President Donald Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have backed a new drone company in hopes of striking deals with the Pentagon, which their father conveniently views as commander-in-chief.
Powerus, a drone company founded last year, announced Monday that it plans to merge with Aureus Greenway Holdings, a Trump-backed publicly traded golf-course holding company.
Powerus CEO Andrew Fox told the Wall Street Journal that the deal, known as a reverse merger, would allow the company to go public quickly, giving it access to the funding needed to scale up manufacturing and acquire more companies.
According to a press release, Powerus currently produces specialized drones, including “heavy-lift unmanned aerial systems capable of more than 500 pounds of payload, tactical defense platforms, and maritime surveillance systems.” The company has acquired three small drone manufacturers in the last six months.
Investors in the new combined company include American Ventures, an investment firm backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as investment bank Dominari Securities, which also has ties to the Trump family. Unusual Machines, a drone-parts company where Donald Trump Jr. is a shareholder and advisory board member, is also listed as an investor.
The merger comes just months after the US Defense Department announced plans to increase spending on “smaller, lethal drones” over the next two years. The Pentagon said in December that it planned to spend $1 billion to buy more than 200,000 drones by 2027.
Powerus clearly aims to capitalize on that demand. Fox told The Wall Street Journal that the company is aiming to produce 10,000 drones per month.
And conveniently, the company may face less foreign competition for those contracts.
In December, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it was banning new foreign-made drones and drone components due to national security concerns.
The move stems from a defense bill passed in 2024 that requires regulators to review national security risks associated with foreign-made drones, particularly those from Chinese companies like SZ DJI Technology and Autel Robotics.
The FCC said its review found that drones and parts made outside the US could pose an “unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and the safety of American persons”.
Under the policy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense can grant exceptions if specific models are determined not to pose a security risk.
This is the second investment made by the Trump family in drone companies in recent months.
Eric Trump is also backing Israeli drone maker Extend as part of a $1.5 billion deal announced in February to take the company public through a similar merger with JFB Construction.
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