The Wild Rise of a Trump-Backed Drone Company

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.