Donald Trump Jr. is backing what critics have dubbed the “steroid Olympics” – a aggressive sporting occasion that encourages the usage of performance-enhancing medication.
The Enhanced Video games revealed on Thursday that Don Jr.’s enterprise agency 1789 Capital will co-lead a multi-million-dollar funding spherical for the controversial group.
The fundraising spherical might elevate double digit thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the challenge, a supply near the matter informed the Monetary Occasions. The precise determine was unclear.
The objective of the video games is to interrupt main sporting information by permitting athletes to dope up with nearly any legally obtainable performance-enhancing medication, whereas paying them handsomely for his or her participation.
“The Enhanced Video games signify the long run – actual competitors, actual freedom, and actual information being smashed,” Trump Jr. mentioned in a press release. “That is about excellence, innovation, and American dominance on the world stage – one thing the MAGA motion is all about.”
Trump Jr.’s partnership with the video games – which former president Biden condemned final 12 months – aligns together with his father’s contentious shake-up of presidency drug and well being insurance policies.
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed divisive vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s secretary of Well being and Human Providers.
Although he has campaigned together with his father, Trump Jr. doesn’t have an official White Home place.
The Enhanced Video games have already discovered backers in crypto investor Balaji Srinivasan and Christian Angermayer, a German billionaire with investments in biotech and psychedelics.
Peter Thiel, enterprise capitalist billionaire and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Applied sciences, is one other investor with ties to the White Home.
Thiel confronted controversy after he funded the takedown of gossip information web site Gawker, bankrolling wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit towards the media firm over his leaked intercourse tape.
The litigation was led by Australian businessman Aron D’Souza, now the president of the Enhanced Video games.
“With these powerhouse buyers, we’re constructing one thing revolutionary – sports activities with out hypocrisy, the place one of the best can truly be one of the best,” D’Souza mentioned in a press release.
The video games can be partially funded by promoting from pharmaceutical firms, D’Souza informed the FT.
The Enhanced Video games haven’t but introduced a metropolis or date for its first competitors, which can embrace athletics, swimming and “energy” occasions.
The group is aiming to host the primary video games in late 2025 or early 2026, based on its web site.
Only one athlete, retired Australian Olympic swimmer James Magnussen, has signed up for the video games after the group provided to pay him $1.5 million if he can shatter the 50 meter freestyle document.
“In the event that they put up $1m for the 50 freestyle world document, I’ll come on board as their first athlete,” he informed a sports activities podcast earlier this 12 months.
“I’ll juice to the gills and I’ll break it in six months,” he added.
The World Anti-Doping Affiliation and the Worldwide Olympic Committee have spoken out towards the video games, calling them irresponsible.
On its web site, the Enhanced Video games declare “safer sports activities” is one in all its essential priorities, promising to manage medical screenings to athletes forward of sporting occasions.