The sons of Donald Trump are moving into the booming military drone business. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are backing a Florida startup that plans to sell drones to the Pentagon — and the timing lines up with a surge in global demand for the technology. Not to mention the war in Iran right now.
The company, called Powerus, wants to build thousands of drones each month. The Trump brothers are helping take the firm public through a reverse merger with a golf-course holding company connected to their business network.
Executives say the deal will allow Powerus to begin trading on Nasdaq once the merger is completed. The goal is to scale up fast and chase contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, reports the New York Intelligencer.
The drone market is exploding right now. Wars and border conflicts have pushed military planners toward smaller, cheaper unmanned aircraft. Ukraine’s battlefield turned drones into one of the most talked-about weapons in modern warfare. They’re cheap and fast to build. Sometimes they’re even disposable.
Powerus has mighty ambitions. They say they want to produce more than 10,000 aerial and maritime drones each month once its factories are fully running.
Exclusive: Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are backing Powerus, a drone company vying to meet Pentagon demand and fill a hole left by the administration’s ban on new Chinese drones in the U.S. https://t.co/O6kmzXeGQT
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 9, 2026
If they can do what they say, it would put them up against giant defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Though, arguably, those companies operate at a much larger scale.
The Trump family already has a few pieces in the drone space. Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of Unusual Machines, a company that builds drone components. Eric Trump has also invested in Xtend, an Israeli drone firm known for technology used in military reconnaissance and tunnel mapping.
Powerus itself is newer. It was formed in 2024 and is based in West Palm Beach, Florida, not far from the Trump family’s business hub.
The company plans to import and adapt drone technology developed in Ukraine, where engineers have spent the last several years rapidly improving small battlefield drones during the war with Russia. Executives say the approach could help speed up production while meeting U.S. rules that restrict certain foreign drones from government use.
That rule change matters. In 2025, the Trump administration expanded restrictions on Chinese-made drones being used by American government agencies. The decision left a gap in the market because Chinese manufacturers previously dominated global drone production.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. poured $25 million into Powerus — a Tiny Drone Startup now racing to fill the Pentagon’s massive gap for thousands of one-way attack Drones under the Replicator… pic.twitter.com/HjKmGx5OIW
— তন্ময় l T͞anmoy l (@tanmoyofc) March 9, 2026
Domestic companies immediately saw an opportunity. And now some are wanting to cash in.
Powerus says its drones are designed for “high-risk environments,” a broad phrase often used in defense marketing. Brett Velicovich, a former intelligence specialist involved in the company, has described the push as an attempt to build an American-based drone supply chain.
The global military drone market was worth about $12 billion in 2023. Analysts expect that figure to climb sharply during the next decade. Militaries are wanting to invest in unmanned aircraft, AI-guided weapons systems, and autonomous surveillance tools.
That growth is drawing attention far beyond the traditional defense sector. Technology firms, private investors, and now political families are taking advantage. Powerus executives say the company’s long-term strategy is simple – build drones quickly and sell them where demand is growing fastest.
Don Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are betting that demand isn’t slowing down anytime soon. And drones rolling off production lines by the thousands.
