Amna Nawaz:

In his second administration, President Trump's family, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and sons Eric and Don Jr., are expanding their business ventures, earning hundreds of millions of dollars, and prompting fresh concerns about influence peddling and conflicts of interest.

Here again is Liz Landers.

Liz Landers:

This past weekend, as top American representatives descended upon Pakistan for peace talks with Iran, the U.S. team led by Vice President J.D. Vance and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also included the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He's emerged as one of the administration's key foreign policy advisers, even though the White House confirms he holds no official government position.

Jared Kushner, Former Senior Presidential Adviser:

Technically, I have not joined the administration, so I'm still just a volunteer like other businessmen who volunteer to help the government when asked.

Liz Landers:

A volunteer tasked with negotiating sensitive matters of war and peace. His full-time job is running a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm, Affinity Partners. And that company has raised billions of dollars almost entirely from the Middle East, the same region where Kushner is currently negotiating on behalf of the president.

Kushner founded Affinity Partners in 2021 after the first Trump administration and when his role as an official White House adviser had ended.

Maureen Farrell with The New York Times has been tracking his business deals.

Maureen Farrell, The New York Times:

He had a close relationship with Mohammed bin Salman during the first Trump administration. Very shortly after he left the administration, Jared Kushner went back to Saudi Arabia, this time as a fund-raiser. And Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, or PIF, invested $2 billion into Jared Kushner's investment fund.

Liz Landers:

When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, did not come back to Washington. But then last summer, Kushner was dispatched by the president to work on the war in Gaza. He and Witkoff met with regional leaders and successfully brokered a peace agreement to end the fighting and secure the release of hostages.

After that deal was struck in October, Kushner was asked during a "60 Minutes" interview about his potential conflicts of interest. He said in part:

Jared Kushner:

What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world. If Steve and I didn't have these deep relationships, the deal that we were able to help get done that freed these hostages would not have occurred.

Liz Landers:

Two months later, Kushner and Witkoff traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin to discuss a cease-fire in the war with Ukraine. And earlier this year, Kushner accompanied his father-in-law during a trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the high-flying World Economic Forum, a who's who of business elites and world leaders.

In a regulatory filing last month, Kushner's Affinity Partners reported more than $6.1 billion in assets. About 99 percent of those assets belonged to non-U.S. Investors, with most of the funds tied to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. And Affinity Partners was looking to raise more.

Farrell was first to report in The New York Times in March that Kushner had held preliminary talks with the Saudis about raising billions of additional dollars for Affinity Partners.

Maureen Farrell:

He's out there negotiating peace deals with governments, working with various governments in the Middle East. He's already been working with them in the private sector, investing their funds and getting big fees from these governments.

So it raises all sorts of questions about, who is he working for? How does he draw the lines as this is all happening?

Liz Landers:

In a statement to "PBS News Hour," Affinity Partners acknowledged Kushner did speak with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund about raising new money, but only because it has an agreement to give the Saudis right a first refusal.

Quote, "Affinity had early conversations with its anchor investor and does not intend to take any additional capital while Jared is volunteering for the government. An SEC-registered investment firm, Affinity has abided by all laws and regulations and will continue to do so."

As a government volunteer and not an employee, Kushner is exempt from the usual financial disclosure laws. But Democratic members of Congress are still pressing the administration to answer whether Kushner is using his influence for personal financial gain.

In a March 19 letter to the White House, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Robert Garcia wrote -- quote -- "His actions raised the potential for Mr. Kushner to be subject to conflicts of interest, which could threaten the security of the American people."

And Kushner isn't the only member of the Trump family expanding their business interests. In their father's first term, President Trump's sons Don Jr. and Eric mostly focus on managing the family business, the Trump Organization's portfolio of hotels, golf resorts and other real estate, but not anymore.

Kyle Khan-Mullins is a reporter for "Forbes."

What changed?

Kyle Khan-Mullins, "Forbes":

Well, what changed is that Donald Trump won the White House again. And the Trumps have kind of stopped caring about the appearance of conflicts of interest.

Liz Landers:

He has said, since 2024, the Trump sons have been aggressively investing in a host of emerging technologies, like cryptocurrency, where deregulation has significantly boosted the Trump sons' fortunes.

But it's a handful of other new business ventures that have been raising the most attention lately. As the war in Iran escalated in the past month, the urgent need for the U.S. to scale up its drone technology came into sharper focus. We learned Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have invested in at least three drone companies since 2024.

The most recent deal involves drone maker Powerus, which announced last month it would merge with a golf course holding company backed by the Trump sons with plans to create a new publicly traded company. As Powerus looks to expand into military drone technology, it will compete for government contracts under the Pentagon's $1.1 billion drone dominance initiative after the Trump administration in December banned all new foreign-made drones citing national security.

Powerus has also been pitching drone intercepts to several Gulf nations to help them ward off Iranian drone attacks, positioning Powerus and the Trump sons to potentially profit from a war their father began.

And as that war continues to spike global energy prices, the Trump sons' investment in nuclear fusion power has gained attention too.

Woman:

The Trump Media and Technology Group is announcing plans to merge with TAE Technologies. That is a fusion power company.

Liz Landers:

Late last year, President Trump's social media company, in which his son Don Jr. is a member of the board, agreed to merge with TAE Technologies in a deal that would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies. The deal is valued at more than $6 billion.

The company said they intend to begin construction on the first utility scale fusion power plant later this year. But, first, TAE needs to prove fusion power can work at scale. Scientists have spent decades trying to harness fusion, the process that powers the sun, and progress has been incremental at best.

Don Jr. has also taken an active role in a range of business activities that fall outside the scope of the Trump Organization. Since 2024, he has joined the boards of four companies and has been named an adviser to six others.

Why do you think he's involved with so many different organizations and businesses?

Kyle Khan-Mullins:

So, Don Jr., he's a man in demand. He has always been the more politically active, more politically connected of the two brothers. So, if you're a company that's looking to get into the good graces of the federal government, why would you not hire the president's outspoken son?

Liz Landers:

While they sometimes appear at White House events, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are not government officials and are not subject to federal ethics rules or disclosure requirements.

Kyle Khan-Mullins:

They certainly do have rights to be making a living. That's absolutely true. What the second Trump administration has kind of revealed is that all those ethics rules have turned out to be a little bit like the pirates code from "Pirates of the Caribbean," more like guidelines than actual rules.

Liz Landers:

Without those rules, the president's son-in-law and his two oldest sons have seen their fortunes dramatically increase.

Kyle Khan-Mullins:

"Forbes" estimated that the Trump brothers, Eric and Don Jr., they were worth about $40 million, $50 million each before the 2024 election. About a year later, we valued Eric at $400 million and Donald Trump Jr. at about $300 million. So, they both multiplied their wealth many times over.

Liz Landers:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers.