Donald Trump has handed a company partnered with Donald Trump Jr. a multi-million dollar deal in what has been described as a "cloud of conflict".
The deal for Vulcan Elements will see the company given a government contract to increase the domestic industrial supply of magnets. Trump Jr. had invested heavily in Vulcan Elements earlier this year, and they are now set to receive a $260 million Defense Department loan as part of a deal.
It's part of a wider investment in the tiny-earth company and magnets sector, with a $1.4 billion loan distributed by the Trump administration. Four firms within 1789 Capital’s portfolio, the venture company Trump Jr. is partnered with, will receive a significant portion of the $1.4 billion loan.
Four firms within 1789 Capital’s portfolio have landed a total of $735 million in contracts since Trump assumed office in January. The company also has investments in other government contractors like Space X and Anduril, according to The Daily Beast.
Kedric Payne, an ethics attorney, has criticized the president and says he has created a "cloud of conflicts" by loaning money to Trump Jr businesses.
Payne said, "Presidents are expected to avoid even the appearance that they are using their office to financially benefit themselves or their family. While we do not know for certain if, or how, the president may have influenced this loan, it falls under the cloud of conflicts of interest we have seen throughout his administration."
Further criticism came from California U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez, who will challenge the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill deal with a bill of his own.
He said, "My intention with this bill is to tackle one of the biggest crises that our country is facing, which is the housing affordability crisis. And at the same time doing that by taking that $175 billion anti-immigrant slush fund that Trump put into his One Big Beautiful Bill and using that money to lower the cost of housing for everybody in the country."
Rep. Gomez would go on to cite the housing crisis as the biggest issue the country is facing not only this year, but last year and in the year ahead too.
The Democrat has since pieced together a bill of his own to counter the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Make Housing Affordable & Defend Democracy Act would see $175 billion from the OBBB shifted to supporting housing solutions for Americans in need.