The Dictatorship
A new report reveals just how problematic this Donald Trump Jr. investment fund could be
The list of the Trump administration’s flagrant conflicts of interest just got longer: A new Reuters report says a venture fund that has largely flown under the radar has exploded in size since Donald Trump Jr. joined as a partner and Donald Trump was again elected president in 2024.
According to Reuters, 1789 Capital — a reference to the year the Constitution went into effect — was once a “niche experiment that aimed to align equity investing with conservative political values.” Last year the fund was managing around $150 million in assets. But after Trump Jr. joined the fund as a partner and Trump was re-elected, its assets have multiplied to over $1 billion.
The law is often an inadequate safeguard against the kinds of conflicts of interest that threaten the integrity of public policymaking.
Reuters, citing financial records and interviews with people close to the firm, reports that 1789 Capital’s portfolio has expanded to include “defense contractors, artificial intelligence AI startups and other companies that ethics experts say could benefit from federal contracts and regulatory changes.” Its recent deals include investments in Elon Musk’s companies SpaceX, xAI and Neuralink. Reuters notes that the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda and policy shifts have “benefited at least three companies backed by 1789 Capital. However, Reuters could not determine whether 1789’s investments — or any negotiations preceding them — played a role in those outcomes.”
A representative for Trump Jr. denied a conflict of interest surrounding 1789 Capital to Reuters. “Don Jr. is a lifelong businessman who has no role inside the government, no decision making power in the government and has never held a government job,” the representative said. There’s no evidence that 1789 Capital has violated any laws or received preferential treatment.
But it’s important to remember that the law is often an inadequate safeguard against the kinds of conflicts of interest that threaten the integrity of public policymaking.
That the president’s son is a partner at a venture firm that invests in companies that the White House has influence over creates a number of possible threats to the democratic process. Trump Jr.’s involvement raises the question of whether investors in the fund will see 1789 Capital as yet another way to curry favor with the Trump family, or even just get on their radar. There’s also the question of whether Trump would be more inclined than he already would be to deregulate, give tax breaks to or show any other kind of favorable treatment to an industry or a company he believed could make the Trump family more prosperous.
Conflicts of interest make it impossible to pin down how much policy decision-making is influenced by personal or familial financial interests. But regardless of what’s happening behind closed doors, the effect is that it opens the door for inappropriate behavior.
Former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden set a poor example in this realm. During Biden’s time as vice president, Hunter Biden earned $50,000 a month for sitting on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma even though he lacked substantive qualificationswhich made it all but certain that he was trading on his surname to get the cushy gig.
However, the Trump family’s conflicts of interest dwarf those of all the presidential families that came before. Between the Trump Organization’s ongoing international real estate deals, Truth Social, Trump’s cryptocurrency businesshis meme coin venture and his relentless merchandise rolloutsTrump has created a kind of empire of conflicts of interest. Taken in the aggregate, we don’t need some kind of smoking gun evidence to be concerned. The existence of this sprawling network of businesses tied to the presidency is in and of itself proof that something has gone horribly wrong.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for BLN Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Blue Light News, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here.
The Dictatorship
ICE officer who killed Minneapolis woman said he ‘feared for his life’ while arresting another driver last year
Jonathan Rossthe Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis this week, was in court weeks ago testifying about another violent incident on the job last year, in which he was dragged by a fleeing driver while attempting to make an arrest.
New details from the June 2025 case came from a transcript of Ross’ testimony before a Minnesota district court jury, obtained by MS NOW. The statements reveal previously unreported details about Ross’ life and role within ICE, as well as a prior confrontation with a driver that made him “fear for my life,” months before his fatal encounter with Good.
Ross described himself as an Indiana National Guard veteran, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as a machine gunner on a combat logistical patrol team. After serving, he joined the U.S. Border Patrol and was stationed near El Paso, Texas, where he worked on patrol, tracking, and field intelligence. In 2015 he joined ICE, where he’s currently assigned to the Enforcement and Removal Operations special response team in the St. Paul, Minnesota, field office. Ross said he worked in fugitive operations, targeting “higher value targets,” and as a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
He testified that he was a “team leader” who would “develop the targets, create a target package, conduct surveillance, and then develop a plan to execute the arrest warrant.” He also worked as a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor, a field intelligence officer, and a member of a SWAT team.
On June 17 last year, while on patrol in Bloomington, Minnesota, Ross said he pulled his vehicle in front of a car driven by Roberto Carlos Munoz — a Guatemalan citizen who had prior convictions for criminal sexual conduct — who refused to pull over during a traffic stop.
According to the federal prosecutors in the case, Ross “pulled diagonally in front of Munoz’s car in an attempt to force Munoz to stop.” After Munoz stopped his car, Ross and an FBI agent got out of their vehicles and pointed their guns at Munoz. When Munoz raised his hands in surrender, Ross holstered his gun.
But when Munoz refused commands to lower his window and open the driver’s-side door, Ross pulled out his Taser and pointed it at Munoz’s chest, court documents state. Ross broke the rear driver’s side window with a spring-loaded window punch and reached into the car at which point Munoz accelerated. Ross testified he shot Munoz with his Taser 10 times, and saw “the impacts on his face,” but said the suspect did not stop.
“I was fearing for my life. I knew I was going to get drug. And the fact I couldn’t get my arm out, I didn’t know how long I would be drugged. So I was kind of running with the vehicle.”
Ross said he dragged for more than 100 yards before he was knocked free. He received 20 stitches for a cut on his right arm, and 13 stitches on his left hand, prosecutors said. Photos of his injuries were included in court documents.
Ross described the pain from the dragging as “pretty excruciating.”
A jury found Munoz guilty of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous and deadly weapon, and causing bodily injury.
Federal officials did not publicly identify Ross as the officer involved in Wednesday’s shooting, but referenced his involvement in last year’s case. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance defended Ross’ actions as lawful, and said he acted in self-defense. Their descriptions of the 2025 incident led social media sleuths to Ross’ identity, and his name quickly spread online.
Politicians and protesters in Minnesota are calling Ross’ actions unjustified, pointing to videos of the shooting they say shows Good was not a threat.
Brandy Zadrozny is a senior enterprise reporter for MS NOW. She was a previously a senior enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York.
The Dictatorship
Federal agent shoots 2 in Oregon, further raising tensions over national immigration actions
A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent shot and injured two people Thursday in Portland, Oregon, police reported, raising national tensions even higher following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by a federal immigration officer a day earlier.
The Portland victims, a man and a woman, were hospitalized after the shooting in the northeast part of the city, according to a Portland Police Bureau press release. Many details remain unclear, but police said they arrived on the scene to find the pair with gunshot wounds and “applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel.”
On Thursday evening, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement describing at least one of the victims as a Venezuelan “illegal alien” who is “affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring,” but didn’t identify the individual or confirm whether that person was one of the victims. According to DHS, agents were attempting to pull over a driver who allegedly “weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.” An agent “fired a defensive shot,” then the driver and passenger fled, the DHS stated.
The victims’ conditions are unknown.
Local officials did not confirm DHS’s description of the victim or federal officials’ version of events.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in the release. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
Mayor Keith Wilson released a statement Thursday likening the incident to the Minneapolis shooting on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. That shooting has become highly politicized, with President Donald Trump and his top allies claiming the woman was attempting to run over the ICE agent with her car. Democrats — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — and independent media organizations have disputed that claim.
“Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident,” Wilson said. “We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts. Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences. As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.”
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield released a statement demanding “transparency and accountability” from federal agencies.
“We have been clear about our concerns with the excessive use of force by federal agents in Portland ” Rayfield said. “Oregonians deserve clear answers when people are injured in their neighborhoods.”
