US company backed by Trump’s sons offers drones to Gulf States Manufacturer tells AP

A U.S. drone manufacturer backed by President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons is seeking to sell defensive drones to Gulf countries currently under pressure from Iranian attacks and dependent on U.S. military support.

Florida-based Powerus, which brought Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on board last month, has been conducting drone demonstrations in several Gulf countries to showcase its interceptor technology, according to co-founder Brett Velicovich, Caliber.Az reports, citing AP.

Velicovich said their team is doing many demos across the Middle East right now for our interceptors.

“We have very incredible tech that can save lives,” he added.

The Trump brothers’ involvement could give them substantial equity stakes in the company.

Critics, including former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, have raised concerns that the venture positions the first family to profit from a war initiated by their father.

“These countries are under enormous pressure to buy from the sons of the president, so he will do what they want. This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off war — a war he didn’t get the consent of Congress for,” Painter noted.

Powerus denies any conflict of interest, emphasising its goal to compete with Chinese and Russian drone makers and expand American manufacturing.

Founded by US Army Special Operations veterans about a year ago, the company initially produced commercial drones but is now rapidly moving into military markets.

The company recently raised $60 million and is exploring a “reverse merger” with a Trump-owned publicly listed company to accelerate its path to going public.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment, but the sons have defended their investments, highlighting drones as “the wave of the future.”

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov