Friday, September 05, 2025

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TANL 1789 Capital Management, LLC

Wikipedia profile of 1789 Capital Management, LLC:


1789 Capital

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1789 Capital Management, LLC
1789 Capital
Company typePrivate
FoundedOctober 3, 2022
Founder
HeadquartersPalm Beach, Florida
Area served
Key people
Donald Trump, Jr.(Partner)
AUMUS$861,247,283 (2025)
Total assetsUS$861,247,283 (2025)
Number of employees
8 (2025)
Website1789capital.vc

1789 Capital Management, LLC is an American venture capital firm based in Palm Beach, Florida.[1][2] The company focuses on products and companies associated with conservative values, and positions itself as an anti-ESG investment firm.[3][4]

History

1789 Capital was founded on October 3, 2022.[5] The founders were members of Rockbridge Network, including investment banker Omeed Malik, heiress Rebekah Mercer, and entrepreneur Chris Buskirk. They created the firm as a result of the 2022 Rockbridge Summit.[6] Blake Masters was also involved in the initial conversation, according to Bloomberg.[7]The group chose the number 1789 to reflect the year the U.S. Bill of Rights was adopted.[8][9][10]

The firm was originally registered in Delaware. As of September 2025, it is still registered there, but has its main office in Palm Beach, Florida, and conducts business in the state, with the Tallahassee branch of the Corporation Service Company as their registered agent. There is also an office in Scottsdale, Arizona.[5][11]

The firm made its first investment into Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel's new media company in 2023.[12]Shortly after Donald Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr.announced that he would be joining as a partner at 1789 Capital instead of joining his father in a government position.[13][14] As of September 2025, the main page for the 1789 Capital website says "Funding the Next Chapter of American Exceptionalism".[15][a]

In September 2025, the company reported its assets amounted to USD$861,247,283.[11]

Investments and mission

1789 Capital focuses on companies that are "anti-woke" and "America First".[12][16][17][b] Malik has stated that the firm is only interested in companies that represent "entrepreneurship, innovation and growth", or "EIG", which he says means companies that have "no ESG or DEI components in them whatsoever."[10] The company also focuses on "deglobalization", meaning companies that are moving their production to the US and pulling away from production in other countries,[c] and on creating a "parellel economy" of conservative businesses, in an effort that Malik has characterized as "depoliticiz[ing]" investment.[12][18][19][20] Malik has also said that the firm "represent[s] the silent majority."[7][d]

1789 Capital has invested in Anduril Industries, which specializes in unmanned combat machinery, like the Anduril Ghost.

One goal of 1789 Capital is to create "a large, multi-strategy asset manager."[7] Its investments include:

The firm also invests in "almost all of Elon Musk's companies",[10] including Neuralink, X (formerly Twitter), xAI, and SpaceX,[10][29][36][37][38] and signalled their intent to continue backing Musk's companies despite a public feud between Musk and Donald Trump.[39]

1789 Capital invested in GrabAGun, an online firearms retailer which Malik has called "the Amazon of guns",[28] partly because the company aligns with 1789 Capital's values.[29] In an interview with IPO Edge, Malik said,[28]

... we select companies that really are cornerstones of that vision of the economy that we want to take public. The Second Amendment is why we were so interested in the GrabAGun transaction as it overtly tries to enhance and insulate the Second Amendment from what we viewed to be a tax on it. Whether as a result of certain elements of the federal government, regulations and general reluctancy to invest in the space, capital markets have largely shut out companies like GrabAGun.

ION Analytics reported that according to partner Paul Abrahimzadeh, 1789 Capital is investing in "late-stage technology companies", including energy companies.[40]

The firm does not invest in companies such as OpenAI that they deem not supportive enough of the Trump administration. On the topic, Donald Trump Jr. said, “I’ve turned down major deals where the ethoses don’t align [...] There are people who have become MAGA more recently — and I don’t know they actually believe.”[7]

On September 3, 2025, Bloomberg reported that 1789 Capital had "lined up about $1 billion in initial investor interest" for a new fund that would be used to purchase properties in South Florida, and especially in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, in partnership with a real estate company called the Frisbie Group.[14][41]

Members and backers

Donald Trump Jr. in December 2024, a few weeks after joining 1789 Capital
Chris Buskirk in 2020

The firm was founded by Chris Buskirk, Omeed Malik, and Rebekah Mercer. Malik serves as president. Buskirk is listed as CIO. Jordan Cohen is listed as partner and COO. Other partners include Paul Abrahimzadeh,[42] Andy Nasser, Donald Trump Jr., and Joe Voboril.[43]

Venture capitalist Blake Masters was previously listed as a member of the Board of Advisors,[44] but has since been removed from the website.

Early backers included Marc Andreessen, Charlie Kirk, and Clay Travis.[7]

Reception

Multiple media outlets, financial figures, government watchdogs, and Democrats have criticized 1789 Capital for its ties to the Trump administration.[14]

Business Insider compared Donald Trump Jr. to Hunter Biden, saying that Trump Jr.'s business dealings–including his involvement in 1789 Capital–resembles the unethical financial schemes that Hunter Biden was accused of pursuing during his father's presidency.[13][e] Trump Jr. rebuked the comparison in a post on X, calling Hunter Biden a "felon crackhead" and saying that unlike Hunter Biden, he was a businessman before his father's presidency, and that his investments had "nothing to do with government."[14][45][46] Trump Jr.'s claim was disputed by a reporter for the Daily Beast, who said that the firm was "tiny [...] with no track record of investing" before Trump Jr. joined and that the firm has since multiplied its investment capabilities, and argued that under Trump Jr. the firm has expansed significantly and diverted from its goal of "anti-wokeness" to invest in defense companies which have then received government contracts under the Trump administration.[47]Bloomberg has reported that 1789 Capital has invested in multiple companies which received government contracts around the time that the firm invests in them.[30]

"The timeline here tells an interesting story. Polymarket had been under investigation by both the CFTC and the Department of Justice for potentially violating its 2022 settlement with the CFTC, which prohibited it from offering binary options to U.S. users. That investigation was reportedly serious enough for the FBI to raid the home of Polymarket's CEO and seize his phone and electronics. Yet in mid-July, after a change in administration, both agencies closed their investigations."

Business Insider also reported,[1]

One veteran Wall Street investor, who has personally reviewed 1789's deals, says they enable the president's son to profit from the administration's actions, even if no contractors are given preferential treatment. "It's a way for Mar-A-Lago to get paid," says the investor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Trump administration.

The Revolving Door Project[f] (RDP) has also raised concerns about 1789 Capital. They have highlighted some of the company's operations in their weekly "Corruption Calendar" newsletter alongside other controversies related to the Trump Administration, such as Donald Trump's cryptocurrency, Trump's acceptance of a jet gifted to him by the Qatari Royal Family during his May 2025 visit to the Middle East,[48]Omeed Malik's appointment to the board of Fannie Mae,[49] the Trump administration's choices of which federal employees to hire or terminate, and what the RDP calls "conflicts of interest" around DOGE and Elon Musk's involvement with the government.[48][g]

On the subject of Trump Jr.'s investments, Donald Sherman, executive vice president and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has said,[50]

I want to make clear that this is a problem, and it’s a problem that impacts the whole of government, but there is no modern or historical comparison for what Don Jr. and the President are doing. [...] The rules themselves aren’t designed, unfortunately, to force the adult children of government officials to report their financial entanglements. But Don Jr. and President Trump continue to make the case for why maybe they should.

There was some controversy around the firm's investment in Polymarket (and Trump Jr. joining the board) because the investment was announced within months of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) dropping their investigation into the firm and subsequently un-banning them from doing business in the United States.[31][51] Better Markets president Dennis Kelleher said that Polymarket seemed to be using "a backdoor approach to become a regulated exchange." He wrote a letter to the CFTC, questioning the circumstances of Polymarket's authorization:[51]

"The timeline here tells an interesting story. Polymarket had been under investigation by both the CFTC and the Department of Justice for potentially violating its 2022 settlement with the CFTC, which prohibited it from offering binary options to U.S. users. That investigation was reportedly serious enough for the FBI to raid the home of Polymarket's CEO and seize his phone and electronics. Yet in mid-July, after a change in administration, both agencies closed their investigations."

According to the drone and technology news site DroneXL, Colby Goodman of Transparency Internationalhas said the following about 1789 Capital:[52]

There’s always these risks that [Trump Jr.] is going to have inside information or be able to access inside information from the U.S. government for a whole range of things. Just from the procurement side, he could know about upcoming bids, and the content of what that is, and help them win contracts with the U.S. government.

The Daily Kos, a left-wing media blog, commented sarcastically:[53]

It’s almost poetic, really. We used to call this kind of setup “crony capitalism.” But with 1789 Capital, we’re rebranding it as good ol’ American ingenuity. After all, this isn’t corruption; this is just how family values work! And if public policy ends up favoring [Donald Trump Jr.]'s investments, well, that’s just the free market in action, right?

Around August or September 2025, Rebecca Ballhaus of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) filed a broad FOIA request to the SEC, asking for "any records involving 1789 Capital, including any emails and text messages to or from 1789 Capital domains and any records that mention 1789 Capital."[16] John A. Jenkins of Law Street reported that this was remarkable because Ballhaus' work "focuses on politics and government and includes investigations into conflicts of interest across the federal government; harassment and abuse at federal agencies; and the role of high-dollar donors in politics."[16] Jenkins also said that "FOIA requests to the federal government can be an important early warning of bad publicity, litigation to come, or uncertainties to be hedged and gamed out", and that the request represents "a possible escalation of the tension between" Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch, who owns the WSJ and was sued by Trump earlier in the year for an article about the nature of the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.[16][54]

See also

Footnotes

  1.  See also: American exceptionalism
  2.  See also: Woke
  3.  See also: Globalization
  4.  See also: Silent majority
  5.  See also: Hunter Biden laptop controversy, Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory#Hunter Biden, and United States House Oversight Committee investigation into the Biden family
  6.  The Revolving Door Project's name refers to the concept of the revolving door in politics.
  7.  See also: Response to the Department of Government Efficiency and Political activities of Elon Musk

References

  1.  McLean, Bethany. "'A flashing red light': how Donald Trump Jr. is cashing in on his dad's presidency". Business Insider. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
  2.  "SEC FORM D". www.sec.gov. January 15, 2025. Archived from the original on July 17, 2025. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  3.  Ulmer, Alexandra (November 12, 2024). "Trump son Don Jr joining venture capital firm 1789 Capital, sources say". Reuters. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  4.  Hammond, George (November 11, 2024). "Donald Trump Jr sits out new administration to join VC firm". Financial Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  5.  "Application by foreign limited liability company for authorization to transact business in Florida" (Document). Florida Division of Corporations. June 19, 2025.
  6.  Ulmer, Alexandra; Roston, Aram (August 21, 2024). "Tech donor network co-founded by JD Vance seeks to push America to the right". Reuters. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
  7.  Tan, Gillian; Burton, Katherine (March 10, 2025). "Donald Trump Jr. Has Big Plans for Monetizing MAGA". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
  8.  Murray, Conor. "Conservatives Are Spending Millions To Build A 'Parallel Economy' Of Anti-Woke Businesses". Forbes. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  9.  Betts, Anna (November 12, 2024). "Donald Trump Jr to join venture capital firm rather than father's administration". The Guardian. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  10.  Foldi, Matthew (February 25, 2025). "INTERVIEW: Omeed Malik on the MAGA/MAHA partnership that's reshaping American politics, and the "secret meeting at Mar-a-Lago" that made it happen". Washington Reporter. Archived from the original on March 19, 2025. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
  11.  Malik, Omeed (July 29, 2025), Form ADV (PDF), SEC, archived from the original (PDF) on September 4, 2025, retrieved September 3, 2025
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  13.  Schleifer, Theodore (November 11, 2024). "Donald Trump Jr. Is Joining a Venture Capital Firm". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  14.  Massa, Annie (September 3, 2025). "1789 Capital Holds Talks for $1 Billion Real Estate Fund". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
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  20.  1789 Capital's Donald Trump Jr. and Omeed Malik on GrabAGun SPAC deal on YouTube. CNBC.
  21.  "'Anti-Woke' 1789 Capital Bets on Drug Startup BlinkRx". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on August 30, 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  22.  Park, Andrea (August 12, 2025). "BlinkRx offers launch support to new pharma DTC programs". www.fiercepharma.com. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  23.  Tan, Gillian (March 26, 2025). "1789 Capital, Type One to Back Axiom Space at $2 Billion Value". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 29, 2025.
  24.  Games, Enhanced. "1789 Capital Co-Leads Series B of Enhanced Games". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  25.  Bort, Julie (June 5, 2025). "Anduril raises $2.5B at $30.5B valuation led by Founders Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  26.  Listek, Vanesa (January 10, 2025). "Firehawk Lands $60M for 3D Printed Rocket Fuel, Backed by 1789 Capital—and Donald Trump Jr". 3DPrint.com. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  27.  Alamalhodaei, Aria (July 17, 2025). "Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 18, 2025. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  28.  Jannarone, John (June 2025). "Interview: Omeed Malik Explains Importance of Shareholder Vote to Take GrabAGun Public". IPO Edge. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
  29.  Cortellessa, Eric (July 17, 2025). "Why Donald Trump Jr. Took the 'Amazon of Guns' to Market". TIME. Archived from the original on July 19, 2025. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
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  31.  Primack, Dan (August 26, 2025). "Scoop: Donald Trump Jr.'s VC firm bets on Polymarket". Axios. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
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  33.  Fischer, Sara (November 12, 2024). "Newsletter platform Substack raises new funding". Axios. Archivedfrom the original on June 24, 2025. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  34.  Morris, Chris. "Tucker Carlson's online media company just raised $15 million in seed capital". Fortune. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  35.  Sainato, Michael (December 11, 2023). "Tucker Carlson to launch his own $72-a-year subscription streaming service". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
  36.  "Musk's X Secures $1 Billion Investment, Maintains Original $44 Billion Valuation". The Rio Times. March 20, 2025. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
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  39.  "Donald Trump Jr, Omeed Malik Still 'Long On Elon' After Feud". NDTV. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  40.  Martinez, Carlos (July 17, 2025). "1789 Capital targets breakout returns from late-stage US innovation – partner". ION Analytics. Archived from the original on July 19, 2025. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  41.  Wasielewski, Matt (September 3, 2025). "South Florida Developer, Company Backed By Trump Jr. Partner For $1B Real Estate Fund". Bisnow. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  42.  Powell, R. (April 7, 2025). "Wall Street Veteran Paul Abrahimzadeh Joins 1789 Capital as Senior Partner - Greatreporter". Retrieved July 26, 2025.
  43.  "Team". 1789 Capital. Archived from the original on June 20, 2025. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
  44.  "Meet the Team". 1789 Capital. Archived from the original on October 17, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
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