Protests popped up following the Minneapolis shooting, and Walz has readied the National Guard in case there is a need for help in maintaining public safety.
Andy Campbell is a Senior Enterprise Editor for MS NOW Digital. He is also the author of “We Are Proud Boys: How a right-wing street gang ushered in a new era of American extremism.”
The Dictatorship
Trump proposes massive increase in defense spending to $1.5T
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed setting U.S. military spending at $1.5 trillion in 2027, citing “troubled and dangerous times.”
Trump called for the massive surge in spending days after he ordered a U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and spirit him out of the country to face drug trafficking charges in the United States. U.S. forces continue to mass in the Caribbean Sea.
The 2026 military budget is set at $901 billion.
Trump in recent days has also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national security reasons and has suggested he’s open to carrying out military operations in Colombia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ominously warned that longtime adversary Cuba “is in trouble.”
“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” Trump said in a posting on Truth Social announcing his proposal.
The military just received a large boost of some $175 billion in the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending reductions that Trump signed into law last year.
Insisting on more funding for the Pentagon is almost certain to run into resistance from Democrats who work to maintain parity between changes in defense and non-defense spending. But it’s also sure to draw objections from the GOP’s deficit hawks who have pushed back against larger military spending.
But Trump said he feels comfortable surging spending on the military because of increased revenue created by his administration through tariffs imposed on friends and foes around the globe since his return to office.
The U.S. government collected gross revenues of $288.5 billion last year from tariffs and other excise taxes, up from $98.3 billion in 2024, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. That’s a meaningful increase in revenues from taxing imports. But it’s not enough to cover the various promises made by Trump, who has said the tariffs can also cover dividends to taxpayers, pay down the national debt and, now, cover increased spending on the military.
Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday also threatened to cut off Pentagon purchases from Raytheon, one of the biggest U.S. defense contractors, if the company did not end the practice of stock buybacks and invest more profits into building out its weapons manufacturing capacity.
The Pentagon and the Potomac River in Washington, as seen from the Washington Monument, Dec., 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
The Pentagon and the Potomac River in Washington, as seen from the Washington Monument, Dec., 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
“Either Raytheon steps up, and starts investing in more upfront Investment like Plants and Equipment, or they will no longer be doing business with Department of War,” Trump said on social media. “Also, if Raytheon wants further business with the United States Government, under no circumstances will they be allowed to do any additional Stock Buybacks, where they have spent Tens of Billions of Dollars, until they are able to get their act together.”
The threat came as the president issued an executive order calling on the Pentagon to begin a review to spot defense contractors who are underperforming on fulfilling contracts and insufficiently investing in building manufacturing but are still engaging in stock buybacks or distributing dividends to shareholders.
The order also calls for the Pentagon to take steps to ensure future contracts with any new or existing defense contractor contain a provision prohibiting stock buybacks during a period of underperformance on U.S. government contracts. The order also calls for the Pentagon to stipulate in future contracts that executive incentive compensation is not tied to short-term financial metrics.
Trump in recent months has repeatedly complained broadly that defense companies have been woefully behind on deliveries of critical weaponry, yet continue to mete out dividends and stock buybacks to investors and offering eye-popping salaries to top executives.
The criticism of Raytheon, however, was the most pointed to date of a particular contractor.
The company is responsible for making some of the military’s most widely used and notable missiles, including the Tomahawk cruise missile, the shoulder-launched Javelin and Stinger missiles, and the Sidewinder air-to-air missile.
Raytheon also owns Pratt and Whitney, a company that is responsible for manufacturing a host of jet engines that power aircraft for all the military branches, including the newest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
On Wall Street, shares of defense contractors fell, with Northrop Grumman dropping 5.5%, Lockheed Martin declining 4.8% and RTX Corp., the parent company of Raytheon, slipping 2.5%.
Raytheon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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AP writers Josh Boak, Stephen Groves, Paul Harloff and Lisa Mascaro contributed reporting.
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