When the Pentagon revealed plans last year to provide a $17.893 billion loan to a small North Carolina startup connected to Donald Trump Jr., both defense officials and the company worked to quell accusations of favoritism. The president’s eldest son stated via a spokesperson that he had no involvement. The Pentagon stated that Trump Jr. had no involvement in the record-breaking deal. The startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, had received no political favoritism. But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica reveal that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm connected to Trump Jr. came from Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s. Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding at the time, Vulcan’s was the only deal initiated by a top presidential aide, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to speak publicly. After defense officials received the White House request, they instructed Pentagon staff to move at an unusually rapid pace, said another person involved in the deal at the Pentagon who was not authorized to discuss it. The team pulled long nights with hardly any sleep to push the loan through in just a few weeks, according to the source. “The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said. The transaction is one of several steps taken by the Trump administration that have benefited companies in which the Trump family owns stakes. Government contracts and other perks have been awarded to multiple companies with ties to Trump, leading Democratic lawmakers and government accountability experts to accuse him of self-dealing. ProPublica’s investigation into the Vulcan loan marks the first instance in which a federal agency’s decision to award a contract has been explicitly tied to direct intervention by the White House. The loan represented a major financial commitment by the Pentagon to support firms working to diminish U.S. reliance on Chinese critical mineral supply chains. This agreement represented a major triumph for Vulcan, a rare-earth magnet manufacturer based in North Carolina that had only been founded two years prior. Its estimated value increased by a factor of ten following the announcement of the deal.
