President Donald Trump’s son Eric has invested in an Israeli drone maker, raising new concerns about conflicts of interest as the Trump family expands its business holdings during his second term as president.
JFB announced in a news release Tuesday that Eric Trump is investing $1.5 billion in a deal aimed at taking Israeli drone maker Xtend and Florida-based small construction company JFB Construction Holdings public this year.
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Extend is an Israeli company whose products are used by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, including by using its drones to map underground tunnels, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to JFB, drone maker Unusual Machines, which hired Eric’s brother Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor in November 2024, is also investing in the merger. JFB builds commercial and residential properties, including multifamily communities and shopping centers.
Extend touts its drones as having a “low cost per kill,” appealing to the U.S. Department of Defense. The company announced in November that it had finalized a multimillion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense, but did not disclose the value of the contract.
This month, Xtend was selected as one of 25 companies to participate in the Department of Defense’s Drone Dominance Program. The program is an acquisition reform initiative aimed at rapidly deploying attack drones at scale and at low cost.
Extend also secured contracts with the Department of Defense before President Trump’s second term, including an $8.8 million contract in December 2024.
“I’m extremely proud to invest in a company I believe in. Drones are clearly the wave of the future, and Xtend has incredible potential,” Eric Trump said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
“We believe that by combining XTEND’s operating system and advanced AI capabilities with JFB’s execution, infrastructure and construction expertise, we have a clear opportunity to accelerate American manufacturing, responsibly scale production, and support the next generation of defense technology platforms built in the United States and ready for the public market,” JFB Chief Executive Officer Joseph F. Basil III said in a news release.
JFB did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment about its existing portfolio, which primarily includes commercial properties such as the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Florida and Escape Rooms in Indiana, and its relationship with defense contractors.
“By combining our platform with JFB, we are gaining the resources we need to expand our manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and gaining access to the U.S. public market,” Xtend CEO Aviv Shapira said in a news release.
Extend did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Concerns about conflicts of interest emerge
Ethics experts say the deal is the latest in a series of conflict-of-interest concerns over the Trump family’s personal investments and whether they are using the Trump presidency to advance their own financial interests.
“The first thing that comes to mind is another example where the president’s family appears to be profiting from the presidency,” said Kedrick Payne, senior director of ethics at the Election Legal Center.
“In the past, presidents would avoid even the appearance that their families benefited from public office, and when it was completely unavoidable, they would make statements that reassured the public that their families were not afforded special treatment that would benefit them. We don’t see that anymore,” Payne told Al Jazeera.
JFB Construction also appointed former White House Counsel Stephen Passantino to its board of directors during the merger.
The investment comes as the Trump family’s company has filed to trademark the use of the president’s name on airports, but has said it will not charge a fee, at least not for the proposed renaming of an airport near his home in Florida, the Associated Press reported.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who discovered the filing last weekend, said it was the first of its kind he had ever seen.
“Presidents and public officials have named landmarks in their honor, but never in American history has a sitting president’s private company sought trademark rights in advance of such a naming,” Gerben wrote on his blog. “Let’s be clear: these are completely unprecedented trademark applications.”
During former President Joe Biden’s term in office, Republicans pushed back against his son, Hunter Biden, for using his White House connections to advance his personal business interests.
“When he[Hunter Biden]took a board position at a company overseas, there were concerns that he was using his name to secure a high-profile job. Even giving the appearance that he held the position based on his name was controversial, even though it had nothing to do with government contracts,” Payne said.
The U.S. House Oversight Committee alleged in a March 2024 committee hearing on Hunter Biden’s business dealings that the Bidens “participated in or benefited from the business scheme.”
“We now know that Joe Biden has taken one action after another to advance his family’s get-rich-quite plan,” the committee’s then-chairman James Comer said at the time.
Comer did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on whether he shared the same concerns about the Trump family.
“What we’re talking about is something even more extreme: a child benefiting from government contracts, at least indirectly, through companies he owns, including lucrative contracts with the Department of Defense. This is something we haven’t seen since Mr. Halliburton and Vice President (Dick) Cheney,” Payne said.
Representatives for the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
