In addition to serving as executive vice president for the Trump Organization, Donald Trump, Jr. — the eldest son of the President of the United States — is a board member, shareholder and advisor of the online firearms retailer, GrabAGun.
On Wednesday Trump Jr., who is projected to own 300,000 shares in GrabAGun according to a June prospectus, rang the opening bell at the NYSE to mark the company’s public listing.
As seen below on Fox Business, Trump, Jr. said: “To be able to come back to the New York stock exchange and actually take a gun company public feels like such a vindication of all the insanity, all of the woke nonsense that we’ve been watching and facing for the last decade in America.”
Don Jr: “To be able to come back to the New York stock exchange and actually take a gun company public feels like such a vindication of all the insanity, all of the woke nonsense that we’ve been watching and facing for the last decade.” pic.twitter.com/u1lw0sobq9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2025
[Note: In 2024, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that the President and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric who run the Trump Organization “repeatedly” violated state fraud law, misrepresenting the value of some of their properties and Donald Trump’s overall net worth — allowing them to obtain loan rates and other financial terms that they otherwise wouldn’t have received. Trump Jr. has since complained about not being able to get financing for business projects and claimed his family was “debanked” in New York.]
Trump Jr. appeared on Fox with Republican megadonor Omeed Malik, CEO of Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC — Special Purpose Acquisition Company — which merged with GrabAGun on Tuesday.
Note: Malik has donated to the campaigns of President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy, among others. In 2019 he donated to the campaign of Joe Biden, and in 2015 to Hillary Clinton.)
Malik’s investment company 1789 Capital backed Tucker Carlson’s new media company in 2023 after the popular conservative media personality left Fox News, having also invested in Carlson’s The Daily Caller in 2010.
Critics of the Trump family are responding with comments including “Don Jr isn’t fighting ‘woke.’ He’s cashing in on chaos — with bullets.” More than one pointed out that the stock (PEW) “tanked” after its NYSE debut, shedding about 20% in early trading. Other U.S. gun companies that have gone public include Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR), and Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWBI).