Trump Hopes to Attract Defense Contractors to ‘Do Magnets’
President Donald Trump urged some of the country’s most dominant defense industry companies to “do magnets” at the Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump is hoping to attract Defense contractors to “do magnets.”
The president made a pitch Wednesday at the Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit, where audience included some of the country’s most dominant Defense industry companies.
The pitch cameafter “ProPublica”revealed a top White House aide intervened to help secure a $620 million Pentagon loan for a rare-earth magnet startup after Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took a stake in the company, per Mediaite.
“I hope you’re gonna do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope — you’re all brilliant people — magnets. Do magnets, OK? I’ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets. You’re doing a lot of great stuff. Do magnets,” Trump said. “Because one thing we don’t have, but we are getting close — but do magnets.”
Watch:https://x.com/atrupar/status/2077488844039917817?s=20
According to the late May “ProPublica” investigation, Peter Navarro,White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, personally requested the Pentagon OK the loan to North Carolina-based Vulcan Elements.
This was the only funding deal among dozens under consideration that was initiated by a top White House aide. Defense officials told the outlet they were instructed to move quickly after receiving the request, with one official saying, “The call came from the White House: We have to get this done.”
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Donald Trump Jr.’s firm, 1789 Capital, had invested in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the loan.
The findings sparked swift backlash on Capitol Hill.
A group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles demanding answers about the deal.
The lawmakers wrote “ProPublica’s” reporting “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars.”
In November, he told reporters, “Nobody knows what magnets are.”
Then, in 2024, Trump falsely claimed that magnets stop working when exposed to water.