Donald Trump Jr has big plans for monetising Maga

WASHINGTON – The names lining up behind billionaire Elon Musk read like a who’s who of big money: BlackRock, Fidelity, venture-capital giant Sequoia.

And then there is 1789 Capital.

The upstart investment firm scored a hot ticket recently with Mr Musk, US President Donald Trump’s wealthiest backer: a rare chance to invest directly in his artificial intelligence (AI) venture, xAI, and his roughly US$350 billion (S$466 billion) start-up, SpaceX.

Turns out, 1789 has a big attraction: Mr Donald Trump Jr – son of the US President, crown prince of Maga and now frontman for what fans hail as a “parallel” US economy aimed at the Trump faithful.

Mr Trump Jr is clear: At 1789, his role is not to crunch the numbers or kick the tires the way most investors do. Instead, he is looking to make the firm money by tapping the Maga ecosystem and its network of profit-minded believers like Mr Musk.

Few have arrived at this moment with a better sense for President Trump – and where his second administration might take the nation and the world – than his eldest son. Only now, Mr Trump Jr is trading Washington to focus on a new mission: monetising his father’s vision for America.

At a time when businesses big and small are trying to navigate all things Trump, Mr Trump Jr’s stamp of approval can mean the difference between access to lucrative opportunities – such as an in at Mr Musk’s xAI and SpaceX – or a cold shoulder. Like his father and brother Eric, who runs the Trump real estate business, Mr Trump Jr has brushed aside concerns about the seemingly unprecedented number of conflicts the first family is facing.

The so-called parallel economy – essentially, right-wing ventures that position themselves as alternatives to mainstream businesses, from social media platforms to e-commerce to investment funds – has not always paid off for the public. In fact, shareholders have occasionally lost big after prominent early backers have cashed out.

But barely two months into the second Trump administration, 1789 Capital is in a position like few others. Based in Palm Beach, about 3.2km from Mar-a-Lago, the firm today sits near the epicentre of Trumpworld, with ties both broad and deep.

It was co-founded three years ago by Mr Omeed Malik, an outspoken Trump donor and former Bank of America executive; Mr Chris Buskirk, who established the Rockbridge Network, a powerful conservative advocacy group, with current Vice-President J.D. Vance; and Republican mega-donor Rebekah “Bekah” Mercer, the force behind Mr Steve Bannon’s conservative Breitbart network and daughter of hedge-fund magnate Robert Mercer.

The idea for 1789 was hatched over coffee at a 2022 Palm Beach gathering of the Rockbridge Network, the secretive group of wealthy technology executives and allies that has become a major force within the Republican Party’s donor class.

In Mr Malik’s telling, the three co-founders and Mr Blake Masters, a Peter Thiel protege and Trump-backing Republican who was then running for Senate, were discussing government overreach and how to use the financial industry to “preserve freedom”.

“We knew that we represented the silent majority,” Mr Malik said. So they founded their own investment firm and named it after the year the Bill of Rights was introduced (Mr Masters is on the board).

Mr Trump Jr, 47, formally signed on in November 2024, less than week after his father won the White House again. The move took many in Washington by surprise: Beltway insiders had expected him to stay close to the administration, given his role in championing Mr Vance for vice-president. He says he has not been to the White House since inauguration.

Mr Trump Jr says he can sniff out posers and opportunists and separate in-name-only supporters from the true Maga faithful. He says America First bona fides – or, conversely, any sign of doubt – can make or break a deal.

“I’ve turned down major deals where the ethoses don’t align,” Mr Trump Jr said. “There are people who have become Maga more recently – and I don’t know they actually believe.”

1789 declined an invite to invest in OpenAI, for one; partly because of Mr Musk’s ongoing feud with founder Sam Altman, partly because he donated to Mr Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. Recent overtures by Mr Altman towards the administration have not swayed the firm’s view. 

As Mr Trump Jr put it: “Authenticity is needed to thrive.”

Money Magnet

Mr Trump Jr’s role at 1789 will be a sort of Maga magnet, sourcing deals as well as investors into the firm. Before his father returned to the White House, 1789 had raised roughly US$200 million, a pittance by Wall Street standards. Early backers include Mr Charlie Kirk, founder of the nation’s pre-eminent conservative youth organisation; Mr Marc Andreessen, a prominent venture capitalist who has helped nudge Silicon Valley to the right; and Mr Clay Travis, figurative heir to right-wing talk radio star Rush Limbaugh.

