'Is it a cash machine?': Sen. Elizabeth Warren slams Eric Trump for bragging $24m Pentagon contract

The Pentagon awarded a multi-million-dollar defense contract to a robotics startup affiliated with one of President Donald Trump's sons, Eric Trump, who appeared to tout the deal publicly on Thursday. While Trump claimed his company was helping America "win the race" of humanoid development, Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, labeled it as "corruption in plain sight". 

According to Fox News, Foundation Future Industries, a Silicon Valley startup, recently secured a $24 million contract for its "Phantom" robots, which are designed to breach enemy sites. In an interview on "Mornings with Maria," the company's CEO, Sankaet Pathak, and chief strategy advisor Eric, argued that the technology will help America preserve its edge on the battlefield. "We are America First. We have to win this race," he said. Both Eric and Pathak spoke about similar advancements in China, claiming the U.S. must win this race. While he did not disclose how the company secured the contract, TIME previously reported that it had research contracts in place with various branches of the U.S. military. 

Pointing to possible favoritism, Sen. Warren questioned the ethics of the deal.  “Is the Pentagon just a cash machine for Trump's kids now?” she wrote on X, responding to a clip of Eric's Fox Business interview. Earlier this week, the Defense Department unveiled its fiscal year 2027 budget request, which included a $55 billion ask for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, responsible for researching and developing military robotics powered by artificial intelligence. The total budget requested was a whooping $1.5 trillion, the largest in U.S. history. Warren pointed out that she has been sounding the alarm over companies affiliated with Trump getting major contracts, claiming, “This looks like corruption in plain sight.” 

The contract announcement comes less than a month after Powerus, a Florida-based drone maker backed by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., told Associated Press that it was pitching drone-intercepting technology to Gulf countries vulnerable to Iranian attacks amid the ongoing conflict involving the United States and Iran. Thus, Warren wasn't alone in raising suspicion as Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, also called the Trumps “the most corrupt first family of all time," in a post on X, sharing the same Fox News clip. “You can't make this stuff up,” she wrote. 

Last year, several Democrats raised concerns about potential corruption after Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnets startup backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s VC firm, secured a $620 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, as per the Financial Times. While a Democratic coalition sought to subpoena Trump Jr. to to compel his testimony on the deal, the motion was blocked by Republicans on a House Natural Resources subcommittee. At the time, Warren, along with other Democrats, wrote in a statement that they were "concerned about the conflicts of interest of President Trump, his family, other administration officials, and any potential favoritism resulting in a waste of taxpayer dollars and a threat to national security."