Trump Sons Back Drone Startup Powerus in Pentagon Sales Push

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are investing in Powerus, a West Palm Beach drone company formed in 2025 that is positioning itself to capture Pentagon contracts and fill supply gaps created by the Trump administration's ban on new Chinese drone technology.

The company, founded by Andrew Fox, will merge with Aureus Greenway Holdings, a publicly traded golf-course holding company backed by the Trump sons, in a reverse merger designed to deliver a Nasdaq listing within months. An SEC filing cited by Reuters says Fox is expected to serve as chief executive officer and chairman of the combined company.

Fox offered a blunt assessment of the strategic pivot underlying the deal. "The drone market is certainly going to grow faster than, say, golf courses are," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Powerus makes aerial and maritime drones, including heavy-lift models capable of carrying industrial payloads up to 675 kilograms, and offers services to convert existing manned vessels into remotely operated or fully autonomous boats. The company's stated production ambition is aggressive: more than 10,000 drones per month, a volume that would surpass nearly every other U.S. drone manufacturer currently operating.

The investor roster underscores the depth of the Trump family's financial network inside the deal. American Ventures, one of the family's investment vehicles, is a backer. Unusual Machines, a drone parts company where Donald Trump Jr. serves as both shareholder and advisory board member, is also an investor. Dominari Securities, described as a Trump brothers-backed investment bank, is involved in the transaction as well.

Fox has framed the reverse merger as a mechanism to tap public capital markets, providing Powerus the funds it needs to scale manufacturing and pursue acquisitions of additional drone businesses.

The broader market context gives the venture a clear tailwind. Pentagon demand for unmanned systems has surged, accelerated by battlefield lessons from Ukraine, where dense air defense systems have made conventional aircraft costly to deploy. That demand, combined with the administration's ban on new Chinese drone technology, has created an opening that U.S. companies are racing to fill. Silicon Valley capital has poured into the sector, lifting valuations at defense-adjacent startups like Anduril Industries and Shield AI.

Last month, a separate $1.5 billion tie-up between Israeli drone maker Xtend and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings drew attention, with Eric Trump reported to hold an investment in Xtend, signaling that the Powerus deal is part of a broader pattern of Trump family positioning in the defense drone sector.

The convergence of family investment, administration policy, and Pentagon procurement has drawn immediate scrutiny. One high-profile pro-Trump account on X posted: "Raise your hand if you elected @realDonaldTrump so his kids could make money off of government contracts." The post reflected tensions within the president's own base over the family's business activities.

One claim merits a note of caution: National Today reported that Powerus plans to acquire Ukrainian drone technology specifically to sell to the U.S. military. That assertion was not corroborated by Reuters, the SEC filing excerpt, or other outlets' coverage of the deal, and its accuracy has not been independently confirmed.

Powerus has not yet disclosed whether it holds existing Pentagon contracts or has achieved procurement prequalification status with the Department of Defense.