Here's a situation that feels like it's straight out of a political thriller: a drone defense company, freshly backed by the sons of a former U.S. president, is now pitching its wares to Middle Eastern allies who are actively being attacked by Iran and are heavily reliant on U.S. military protection. The company says it has life-saving technology. Critics say it's a textbook case of influence-peddling.
The company is Florida-based Powerus. Last month, it announced that Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. had come aboard as investors. Now, according to co-founder Brett Velicovich, the company's teams are conducting live drone demonstrations across several Gulf countries to showcase its defensive interceptor systems.
"Our team is doing many demos across the Middle East right now for our interceptors," Velicovich told the Associated Press. "We have very incredible tech that can save lives." He declined to name the specific countries involved.
The Ethics Alarm
Not surprisingly, this setup has set off alarm bells for government ethics watchdogs. Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, didn't mince words. He argued the arrangement creates direct pressure on vulnerable U.S. allies.
"These countries are under enormous pressure to buy from the sons of the president so he will do what they want," Painter said. "This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off a war he didn't get the consent of Congress for."
That's a pretty stark accusation: that Gulf states might feel compelled to purchase from the Trump family business to maintain favor with a potential future Trump administration, especially while their security is on the line.
A War-Timed Business Push
The sales push comes amid a significant escalation in the region. As the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict continues, former President Donald Trump has signaled support for more strikes on Iran's infrastructure. In a related but false claim, Iran's IRGC recently asserted an attack on an Oracle Corp. (ORCL) data center in the UAE, which Dubai authorities have denied.
Meanwhile, other regional shifts are happening, like the immediate retirement of General Randy George as Army Chief and a proposal from Iran for joint Strait of Hormuz monitoring with Oman to ease shipping tensions.
The Path to Wall Street
Powerus isn't just selling drones; it's selling a story to public markets. The company is pursuing a reverse merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc. (AGH), a Nasdaq-listed golf-course holding company, to accelerate its path to becoming a publicly traded entity under the ticker "PUSA."
The merger has been unanimously approved by both boards and is expected to close in the summer of 2026. Powerus recently raised $60 million from investors and is targeting production of more than 10,000 drones per month.
This move strategically positions the company to compete for a massive $1.1 billion Pentagon program aimed at building domestic armed drone manufacturing capacity. This program gained urgency after the Trump administration banned Chinese drone imports, creating a supply void that U.S. companies are eager to fill.
For his part, Eric Trump has been vocal about his support. "I am incredibly proud to invest in companies I believe in," he said. "Drones are clearly the wave of the future."
So, to recap: a defense startup with famous-name backers is demoing its products in a warzone, planning to go public via a shell company, and eyeing a billion-dollar government contract—all while navigating a minefield of ethical questions about wartime profiteering and political influence. It's a complex deal with high stakes, both financially and geopolitically.
