Congressional Republicans Screamed About Hunter Biden: Where Are They Now?

In 2022, more than thirty Republican senators called for a special counsel investigation of Hunter Biden. In 2023, two Republican-controlled House committees investigated Hunter Biden’s business dealings. In 2024, weeks before the presidential election, Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley issued a report entitled “Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption.”

Now, as Donald Trump’s family rips off the presidency for enormous riches, those concerns have vanished. The Republican demand for investigations of a president’s family has disappeared.

We haven’t heard a peep from congressional Republicans about the abuses of Trump’s two sons and his son-in-law. They have engaged in abuses of the presidency to obtain huge personal financial wealth, second only to the massive wealth ripped off by President Trump.

Senate and House Republicans have not only turned a blind eye to the profiteering by President Trump’s family members – but also to the historic abuse of the presidency by President Trump himself to gather massive wealth.

The Son-in-Law

Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, has engaged in abuse of the presidency to obtain huge financial gain.

Kushner represented President Trump as a White House official during his first term in dealing with Middle Eastern policies. This included forming a close relationship with Saudi Arabia’s leader, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

After leaving the government, Kushner promptly founded an investment firm, Affinity Partners, and sought funding. According to The New York Times, MBS, a beneficiary of Kushner’s support during his work for Trump, rewarded Kushner by directing the Saudi Public Investment Fund, over the objections of the Fund’s advisers, to make a $2 billion investment in Affinity Partners.

By the end of 2025, Affinity Partners, owned solely by Kushner, reported it was managing more than $6 billion in assets.

In Trump’s second term, the grift has continued. Kushner has been one of the President’s chief negotiators with Middle Eastern countries. Trump also appointed him a Special Envoy for Peace, placing him back in a formal government role.

After Trump’s 2024 election, Kushner said in December 2024 that he would “pre-emptively try to avoid any conflicts,” and that “We don’t have to raise capital for the next four years.”

That did not turn out to be true.

Kushner reportedly has been seeking to raise an additional $5 billion for his investment firm Affinity Partners, from countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, the same countries that financed him originally. At the same time, he is a chief negotiator for Trump in the Middle East. These countries, and other Middle Eastern countries, have vital interests in the positions he takes.

This places Kushner in a massive conflict of interest and raises an obvious question: whose interests come first, the United States or the interests of the Middle Eastern countries from whom he is seeking to raise billions of dollars?

The Sons

According to a Forbes estimate, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were each worth some $40 to $50 million prior to the 2024 presidential election of their father. Approximately a year later Forbes valued Eric at some $400 million and Donald Jr. at some $300 million.

Their wealth has surged alongside a wave of new board positions and business ventures with companies that rely on government policies and contracts.

Eric and Donald Jr. Trump have joined a total of ten companies’ boards since the 2024 election.

Anyone think this is related to the fact that their father is President?

The Trump sons have now gotten into the drone business by joining up with three drone companies. This included drone maker Powerus, which is seeking to sell drones to Gulf countries at the same time those countries are dependent on Trump’s policies for dealing with Iran.

Donald Jr. sits on the advisory board of Unusual Machines, a drone component company. According to Forbes, this is “the second company that appears to have activated an advisory board specifically to give a Trump a role, placing Donald Trump Jr. on the board in November 2024—and granting him shares worth millions.”

Eric Trump, meanwhile, joined up with Foundation Future Industries, a company that deals with robotics. He recently appeared on Fox Business to “brag” about the $24 million defense contract that the company had won.

These connections position them and their companies to benefit from the greatly increased administration focus on drones and robotics.

The Pentagon’s budget for next year provides $70 billion for drones and counter-drone systems, with $54.6 billion earmarked for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group. This includes research and development of military robotics run by AI.

The companies that Trump’s sons have joined can be expected to put in for their fair share of this Pentagon money.

The profiteering by Trump’s two sons and his son-in-law make the Biden son’s profiteering in comparison seem like small potatoes. Congressional Republicans continue to remain silent about the Trump family. No hearings, no subpoenas, no demands for a special counsel.

No accountability for Trump and his family.

___________

Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.