What must Hunter Biden be thinking? He had a business plan, designed to make him a pile of money. All it got him was years of investigations, exposure of his personal life, and all around misery. It never even made him much money.
His plan was to trade on his family name. He would allow people to assume (or even encourage them to assume) that, because his father was a big dog, anything he was involved in would get special treatment from the United States government. Because of his father’s position, anybody who associated with Hunter would, by definition, be running with the big dogs.
The plan worked on rare occasions. He got to be a director of an oil company in Ukraine, a position that made him money. He’s an educated person and had experience in business so he was probably as qualified for the job as others the company could have picked. At the same time, nobody can say with a straight face that of all the educated business people in the world, the oil company just happened to pick Hunter Biden.
That’s pretty much it.
Although not for lack of trying, the Republicans never found anything else that showed any corruption by Joe Biden or any policy he implemented because it would help a Hunter Biden business venture. The chair of the congressional committee that was investigating Hunter Biden said as much in a report of that committee. This was after 150 hours of hearings by the committee, investigations by a United States Attorney, and who knows how many hours of investigation by television, newspaper reporters, and self-appointed investigative journalists.
The committee thought it had something when it found a “whistleblower†who said that he knew of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden taking bribes. The air quickly drained from that balloon when the whistleblower pleaded guilty to perjury.
All of the investigation resulted in charges of Hunter Biden not paying his taxes and of making a false statement on the application to buy a gun. The taxes have long ago been paid and the gun thrown away. The same connections that got Hunter Biden the job with the Ukrainian oil company landed him a criminal prosecution and years of misery for offenses that otherwise would have resulted in a tax penalty or a fine.
The Trump boys filched Hunter Biden’s business plan
The business plan didn’t work for Hunter Biden. Was it just that the plan was flawed, did Hunter not know how to execute it, or was something else missing?
It could not have been the plan. The Trump boys are now using the same plan to rake in the money. According to a story in Forbes, since his father returned to the White House, Eric Trump’s net worth has increased from $40 million to $400 million. Donald Trump, Jr.’s net worth has increased from $50 million to $300 million.
They did it in several ways. One was the defense business. They invested in companies which manufactured weapons systems for the government. According to reporting in the British newspaper The Times and an investigation by The Washington Post those companies that the Trump boys invested in have been awarded $3.2 billion in government contracts with another $3.1 billion in future contract options.
According to a report in The New York Times, a company the Trump boys partially own bought 20% of a mining company. Six days later the company signed a contract to mine tungsten in Kazakhstan. The United States Import-Export bank and the United States International Development Finance Corporation are providing the financing for the project.
Then there is cryptocurrency. In the last two years the Trump Organization has gone from being a real estate developing and marketing firm to being a cryptocurrency investor and marketer. The Organization’s interest in the field is paying off. According to an analysis by Reuters, the Organization’s income for the first half of 2025 went from $51 million to $864 million. Of that, $802 million came from investments in cryptocurrency ventures.
Then there are what are called “prediction markets.†These are places where someone can make a bet on just about anything, from whether the United States will invade Venezuela to the outcomes of elections to what team LeBron James will play for next. It’s really just gambling. It used to be illegal in the United States. Then Donald Trump, Jr. invested in a company that runs one of these markets, the rules changed, and Don Jr. made a ton of money.
Maybe the Trump boys are just financial geniuses. Maybe that is what distinguishes them from Hunter Biden. Maybe that is how they could take the same business plan that was such a failure in Hunter Biden’s hands and make it work so spectacularly. Maybe they are just quick studies, going from no knowledge of defense contracting, mining, crypto currency, etc. to being wizards in the field.
Or is it something else? Hunter’s business plan failed because he could not deliver. He implied that he could provide access to the big dogs. He couldn’t. A congressional committee did its best to find some example of Joe Biden changing a policy or doing anything to aid some business that Hunter was involved in. After years of trying, it couldn’t come up with anything.
President Trump has no such hesitancy.
Living in Trump’s crypto world
Consider cryptocurrency. During his first term, President Trump called it a hoax. Now he wants to make the United States the “crypto capitol of the world.†He has changed policies to make that happen and his sons are making a fortune on it.
During the negotiations on the tungsten mine, President Trump actually called in to the negotiations.
President Trump is the commander in chief; although there is no direct evidence, he is not without influence over who gets a defense contract.
It is possible, of course, that the Trump boys are extraordinarily gifted at understanding where public policy is headed. It could be that they are just lucky that public policy often bends in such a way as to favor their investments. We just don’t know. Unless the Democrats get control of Congress and are able to determine what gets investigated and what documents get subpoenaed we may never know. It just looks mighty peculiar that they have managed to be investing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Poor Hunter Biden. All he got was a daily reaffirmation that his father loved him and some encouragement in his recovery from drug addiction. The Trump boys apparently got a little more tangible assistance and have the fortune to show for it.
