide a loan to Vulcan Elements, a small startup based in North Carolina, roughly three months after Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm acquired an undisclosed stake in the rare-earth magnet company. Interviews and Pentagon records examined by ProPublica reveal that the funding request was initiated by Peter Navarro, the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and a close friend of Trump Jr. Of the many companies under consideration for Pentagon support at the time, Vulcan’s was the only one pushed by a senior White House aide, a Pentagon official not authorized to speak publicly told ProPublica. Once the White House request was received, defense officials instructed staff to expedite the deal at an unusually fast pace, according to another person involved in the process who was not authorized to discuss it. “The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” that person said. In a letter addressed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the lawmakers posed a series of questions about Navarro’s role, including whether he was acting at someone else’s request, whether the president knew about or was involved in the matter, and whom he contacted at the Pentagon. They also inquired more broadly about whether White House officials had reached out to federal agencies regarding other companies with ties to the Trump family. “The American public — and the service members who put themselves in harm’s way — expect that the DoD contracting process is fair, unbiased, and competitive so that only the best companies offering the best products receive taxpayer dollars,” the lawmakers wrote. Navarro, who served as trade adviser during the president’s first term, and Trump Jr. have developed a close relationship in recent years. The president’s son went to see Navarro in prison during his sentence for ignoring a congressional subpoena tied to the January 6 probe. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump Jr. was among the small circle of individuals to whom Navarro dedicated his most recent book, citing them for standing by him “when it was against the wall.” A week prior to the announcement of the Vulcan deal, Trump Jr. featured Navarro on his streaming program and urged his nearly 2 million followers to purchase Navarro’s book. That interview followed shortly after Navarro instructed Pentagon staff to approve the huge loan to Vulcan, according to one defense official involved in the transaction. When asked to address the lawmakers’ accusations and ProPublica’s findings, Navarro replied via text: “Staggering level of hyperbole.”
