{"id":315730,"date":"2026-05-04T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=315730"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:22:15","slug":"from-america-first-to-family-first-trumps-hidden-profits-from-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/05\/from-america-first-to-family-first-trumps-hidden-profits-from-iran-war\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u201cAmerica First\u201d to \u201cFamily First\u201d: Trumps\u2019 Hidden Profits from Iran War"},"content":{"rendered":"

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14 Apr 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0In modern US history, war has consistently been a source of wealth for a small minority. The stocks of defense companies surge with every missile launched toward its target. Yet the current U.S. war with Iran differs fundamentally from previous conflicts in two key ways: first, its staggering costs and lack of congressional authorization; and second, the identity of those who directly profit from the flames\u2014namely, the president\u2019s sons and son-in-law. Donald Trump, who returned to the White House on a promise to end \u201cendless wars\u201d and champion \u201cAmerica First,\u201d is now engaged in a full-scale war with Iran\u2014one initiated without congressional approval and pursued alongside direct investments by his close relatives in lucrative military and diplomatic ventures.<\/p>\n

During his 2024 campaign, Trump branded himself a \u201cpeace president\u201d and pledged to end America\u2019s endless wars in the Middle East. Yet on February 28, 2026, he launched the military operation \u201cEpic Storm\u201d against Iran, in coordination with Israel\u2014without even seeking congressional authorization. The cost of the war reached $11.3 billion in its first week alone. The Pentagon is now requesting an additional $200 billion in funding\u2014an amount exceeding the total U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel over the past two years combined. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded<\/a> to criticism by stating, \u201cIt\u2019s obvious that killing bad people costs money.\u201d Still, the central question remains: why is a president elected on a promise to \u201csave American lives\u201d now pursuing such a costly war?<\/p>\n

To find the answer, one must look beyond official narratives. Credible polls show<\/a> that only 30 percent of North Americans support the war, while Trump\u2019s approval rating has dropped to 35 percent. Even among traditional Republicans, support for the war has declined by 48 percent. Nevertheless, the president has not only refused to back down but is also pushing for a $600 billion increase in the Pentagon\u2019s budget. This persistence, in defiance of voters\u2019 clear preferences, begins to make sense when we examine who stands to profit from the continuation of the conflict.<\/p>\n

At the very moment when the Middle East was engulfed in missile and drone strikes, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump signed a partnership deal with \u201cPowers<\/a>,\u201d a Florida-based drone manufacturer. The company now sells interceptor drones to Persian Gulf states\u2014countries under Iranian attack and dependent on the U.S. military, led by the president himself, for their survival. \u201cPowers\u201d is also competing for a share of the $1.1 billion in Pentagon funding allocated for domestic military drone production, a budget created after the ban on drone imports from China.<\/p>\n

Eric Trump defended<\/a> the investment, saying, \u201cI am very proud to invest in companies I believe in. Drones are undoubtedly the wave of the future.\u201d In contrast, Jordan Libowitz, vice president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, warned<\/a> in an interview with NDTV: \u201cThere is concern that the president of the United States has started a war that could make money for his own family.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the most extensive web of financial interests centers around Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law and his \u201cspecial envoy for peace.\u201d Kushner holds no official government position, yet he leads sensitive peace negotiations with Iran and Arab countries\u2014while simultaneously raising funds from those same governments for his private investment firm, Affinity Partners. The New York Times has reported<\/a> that Kushner is currently negotiating to secure $5 billion in new investments from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar\u2014governments that have already invested tens of billions in his firm.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2025, Affinity Partners<\/a> had grown its assets to $6.2 billion. Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund alone has invested<\/a> $2 billion in the company. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a letter to the White House, warned<\/a>: \u201cGiven Kushner\u2019s significant influence over foreign policy\u2014including ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine\u2014the public urgently needs transparency regarding his role and financial ties.\u201d Senator Elizabeth Warren also criticized<\/a> the situation, noting that Kushner \u201cis in the Middle East during a war with Iran, seeking to raise $5 billion for his private firm,\u201d calling it \u201cone of the most egregious grifts to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key quote from Richard Painter<\/a>, former chief White House ethics lawyer, encapsulates the essence of these concerns: \u201cThis will be the first presidential family to make a lot of money off a war.\u201d What was once limited to rising defense stock values has now evolved into direct investments by the president\u2019s sons in drone companies, alongside the son-in-law\u2019s efforts to raise billions from countries involved in the conflict. Trump\u2019s sons are selling defense technology to nations under Iranian attack and reliant on the U.S. military, while Kushner is leveraging his role as a peace envoy to secure massive investments from the very governments with which he is negotiating ceasefires.<\/p>\n

Under these circumstances, the slogan \u201cAmerica First\u201d has, in practice, become \u201cFamily First.\u201d The cost of this transformation is borne not by the Trump family, but by US soldiers and Iranian civilians. When the history of this conflict is written, it will likely be remembered not as a necessary war, but as the first war in U.S. history waged for the private enrichment of a president\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – dailykos.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Apr 2026 – In modern US history, war has consistently been a source of wealth for a small minority. This conflict will likely be remembered not as a necessary war, but as the first war in U.S. history waged for the private enrichment of a president\u2019s family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":315731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[550,249,70,71],"class_list":["post-315730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-corruption","tag-trump","tag-usa","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315732,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315730\/revisions\/315732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}