On an earnings call in May, GrabAGun’s chief executive had a hopeful message for investors: The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations could be a boon to the company, which hopes to be “the Amazon of guns.”
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“This could be the most significant change to firearms retail distribution in decades,” Marc Nemati said, according to a public recording of the call. “GrabAGun is uniquely positioned for this opportunity.”
What Nemati did not mention was that the company also had a powerful voice on its side. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, is on GrabAGun’s board and is a consultant to the company.
The younger Trump was present at the New York Stock Exchange in July 2025 when the company went public, with photos showing him making a gesture like holding a gun to celebrate the moment as he helped ring the bell.
And, with a 1.1 percent ownership stake in the company, Trump Jr. stands to prosper if the company fulfills its goal of being a dominant seller of firearms online.
“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,” Trump Jr. said on Fox Business ahead of GrabAGun going public. “It’s a triumphant return.”
GrabAGun sells and ships ammunition, and some gun accessories, directly to consumers in some states using its website. But it must rely on middlemen to actually transfer the firearm to the customer.
That’s because federal regulations prohibit sending handguns to individuals through the mail, and they require that firearms background checks and transfers be conducted in person. The administration has proposed regulatory changes that, for the first time, would let firearms sales take place entirely online, with handguns mailed directly to buyers’ doorsteps.
Such changes could enormously benefit GrabAGun and the president’s son, creating a potential conflict of interest that has attracted the attention of ethics watchdogs.
Many Republicans were highly critical of Hunter Biden’s tenure as a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma at a time when his father, Joe Biden, was vice president and a key player on Ukraine. In the Trumps’ case, the president’s son could benefit directly from policies adopted by his father’s administration.
“There is no question about the company’s ties to the son of the president,” said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which investigates and litigates matters involving ethics in governance. “It is always going to raise red flags and question how decisions are made within the administration.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for GrabAGun said, “We appreciate the proposed rulemaking may allow a more streamlined purchase process for firearms for everyone who wishes to legally secure firearms, from enthusiasts to sportsmen. There is a lengthy rulemaking process ahead. GrabAGun has submitted a public comment on one of the proposed rules, and will be participating in the public comment process.”
A spokesman for Trump Jr. said he is a longtime promoter of gun rights who is pursuing an attractive business opportunity and has no connection to the ATF rule changes.
“Don is a lifelong businessman and vocal advocate of our Second Amendment rights,” the spokesman said. “He does not interface with the federal government as part of his role with any company that he invests in or advises and had zero involvement in this particular decision.”
A White House official said the ATF proposals were driven by the administration’s interest in protecting the Second Amendment and had nothing to do with Trump Jr.’s business interests.
The Trump family’s sprawling business ventures, which have thrived during President Donald Trump’s second term, are facing heightened scrutiny. The president’s latest financial disclosure forms show that his reported income soared to more than $2.2 billion in 2025, as he took in more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency, digital tokens and related partnerships.
The president has said he is not involved in the day-to-day operation of his businesses while in the White House. But his two oldest sons have continued to manage the family’s eponymous real estate empire and invest in new ventures, often in countries heavily reliant on the goodwill of the U.S. government.
Trump Jr., for example, has invested in AI-related companies, data centers and more.
Trump Jr. became formally involved in GrabAGun in December 2024, shortly after his father was elected to his second term. Under his agreement with the company, Trump Jr. would serve as a consultant in exchange for 300,000 shares of stock, or just over 1 percent of the company’s value, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He would also be responsible for helping to execute the company’s marketing strategy, developing partnerships, and “serving as a spokesperson for the Company to effectively communicate the Company’s mission and initiatives,” the filings say.
GrabAGun Digital Holdings is a 16-year-old Texas-based company that aims to digitize the gun-buying process, according to SEC filings. It hopes to reach a more youthful cohort of firearms users, who company executives say would be more likely than their older peers to buy firearms online.
Since going public, the company — which is valued at nearly $70 million — has dropped in value, public records show. On the earnings call, company executives blamed the loss in value on the costs of going public and expanding.
Trump Jr. has made it clear that the company’s path toward greater profitability is internet sales.
“Younger people are actually getting into the Second Amendment,” he said on Fox News in January 2025. “They understand the fundamental importance of being able to protect themselves and their freedoms. … This is a way — with an incredible tech site — for them to shop the way they shop for everything else.”
On the campaign trail, the elder Trump promised to roll back Biden-era firearms regulations, such as a rule that prohibits the sale of stabilizing brace firearm accessories, and received the backing of major gun rights groups. In April, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — the law enforcement agency within the Justice Department tasked with regulating the nation’s hundreds of millions of firearms — proposed amending or eliminating 34 gun regulations.
Experts said some of those changes, taken together, would transform the firearms market from one that largely plays out in storefronts across the country into a potentially lucrative digital marketplace.
