One Friday in November, armed police blocked off the road that runs beside Gibraltar’s medieval city walls to clear the way for a convoy of blacked-out BMWs. The vehicles pulled up at the offices of Hassans, a law firm.
The British enclave in the Mediterranean is a hub for the international ultra-rich, and Hassans counts many of them as clients. But few as highly placed as that day’s visitor: Donald Trump Jr, the man running the family business while his father is in the White House.
Three hours later, the president’s son would head along the coast to the Spanish resort of Marbella to hang out at a five-star hotel with his partner, the Florida socialite Bettina Anderson. First, though, there was business to attend to.
In Trump’s first term, the family ceased foreign commercial deals. This time round they have abandoned that commitment. Don Jr and his brother Eric have spent the past year on a worldwide moneymaking campaign, from the Balkans to Vietnam. Official filings show that profits continue to flow to the president.
This, the Trumps’ critics say, creates conflicts of interest while the president wields his powers on everything from pardons to tariffs. The White House said: “Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
But the blurring of public office and personal gain is changing how the world tries to decipher American power. So when Don Jr turns up without public explanation to hold meetings in a tiny British outpost, the question that arises is: why?
Pitching ‘patriotic capitalism’
The Trumps’ only obvious connection to Gibraltar runs via the president’s demolition of the east wing of the White House to make way for a gaudy $300m (£220m) ballroom. In October, he published a list of donors to the project. Alongside tech companies and weapons manufacturers was a Russian-born US businessman, Konstantin Sokolov.
Sokolov is building a £1.8bn AI datacentre in Gibraltar, the enclave’s biggest outside investment. The venture’s local representative showed up at Hassans during Don Jr’s visit. So too did Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo.
The Trumps have no apparent stake in the data centre project. According to two people briefed on Don Jr’s meetings at Hassans, the focus was investment in his business ventures.
One of the people briefed on Don Jr’s visit said he made a pitch to a small, wealthy audience that included figures from the Trumps’ new favourite sector, cryptocurrency, for which Gibraltar’s rulers have made the territory a home. The other said he delivered a “spiel about America first” and talked about funds in which those present might wish to invest. These included a “patriotic capitalism” fund called 1789 Capital, one of the sources said.
Named after the year the US Bill of Rights was adopted, 1789 Capital is seen as the financial wing of the Maga movement. Don Jr joined the fund as a partner shortly after his father reclaimed the presidency at the November 2024 election. Since then, its assets have reportedly grown to more than $1bn.
Reported investments by 1789 Capital, which, like Don Jr, did not respond to a request for comment, range from military AI and e-cigarettes to Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup. It has not disclosed its investors.
It is unclear how Don Jr’s pitch in Gibraltar went down but the first family’s global moneymaking project appears to be bearing fruit. Their income has ballooned since Trump’s return to office. It reached an estimated $864m in the first half of this year, Reuters calculates, compared with $51m in the same period the previous year.
Some Trump family transactions have led to allegations that those who enrich them have enjoyed favourable treatment from the administration. On occasion, access to the president is explicitly for sale, including when Trump hosted a dinner at his golf club near Washington for top buyers of his memecoin.
And though it is hard to quantify, those who advance or facilitate the Trump family’s business interests abroad may also feel they will benefit from the aura of power and protection that comes from being seen as part of Team Trump.
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‘What Gibraltar can do’
According Hassans representatives, the firm’s involvement in Don Jr’s visit extended only to making its offices available. Nonetheless, they said, its senior partner, James Levy, attended.
A lawyer in his 70s, Levy is regarded as the most influential figure in Gibraltar. He was once mentor at Hassans to Picardo, who has led the Gibraltar government since 2011. Both men are entangled in a political scandal, creating a rare moment of jeopardy for them.
Don Jr’s visit came as Gibraltar awaits the results of a public inquiry. It has been examining the fallout from an attempt by police in 2020 to execute a search warrant against Levy during an investigation into an alleged plot to steal a state security contract.
Evidence disclosed in the inquiry showed that Picardo, who acknowledged a “close personal relationship” with Levy, intervened in the criminal investigation to put pressure on the police chief. Levy, who says the police’s actions against him were “wholly unjustified and unnecessary”, was never charged. His conduct is not the focus of the inquiry but he gave evidence.
The inquiry report is due by Christmas. Robert Vasquez, a veteran Gibraltar lawyer and political commentator, said that if its verdict was damning, especially on questions of security, the British governor or the UK Foreign Office would be “likely” to exert their influence. For the ruling clique, Vasquez said, a local TV clip of Don Jr at Hassans was “obviously a helpful situation”.
When Picardo emerged from Hassans, a reporter asked him who else had been there. “Investors,” was all he would say. “And people who are interested in understanding what Gibraltar can do.”
