Yesterday, a Democratic congresswoman from Oregon tried to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. to testify under oath about a deal that should make every American stop and pay attention. Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee did not debate the motion. They did not vote it down on the merits. They walked out of the room.
That tells you everything you need to know about what they are afraid of.
Let me walk you through the facts. Because the facts, on their own, are damning enough.
What Happened
In November 2024, days after his father won the presidential election, Donald Trump Jr. announced he would join 1789 Capital as a partner. The firm was founded in October 2022 by Omeed Malik, Rebekah Mercer, and Chris Buskirk, all members of the Rockbridge Network, a secretive donor group co founded by Buskirk and Vice President JD Vance. The firm started with $150 million under management and a stated mission to build a “parallel economy” aligned with conservative values.
Trump Jr. joining changed everything.
In August 2025, 1789 Capital purchased an equity stake in Vulcan Elements, a rare earth magnet startup based in Durham, North Carolina, as part of a $65 million fundraising round. Vulcan had about 30 employees. The company was valued at roughly $200 million. Its CEO, John Maslin, is a former Navy officer. Its mission is to build a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain free of Chinese control. Legitimate goal. Real national security concern.
Three months later, the Trump administration’s Department of Defense announced a conditional loan commitment of $620 million to Vulcan Elements through the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. The Department of Commerce added a nonbinding preliminary letter of intent for $50 million in equity under the CHIPS and Science Act. Combined, that is $670 million in taxpayer commitments directed at a company that the president’s son’s firm had just invested in.
The $620 million commitment is the single largest loan the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital has ever issued. The loan was worth more than twice Vulcan’s entire valuation at the time 1789 Capital invested.
And no public record exists of any conflict of interest review, recusal, or financial disclosure related to Trump Jr.’s stake.
The Executive Order That Cleared the Path
Here is where the story gets worse.
In March 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14241, titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.” That order invoked the Defense Production Act and waived the requirements of 50 U.S.C. 4533(a)(1) through (a)(6). In plain English, those provisions normally require the president to determine that a genuine domestic industrial shortfall exists, that private industry cannot fix the problem on its own in time, and that the proposed government action is the most cost effective solution. Projects exceeding $50 million in cumulative cost are supposed to get congressional authorization.
Trump waived all of that. He cited the “national energy emergency” he declared on his first day in office through a separate executive order, and used that declaration to bypass every safeguard Congress put in place to protect taxpayer money in these deals.
So the president cleared the regulatory road. Then his administration used that cleared road to deliver a historically large commitment of federal dollars to a company his son’s firm had just invested in. Without competitive procurement. Without the independent technical review that would normally verify a mineral project is even viable before public money goes out the door.
I want to be precise about one thing. These commitments are conditional. The Pentagon’s own language says no funds are disbursed until both parties complete financial, legal, and technical due diligence requirements. The Commerce Department’s $50 million was described as a nonbinding preliminary letter of intent. The deals are not finalized checks. They are conditional commitments that carry enormous financial and reputational weight and that sent Vulcan’s valuation soaring toward $2 billion, directly enriching 1789 Capital and its partners, including the president’s son.
The Pattern
Vulcan Elements is not an isolated case.
According to Financial Times reporting, at least four companies within 1789 Capital’s portfolio received federal contracts or awards from the Trump administration in 2025, totaling more than $735 million. Cerebras Systems landed a $45 million Pentagon deal. PsiQuantum received a $10.8 million Air Force contract. Firehawk Aerospace secured nearly $5 million from the Air Force. And Unusual Machines, a drone company where Trump Jr. held a separate multimillion dollar stake as an advisory board member, received an Army contract for 3,500 drone motors, with the Army signaling plans to order 20,000 more components in 2026.
Trump Jr. joined Unusual Machines as an adviser in November 2024, weeks after his father’s election, despite having no experience in drones or military contracting.
1789 Capital grew from $150 million in assets under management to over $1 billion after Trump Jr. came on board. That kind of growth does not come from savvy stock picks. It comes from proximity to power, and investors who understand what that proximity is worth.
