Watchdog: Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Project Stands to Benefit His Son, Donald Jr. — Not Just Elon Musk and Other Wealthy Trump Donors

Washington D.C. – A new analysis from government watchdog Accountable.US found that the prospective contract to build President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system – reportedly favored to go to Trump ally-owned companies SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril – would also benefit Donald Trump Jr. The President’s son reportedly owns stakes in two of these companies, SpaceX and Anduril – the latter acquisition only being publicly revealed as of mid-May 2025 – through 1789 Capital, a right-wing venture capital firm he joined following his father’s re-election. The finding comes on the heels of President Trump’s latest media stunt offering Golden Dome protection to Canada if they become the 51st state.

While Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Peter Thiel’s Palantir, and Palmer Luckey’s Anduril have each garnered revenue from federal contracts prior to Trump’s re-election, the Golden Dome project is something Trump himself proposed and marshalled from only his second week in office, making it appear almost tailor-made to reward his allies and son with federal tax dollars, even as Trump has sought to dramatically slash funding for health care and education.

After it emerged that the Trump-aligned companies were “frontrunners” for a key contract for the project, a source familiar with the contract talks told Reuters that there was a “departure from the usual acquisition process” due to Elon Musk’s involvement, and an “attitude” that Pentagon officials “[have] to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk” because of the power he wielded at the helm of DOGE. American taxpayers are left to imagine the ‘departure’ from the usual process if Don Jr. is involved.

The so-called Golden Dome is still in its planning stages, but in April 2025, Congressional Republicans introduced legislation that would allocate almost $25 billion to begin work on the project. Early budget estimates place its overall cost in the range of $10 billion to “several hundred billion dollars.” Trump himself initiated these plans by executive order on January 27, 2025, just eight days into his presidency.

Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk: “Congress needs to insert some serious ethical guardrails before they rubber stamp $25 billion for Donald Trump’s Golden Dome pet project that stands to enrich his eldest son at the expense of taxpayers. The President’s allies in Congress have looked the other way while the Trump family has hatched big deals through their crypto ventures with both foreign and domestic special interests, which, in all likelihood, expect something in return from the administration. The least Congress can do is not hand cushy government contracts to the Trump family and the President’s wealthy donors on a golden platter while pushing his agenda of gutting health care and safety nets for working people.”

Musk, Thiel, and Luckey have all financially backed Trump and have already reaped rewards on these investments in the form of lucrative federal contracts, with their companies’ valuations soaring to all-time highs since Trump’s re-election. Other allies of Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, Omeed Malik, Rebekah Mercer, and Chris Buskirk, who are partners at 1789 Capital alongside Donald Trump Jr., would also profit from the deal.

National security experts have already panned the proposed Golden Dome plan as unfeasible.  In March 2025, a 63-page report published by the American Physical Society for Public Affairs found that “over a thousand orbiting weapons would be needed to counter a single [ICBM]” and that significantly more would be needed to defend against a coordinated attack, concluding that “the system would be costly and vulnerable to anti-satellite attacks” with “hard problems” “likely to remain formidable over [a] 15-year time horizon.”

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