Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer questioned the White House on July 1 about the Trump family’s involvement in a $1.6 billion mining deal in Kazakhstan, challenging a spokeswoman to explain how the president’s family was profiting from deals while he serves in office.
Speaking with White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly on America’s Newsroom, Hemmer raised two financial disclosures that had emerged that week. One concerned reports that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump stand to profit from the Kazakhstan tungsten mining deal, according to a New York Times investigation. The other involved the president’s disclosure that his family had made more than $1 billion through a cryptocurrency venture.
Hemmer asked Kelly directly: “What’s the White House’s position on all these questions?” Kelly responded by noting that Trump was elected as a businessman and that his assets are in a blind trust, meaning he has no control over those trades while serving as president.
The Kazakhstan Mining Deal
The $1.6 billion agreement between the U.S. and Kazakhstan gives American investors with ties to Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a critical mineral used in missiles, fighter jets, and computer chips.
According to the New York Times, Trump and Lutnick pushed for the deal with Kazakhstan. During negotiations, Lutnick wrote to Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev that the Trump administration “fully supports” the company handling the project. When Tokayev arrived in New York in September 2025 to discuss the deal at the St. Regis hotel, Trump personally called in to handle the final negotiations, according to Kaz Resources executive chairman Pini Althaus.
The deal was officially signed on November 6, 2025. Within weeks, Trump’s sons’ company Dominari Securities—housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump—joined other investors to take a 20% stake in a company related to the project, the New York Times reported. At the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped raise $210 million in new capital for investors working with Dominari.
Federal filings suggest both Dominari and Cantor earned fees for their work helping raise capital for the project, though none of the $1.6 billion in government support has yet been disbursed. The Trump brothers have said they were not involved in the specifics of the deal, with Eric writing that he has always remained a “passive investor,” according to the Times.
The tungsten deal reflects a broader pattern: at least 14 different companies affiliated with the Trump or Lutnick families are actively working with the federal government on critical minerals deals. The U.S. has been racing to secure critical minerals since China imposed export restrictions on tungsten in 2025, prompting the Pentagon to seek both domestic refineries and overseas mining projects.
Sources
- Mediaite — Bill Hemmer’s on-air questioning of White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly about Trump family financial gains from mining and cryptocurrency deals.
- The New York Times — Investigation into the Kazakhstan tungsten mining deal and Trump and Lutnick family involvement, including timeline of negotiations and family company stakes.
- New York Post — Details on Dominari Securities, Cantor Fitzgerald’s role, the November 6, 2025 deal signing, and fee arrangements.
- Mother Jones — Context on tungsten’s strategic importance and the broader pattern of family business involvement in federal critical minerals deals.