Since Inauguration Day, 1789 has pulled in US$500 million more and its investors now number about 30. It is aiming to collect US$1 billion for its first fund by mid-2025 and then US$3 billion to US$5 billion for a second fund in 2026, according to a person familiar with the efforts. 1789 declined to comment on any of its fund-raising plans. Among the clients it hopes to woo: endowments and public pensions in Republican-controlled states.

“We’re building a large, multi-strategy asset manager,” Mr Malik, 45, said. “It’s an open lane.” While focused on growth equity now, he is thinking about launching a private credit vehicle and a hedge fund, too.

1789 recently added Citigroup veteran Paul Abrahimzadeh and, Mr Malik said, is in the market for talent – but only if ideologies align. Mr Malik, who said he voted for Mrs Hillary Clinton in 2016 but flipped Republican in 2019, has become closer to the GOP’s inner circle of influence, helping broker a pre-election alliance between Mr Trump and Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr and more recently fund raising for Mr Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid for Ohio governor.

Mr Malik likened the potential of Maga-style investing to the late boom in the environmental, social and governance space, which conservatives deride as part of a “woke” liberal agenda that threatens American capitalism. And unlike those investors, he is happy to invest in weapons or fossil fuel-related companies.

Still, the track record is largely unproven. 1789 has poured more than US$50 million directly across Mr Musk’s xAI and SpaceX, opportunities typically reserved for deep-pocketed investors who have struck up a relationship with Mr Musk. Representatives for the two companies did not respond to a request for comment.

Other recent investments include a stake in Happy Dad hard seltzer, founded by right-wing YouTubers the Nelk Boys (they packaged their drink to look like a beer because “we are tired of the skinny can bullsh*t”) and the Enhanced Games, a start-up looking to host an Olympics-style competition where athletes are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs; and Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction site that gained widespread attention during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Mr Trump Jr is particularly good at drawing and directing attention to himself. With some 14.6 million X followers and another 8.9 million on Instagram, plus a podcast, he says he can bring customers and potential investors to those companies.

Another possible play for 1789: banking. As the Trump administration looks to ease rules in the financial industry, the firm is hunting for acquisition targets, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Republicans from the president down have complained that major US financial institutions turn away individuals and businesses for political reasons.

One Trump-centric business 1789 is steering clear of is Trump Media & Technology Group, parent of Truth Social. Mr Trump Jr sits on the board and oversees his father’s US$2.6 billion stake. 

Mr Malik said 1789 has no plans to invest alongside Trump Media, and that Mr Trump Jr will recuse himself from situations that involve dealing directly with the federal government. 

Rumble, PublicSquare

Mr Malik, Mr Buskirk and Mr Trump Jr have been involved in start-ups before. Mr Buskirk, who made his name as editor and publisher of the journal American Greatness, says he has invested in about 25 of them over the last decade. Among those is Rumble, a right-wing YouTube that went public with the backing of Mr Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm long run by Mr Howard Lutnick, now Mr Trump’s commerce secretary.

While Mr Buskirk says he made a profit on Rumble (though declined to provide specifics), it has been a loser for its shareholders. The stock has fallen about 50 per cent since the deal took effect in September 2022, even as the broader US stock market has soared.

Mr Malik used a similar structure – a special purpose acquisition company, or Spac – to usher onto the stock market PSQ Holdings, parent of “anti-woke” online marketplace PublicSquare. After the November 2024 election, PSQ promptly added Mr Trump Jr, who was already an investor, to its board. The move led to a short-term stock surge, but those gains swiftly evaporated. PSQ has lost about 91 per cent of its value since the company went public.

Mr Malik is in the process of using another Spac to take public GrabAGun, an online firearms retailer. Mr Trump Jr. is an adviser.

Others have been looking to get into the business of Maga, too. Mr Andreessen Horowitz started a fund called American Dynamism to back companies “that support the national interest”. Mr Joe Lonsdale, the Silicon Valley investor, Trump supporter and friend of Mr Musk, has taken a similar turn. His firm 8VC says on its website that American ideals “are worth striving for”.

These firms have already found themselves in some of the same deals with 1789 (newsletter platform Substack and BlinkRx, a digital pharmacy, are two examples).

Mr Trump Jr, for his part, has plenty of balls in the air. In addition to his role at 1789, he is an adviser to Kalshi, another prediction market, and to Unusual Machines, a manufacturer of drones and related components. He and his brother Eric are also personal investors in biotech-start-up-turned-fintech Dominari Holdings. On top of that, he maintains his title of executive vice-president at the Trump Organisation.

But, in typical Trump style, he said he is not about to slow down.

“We genuinely believe in the parallel economy,” Mr Trump Jr said. BLOOMBERG