NYT: Trump sons profit from US and Kazakhstan deals

The sons of Donald Trump and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are profiting from tungsten mining deals in Kazakhstan promoted by their fathers.

This follows from a major investigation by The New York Times.

During negotiations with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in September 2025, an American investor gained access to one of the world's largest undeveloped tungsten deposits, which the US needs for producing warheads, fighter jets, and chips. The value of the tungsten reserves at the site is estimated at up to $80 billion.

The newspaper found that family members of the politicians gained a financial interest in the project. Several weeks after the negotiations, investors from Dominari Securities, based in Trump Tower and partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, acquired a 20 percent stake in the corporate structure linked to the Kazakh project. Almost simultaneously, the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by the Lutnick family and managed by his sons Brandon and Kyle, helped one of the deal's leading investors raise $210 million in new capital, earning millions of dollars in commissions.

The final agreement between the American side and Kazakhstan (where Kaz Resources received 70 percent and Kazakh state structures received 30 percent) was signed on November 6, 2025, just six days after the entry of structures linked to the Trump sons into the project.

According to federal documents, this case is not isolated. The Trump and Lutnick families have financial ties to at least 14 companies actively cooperating with the US government in the extraction of critical minerals. All these firms have either already received direct financial assistance from the Trump administration or are awaiting approval of applications from the Department of Commerce. The total amount of funding allocated or under consideration by US authorities for these 14 companies exceeds $8.9 billion.

Source: Kommersant