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Currently, licensed firearms dealers must verify a potential buyer’s identity and run a federally mandated background check in person. That stems from Congress’s move to tighten the rules in 1968, after Lee Harvey Oswald used a fake name on a mail order to buy the gun he used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Gun rights groups say the regulations are outdated in the digital era. Under one of the ATF proposals, firearms sellers would be able to verify someone’s identity and check their background online.
Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, said the Gun Control Act of 1968 went beyond the government’s authority in restricting gun purchases, given the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Pratt, the ATF and other gun rights groups have said that the proposal has ample measures in place to ensure the safe sale of firearms online.
“The right of Americans to buy guns — even online — is something that is deeply rooted in our nation’s text, history and tradition,” Pratt said, echoing the language of recent Supreme Court decisions. “It is as American as apple pie.”
GrabAGun’s business model allows customers to order firearms on the company’s website or mobile app. The guns are shipped not to their homes but to a licensed dealer in their states, and the customers must undergo background checks at the store before they can pick up the firearms.
As the ATF moves to allow background checks online, a separate proposal would loosen a century-old ban on sending handguns to people’s homes through the U.S. Postal Service. Under the proposed rule, licensed firearms dealers could ship guns to residents of their state. The proposal follows a Justice Department memo in January, authored by lawyers in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, declaring the gun-mailing ban unconstitutional.
If the ATF and Postal Service rule changes are enacted, GrabAGun could sell firearms online and ship them directly to consumers, at least in states where the company is licensed. GrabAGun is a licensed dealer in Texas, according to public records, and firearms experts say it would not be difficult for the company to get licensed in many other states.
The ATF announced its proposals on April 29, beginning a 90-day public comment period that will expire in early August. The public comment period for the Postal Service measure has closed, and those comments are under review. Multiple state attorneys general have said they are against the Postal Service proposal, suggesting that it could face legal challenges if adopted.
The administration says its proposals would remedy the misinterpretation of the law and Constitution by Biden-era officials.
“ATF regulation changes reflect President Trump’s commitment to the rule of law, and that includes protecting the Second Amendment rights of all Americans,” a White House official said. “We refuse to bypass Congress and use the regulatory process to harass law-abiding Americans seeking to exercise their rights,” as the administration claims its predecessors did.
Advocates for stricter gun laws say it is critical that potential buyers have in-person interactions before they acquire handguns. In face-to-face interactions, they say, gun sellers can pick up on any red flags suggesting that it would be unsafe for the potential buyer to possess a firearm.
Gun-control advocates cite another administration proposal that, they say, could help GrabAGun but threaten public safety.
Under existing ATF regulations, residents of states with rigorous procedures for obtaining concealed-carry permits can bypass the federal background check. Under the new proposal, more states, including those with laxer procedures, would qualify for the waiver.
Marianna Mitchem, senior industry adviser for Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control advocacy group, said she fears that the administration’s proposals would make it simpler for gun traffickers, criminals and underage people to get their hands on firearms through online platforms such as GrabAGun.
Mitchem, who was a senior official at ATF overseeing inspections of gun shops before leaving the agency in 2025, said the agency during the Biden administration never discussed easing regulations to enable online sales.
“This is going to make it so much easier for dangerous people to get firearms,” Mitchem said. “You are eliminating [gun shops’] ability to be the first line of defense.”
GrabAGun’s executives disagree, and they submitted a comment to ATF supporting online background checks.
“The Second Amendment is in our blood,” Jonathan B. Wolens, GrabAGun’s general counsel, wrote in the comment, which is available online. “We support this rule change because we believe it will promote efficiency and support compliance by enabling more timely, accurate confirmation of license validity.”
ATF said the proposed rule would require a rigorous identification process while updating the gun sales process for the 21st century. “ATF’s proposed rule modernizes and strengthens identity-verification requirements … and reduces burden on consumers,” an ATF spokesperson said in a statement.
GrabAGun appears poised to move fast if the rule changes are enacted. In October — months before the proposals were introduced — GrabAGun formed a subsidiary called Pew Logistics, with a stated mission of selling software to provide “next-generation, white-label direct-to-consumer fulfillment solutions to modernize the firearms supply chain.”
That software would be sold to gun manufacturers, helping them sell directly to consumers online.
Trump Jr. has multiple other financial ties to GrabAGun that could enable him to profit if the company takes off.
GrabAGun offers a “Shoot Now Pay Later” financing option through a company called Credova Financial. Credova is a subsidiary of Public Square Holdings, where the president’s son is a board member and investor.
In August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped an investigation of Credova, which had been accused of wrongly charging fees to customers. It said the inquiry, which started during the Biden administration, was politically biased against companies affiliated with firearms.
When GrabAGun went public, it merged with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a firm designed to combine with other companies and take them public. Colombier is led by Omeed Malik, a major Republican donor who chairs 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that includes Trump Jr. as a partner.
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