And here is what should keep you up at night. Trump Jr. said on his own podcast in September 2025 that during the Pentagon’s transition process, he screened candidates for top defense department roles, specifically looking for officials who supported increased drone spending. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then issued directives that increased drone procurement, benefiting companies in 1789’s portfolio. Trump Jr. is not on the investment committee at 1789 Capital, which technically limits his formal role in allocation decisions. He did tell the Financial Times in February 2025 that he was “very involved in the strategic decisions regarding where to invest our resources” at the firm.
So he screens Pentagon officials. Those officials approve spending. That spending flows to companies his firm invested in. And he collects the returns.
You do not need a law degree to see the problem. You need eyes.
The Greenland Connection
Some members of Congress have drawn a direct line between Vulcan Elements and Trump’s push to acquire Greenland, suggesting Vulcan has “significant rare earth interests” on the island. That specific claim does not hold up. Vulcan is a magnet manufacturer in North Carolina. It buys rare earth oxides from domestic suppliers. It does not hold mining rights in Greenland or anywhere else.
The broader context, though, matters. The Trump administration has been aggressively pursuing access to Greenland’s rare earth deposits through separate channels. In June 2025, the U.S. Export Import Bank sent a letter of interest for a $120 million loan to Critical Metals Corp for the Tanbreez rare earth mine in Greenland. Trump’s threats to undermine NATO and his repeated demands to acquire or control Greenland have been framed around rare earth access and national security, the same framing used to justify the Vulcan deal.
These are parallel tracks within the same administration’s rare earth strategy. The president threatens allies and international law to access rare earth resources abroad, and his son’s investment firm profits from rare earth spending at home. The corporate link between Vulcan and Greenland is not there. The strategic and financial ecosystem connecting all of this is right in front of you.
What Congress Is Doing, and What Republicans Are Blocking
Yesterday, March 25, 2026, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter of Oregon forced a vote to subpoena Trump Jr. along with Pentagon official Patrick Witt and Vulcan Elements CEO John Maslin. She wanted all three to testify under oath.
Republicans voted to block every subpoena and then shut down the hearing.
The administration has not responded to a letter sent on February 2, 2026, by Ranking Members Huffman, Garcia, and Heinrich demanding documents and a briefing on equity deals across the critical minerals program. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Andy Kim, and Richard Blumenthal have also raised questions about the Vulcan deal.
No answers. No documents. No testimony. No accountability.
What You Can Do Right Now
I spent decades in courtrooms. I have tried more cases to verdict than most lawyers. And I can tell you that when someone refuses to answer questions, walks out of the room, and blocks every attempt at investigation, they are not acting like innocent people. Innocent people welcome scrutiny. Innocent people open the books and say, “Look for yourself.”
This administration does the opposite. Every single time.
So here is what I need you to do. Share this piece. Talk about it at dinner. Bring it up with your neighbors. Call your representatives and ask them why they walked out of that hearing room yesterday. Ask them why the president’s son can invest in a 30 person startup and watch $670 million in taxpayer commitments flow to that company three months later without a single public conflict of interest review.
Your tax dollars. Your military. Your children’s future. All of it is at stake.
And if the people in charge refuse to ask the hard questions, then you and I will have to ask them ourselves. Loudly. Repeatedly. Until they cannot walk out of the room anymore.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Related: The Crypto Con: How Trump Is Looting America from the Oval Office
Mitch, would the R.I.C.O. law be usable in this case to get the whole rotten crew out of power as well as confiscate every single asset, including investees? In the case of Vulcan, the head may not be dishonest, so his company would be released at the level prior to the dirty D.o.D. contract.
What I wrote for the re-stack: "Scrappy sub-stackers, meticulous in their research, are slowly bringing the house of *dirty cards *down. Mr Mitch Jackson, a court-room litigator, knows how to fight. Read this and NOT weep but cry out *loud for accountability and justice."