Trump Jr.-linked firm invests millions in Polymarket as president pushes deregulation
An investment firm linked to Donald Trump Jr. has made a multimillion-dollar investment in Polymarket, the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform. The investment was reported on September 1, 2026. It comes as President Trump pursues a broader deregulatory agenda. The item appeared alongside other technology and policy briefs in Ms.now's Tuesday Tech Drop column, which also covered Elon Musk's push for AI deregulation.
Polymarket secures Trump-family political capital at a moment when its CFTC-regulated status is under siege from state attorneys general. The investment signals to Republican officials that the platform is a preferred venue, reinforcing Trump Jr.'s separate lobbying of GOP state AGs to drop enforcement.
Kalshi faces a distorted playing field: it must compete for users and capital while its rival enjoys informal political immunity in red states. Traders on both platforms face legal uncertainty that now tracks partisan geography, not just contract terms. The money itself is secondary to the protection it buys. If Democratic AGs respond by accelerating their cases, the partisan split hardens into a two-speed regulatory market.
The funding deepens a direct capital race between Polymarket and Kalshi, which just raised $1.12 billion at a $22 billion valuation and now faces a Trump-aligned rival backed by 1789 Capital's $300 million commitment at $21 billion.