Trump Has Used Taxpayer Money To Purchase Stakes in Dozens of Companies. Congress Is About to Make It Easier.

[littlemissmartypants]

By Eric Boehm
Thu, June 18, 2026 at 2:40 PM EDT

By taking equity stakes in more than a dozen private businesses, the Trump administration has stretched executive power to new heights—and now Congress is working to ensure that future presidents get the same opportunity.

The Senate's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision to create a new slush fund within the U.S. Treasury for the purpose of buying stakes in more private businesses. The Pentagon would be able to tap the proposed Defense Equity Investment Account to make investments of up to $500 million in private companies involved in the production of "critical minerals, materials, and chemicals" or batteries.

The provision, which is buried within the 1,500-word bill drafted this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, would allow the "direct or indirect purchase, acquisition, or commitment of funds by the Department of Defense in exchange for an ownership interest, convertible interest, warrant, revenue-sharing instrument, or other similar financial instrument in a non-Federal entity."

Besides the $500 million cap on those investments, the government is also forbidden from taking more than a 50 percent ownership stake in any private business. Other than that, however, there seem to be few limitations or guardrails on how the new equity account could be used.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-used-taxpayer-money-purchase-184015314.html

[Solly Mack]

1. That revolving door just got richer.

More money while in Congress and even more money for those board seats once out of Congress.

[Ponietz]

2. This fucker Feinberg, the billionaire venture capitalist, is the Deputy Secretary of Defense

He spends his day using our money to make his friends very happy.

When a government owns the means of production and its solvency relies upon the profits these companies generate — that’s a Forever War formula.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/stephen-feinberg-trump-pentagon

Stephen Feinberg, the 66-year-old billionaire founder of the private equity giant Cerberus Capital Management, has served as the deputy secretary of defense since March 2025. His boss, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, makes frequent appearances working out with troops or insulting reporters at press conferences, and posts often on social media. But Feinberg does not show his face. He has been obsessively media shy for decades, and is so reclusive that since his confirmation hearing he has not testified to a single committee on Capitol Hill, has held no press conferences and given no interviews. His press spokesperson left the government months into his tenure and has not been replaced.

Still, 10 people across Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the defense contracting community say Feinberg has far eclipsed Hegseth in actual influence and impact.

Everything is centered around Feinberg,” one veteran Pentagon bureaucrat said.

“I don’t think there’s anything that goes on that he doesn’t have a stake in,” said a financier familiar with his operations at the department.