A Democratic congressman has accused President Donald Trump's sons and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sons of profiting from a taxpayer-backed mining deal in Kazakhstan, alleging that a US-backed tungsten project allowed both families' children to benefit financially and declaring: 'The fathers set the policy, the sons cashed in.'
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) made the remark in a lengthy post on X reacting to a New York Times investigation into a tungsten mining agreement between the United States and Kazakhstan, which has drawn scrutiny over the financial interests of both families.
Trump’s government committed up to $1.6 billion of your tax dollars to a tungsten mine in Kazakhstan. Then the sons showed up.
— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) July 15, 2026
Eric and Don Jr. tied to a 20% stake. Lutnick’s sons also cashed in.
The fathers negotiate, the government pays, the children profit. They are not… pic.twitter.com/1p2Z8bQ6XR
What The New York Times Found
According to the investigation by Paul Sonne and Eric Lipton, President Trump joined Lutnick by phone last September as the pair secured an agreement with Kazakhstan's leader granting a little-known American company access to one of the world's largest untapped tungsten reserves.
Tungsten is used in missile warheads, fighter jets and computer chips, and the Trump administration had already approved preliminary applications for up to $1.6 billion in federal financing for the company, now named Kaz Resources.
Weeks after those negotiations, investors linked to Dominari Securities, a firm part-owned by Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, joined other partners to take a 20 per cent stake in an entity tied to the Kazakhstan project.
Around the same period, Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm overseen by Lutnick's sons Brandon and Kyle, helped raise $210 million for a lead investor working alongside Dominari on the deal.
Levin's Reaction Goes Viral
Levin used his X post, viewed widely after it began circulating on Reddit and other platforms, to lay out the timeline.
'The fathers set the policy. The sons cashed in,' he wrote, before adding that federal filings show one or both families hold ties to at least 14 companies working with the government on critical mineral deals.
He went further, calling it 'the most corrupt administration in American history' and accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson of 'running a protection racket' by declining to investigate. The full post can be viewed on Levin's X account.
Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.
— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) June 28, 2026
The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got…
Trump Organisation Pushes Back
The story has not gone unchallenged. Lawyers for the Trump Organisation sent a letter to the Times calling the report 'deeply misleading', arguing it wrongly implied Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump influenced the decision to award the Kazakhstan contract.
The letter, addressed to the Times' editor-in-chief, insisted the brothers 'had absolutely no involvement in the award of the Kazakhstan project'.
It also claimed Cove Capital, the firm ultimately awarded the tungsten rights, was not introduced to the Trump-linked investment vehicle until roughly a month after the original September agreement.
Kaz Resources' executive chairman has separately said he never spoke directly with either Trump brother before the investment was made.
The dispute goes beyond one mining project.
Government watchdogs and members of Congress have flagged a wider pattern of family members of senior officials gaining financial stakes in ventures connected to their fathers' policy decisions, raising questions about oversight of taxpayer-backed foreign investment deals and where the line sits between public duty and private gain.
