Democratic members of the House Natural Resources reported that the committee “shut down” over its attempt to subpoena Donald Trump, Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump. Trump Jr. is a partner in the investment firm 1789 Capital, which made a large investment in the earth mineral company Vulcan Elements approximately three months before the company received $620 million from the Defense Department — “the largest loan in Pentagon history” — and $50 million from the Commerce Department.
[NOTE: Trump Jr., 1789 and Vulcan deny that any personal White House connection contributed to securing the new funding, according to a Bloomberg report titled: US Taxpayers and Trump’s Son Are Backing the Same Rare-Earth Startup.]
As seen below, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stanbury (D-NM) reported that the investment was made “at the same time Trump Sr. was threatening to blow up our NATO alliance and invade Greenland, where Vulcan has significant rare earth interests.”
Stanbury added, “We know Trump and his family are lining their own pockets with corrupt government deals. But, when we tried to subpoena his Jr. to answer questions today, Republicans shut it down.”
Breaking: House Natural Resources SHUT DOWN over Don Jr. Subpoena!
Donald Trump Jr’s 1789 Capital investment firm made a major investment in a rare earth mineral company called Vulcan Elements months before it received $620 million in the largest loan in Pentagon history… pic.twitter.com/mLo8hgBJHs
— Rep. Melanie Stansbury (@Rep_Stansbury) March 25, 2026
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Ranking Member on the Natural Resources Committee, added: “There are red flags within this administration, that Donald Trump Jr and other cronies very close to Donald Trump and JD Vance have been lining their pockets to the tunes of tens of millions of dollars based on some of these deals including equity stakes in mining companies, loan guarantees that the Pentagon has issued.”
He added, “So Republicans wanted to have a meeting about mining, and we challenged them to do some real oversight and look into this and we filed a motion, we made a motion to subpoena these insiders, these cronies that are lining their pockets.
“Instead of debating that motion, instead of allowing any vote on that motion, they moved to table and they shut down the whole meeting.”
U.S. Representative Maxine Dexter (D-OR) also reported on Wednesday that Republicans objected to her attempt to subpoena Trump, Jr.
BREAKING: I just motioned to subpoena Don Trump Jr. for funneling $670 million in taxpayer dollars to a critical minerals company he has financial stake in.
Republicans left the hearing room. pic.twitter.com/3HT7dwzi2i
— Congresswoman Maxine Dexter (@RepDexterOR) March 25, 2026