Ex-soldier turned president's praise on social media into a $300 million startup
By Heather Somerville, Will Hobson and David Uberti
Last July, drone pitchman Brett Velicovich joined Fox News to praise the Trump administration's plans to invest more than a billion dollars in America's military drone industry.
Moments later, he earned a public shout-out from one prominent viewer.
Velicovich "really knows his 'stuff,' " President Trump said on social media. "We are really on our way. MAGA!"
Fifteen months later, Velicovich is now a top executive at Powerus, a new drone company backed financially, in part, by Trump's eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. It has emerged from a crowded field to snap up multimillion-dollar contracts in the U.S. and overseas.
Assembled from $5.7 million in assets, Powerus has grown within months into a $300 million enterprise, led by an unlikely cast of characters that includes a public golf-course operator in Florida; a sushi restaurateur; a Democratic donor with a New York cleaning business; and a former child-modeling talent scout who has settled claims of defrauding parents.
To Velicovich, his new company's early success is a testament to the business acumen of its founders. "I have never seen another drone company that in their first year in business has been able to do what we've done," Velicovich said in an interview. "You will see us exceed them all."
When it was less than a year old, Powerus secured a $90 million Air Force contract. A month later, Powerus said it beat defense-tech giant Anduril Industries for a $22 million job defending American oil infrastructure in the Middle East.
In September, Velicovich met with Pakistan's Army chief, whom Trump has publicly called his "favorite field marshal," as part of a deal to sell his forces drones. Powerus already had a deal with Pakistan's archrival, India, and has been sought out by heads of state elsewhere, including Lithuania and Iraq.
Earlier this month, Powerus also became a public company as Velicovich and his partners, cheering and flanked by their families, rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange. A fund backed by the Trump sons, American Ventures, has cashed out at least $6 million from its investment to date. The fund owns about 3.4% of Powerus, according to a securities filing, and holds warrants that can convert to tens of millions of additional shares in the future.
Dominari Holdings, the financial firm behind American Ventures, helped take Powerus public. The Trump sons each own around 6% of the investment bank, which often merges underperforming publicly traded companies with businesses in buzzy industries.
To ethics experts, Powerus is an example of the blurred lines of government and private business in the second Trump administration that are without modern comparison. "Never have we seen a president's family benefiting from military contracts," said Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush.
Representatives for Powerus and the Trump Organization said the president's sons have no involvement in management or operations, and don't play any role in securing business for Powerus.
"Outside affiliations, investors, or political connections play absolutely no role in the department's funding decisions," a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
Powerus founders said the Trumps are enthusiastic backers of an American manufacturing renaissance. "I'm happy to have them," said Andrew Fox, Powerus's chief executive. A Democratic donor without prior defense experience, Fox said the Trump backing only helped Powerus get attention. "I don't call them," he said of the Trumps. "I don't ask for favors."
Velicovich said he was focused on the technology and found the Trump connection to be a distraction. "There's just nothing good that comes from commenting on it," he said.
So far, public market investors appear skeptical. Powerus stock has declined by about half since it began trading. Powerus recently authorized a new stock offering that gives several investors the chance to offload shares. American Ventures' potential sales are currently valued around $7 million.
Meeting in Ukraine
Powerus, as the founders tell it, traces its roots to Ukraine.
Early in Russia's 2022 invasion, Velicovich headed to Lviv, in western Ukraine, where he distributed first-aid kits to soldiers along with sushi restaurateur Michael Sinensky and businessman Roman Vintfeld, who were there through a charity.
Velicovich earlier served in a U.S. Army intelligence unit, and stayed in Kyiv for two years brokering drone deals to arm Ukraine.
Some countrymen welcomed Velicovich's help at first, but the drones Velicovich provided frequently failed on the battlefield, Ukrainian soldiers said.
Velicovich said the experience inspired him to start Powerus. "I personally watched 'American state of the art technology' just get embarrassed on the battlefield," he said.
Velicovich, for example, helped Cyberlux, a penny-stock LED lighting company that acquired a drone manufacturing business a month after the war began, sell systems to Ukraine. Velicovich advised the company and became a shareholder, along with his fellow first-aid kit distributors, Sinensky and Vintfeld.
Cyberlux delivered around 20% of them before the Ukrainians decided they needed a more capable aircraft, and the contract was canceled, said Cyberlux CEO Mark Schmidt. Cyberlux built the remaining drones and later delivered them to the U.S. government under a different agreement.
Powerus's other co-founders, Vintfeld and Sinensky, ran a Covid-19-era medical supplies company that expanded around 2023 into a new business line selling Chinese drones, returning to Ukraine in at least one instance to make a deal.
Before that, Vintfeld owned child acting and modeling-talent agencies accused by attorneys general in New Jersey and Florida of defrauding hundreds of parents. The lawsuits alleged that Vintfeld's employees approached families at shopping malls, complimented parents for their children's good looks, and enticed them to pay up to $1,500 for marketing services that amounted to just photo shoots.
The lawsuits settled without Vintfeld admitting wrongdoing. His companies were obligated to pay $22 million in restitution in Florida, where he agreed to never again work in entertainment or talent services. For Powerus, he serves as executive vice president of sales and marketing.
Fox, meanwhile, has spent three decades running a commercial cleaning service in New York City, and dabbled in other businesses, including an online directory of nightlife events, and a startup to provide charging stations for electric vehicles, which filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
A Powerus representative said the company benefits from founders with "decades of combined experience" across disparate industries.
Most of Powerus's revenue so far has come from selling a low-cost drone interceptor design it imported from Ukraine.
Velicovich discussed with Department of Homeland Security officials joining the administration as a drone czar, but said he turned it down earlier this year because he didn't think he could have an impact.
Golf opportunity
The financial woes of a publicly traded Florida golf course company turned out to be an opportunity for Powerus.
In July 2025, the Trump-backed Dominari's American Ventures fund led a $26 million investment into the golf company, sending its share price from penny-stock territory to a high of $8. Investors considered merging it with a cryptocurrency company, a person close to the deal said.
In December, two months after Powerus was incorporated, a contact introduced Fox to Dominari's president, Kyle Wool. The two met for lunch.
Days later, Dominari proposed a golf course-Powerus merger. Powerus at the time had no revenue or products, according to legal and securities filings. Powerus quickly acquired three drone businesses, including a small autonomous boat startup Velicovich had separately founded.
In July, Powerus received its most lucrative deal -- the Defense Department contract worth up to $90 million, for drone interceptors and related technology. By August, the Air Force ordered nearly the entire contract, around $83 million.
Contracting experts described the process as unusually fast. An Air Force spokeswoman said the orders weren't unusual and Powerus had demonstrated its technology works.
Powerus was one of 10 companies to bid for the job, federal contracting records show. Fox said the contract "might have happened fast" but was won in "the proper way."
Powerus's efforts to win other government business have suffered setbacks. One of its drones failed a Defense Department competition on the first try this summer.
"These competitions are very very difficult, and as a young company sometimes we're just outmatched," Fox said.
Powerus is now seeking help from contractors to scale its manufacturing; Velicovich has publicly promised it can build drones in 90 seconds. In some cases, according to people familiar with the matter, Powerus asked contractors to sign nondisparagement agreements.
-- Headshots via YouTube & Reuters