Donald Trump Jr.’s Private DC Club Has Mysterious Ties to an Ex-Cop With a Controversial Past
When the Executive Branch soft-launched in Washington, DC, last spring, the private club's initial buzz centered on its star-studded list of backers and founders. The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is one of several co-owners of the club, according to previous reports. Founding members reportedly include Trump administration AI czar David Sacks and his All-In podcast cohost Chamath Palihapitiya, as well as crypto bigwigs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
“We wanted to create something new, hipper and Trump-aligned,” Sacks said at that moment. The proximity to Trumpworld did not come cheap; although the club is headquarters lies in a basement space behind a shopping complex, fees to participate are after all as high as $500,000.
The first wave of press for the MAGA hot spot identified Trump Jr. and his business partners Omeed Malik, Chris Buskirk, and Zach and Alex Witkoff as co-owners of the club. A Mother Jones report later public the involvement of David Sacks' frequent business associate Glenn Gilmore, a San Francisco Bay Area real estate developer who is given a variety of titles on official documents, including co-owner, management member, director, and president.
But according to company figures reviewed by WIRED, there is another key figure whose involvement has not been previously reported and whose connection to its more famous founders remains unclear: Sean LoJacono, a former police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, who gained local notoriety for his role in a stop and frisk that resulted in a lawsuit.
According to the legal complaint, in 2017, after questioning a man named MB Cottingham for a suspected violation of the open-container law, LoJacono conducted a body search. A recording of the incident went viral on YouTube, sparking intense debate about aggressive police tactics. “He put his finger in my crack,” Cottingham says in the video. “Stop fingering me bro.” The following year, the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia sued LoJacono on behalf of Cottingham, claim that LoJacono had “put his fingers between Mr. Cottingham's buttocks and was grabbing his genitals.” Cottingham agreed to settle his lawsuit with LoJacono and was paid an undisclosed amount in 2018 by the District of Columbia (which admitted no wrongdoing).
The MPD announced his intention to fire LoJacono following an internal affairs investigation, which concluded that the search in Cottingham was not a fireable offense, but that another search he had conducted the same day. By early 2019, LoJacono had appealed his dismissal, with argument well publicized hearings that he had investigated according to how he had been taught by fellow officers in the field. Initially, the resignation was established. However, the police union's collective bargaining agreement allowed LoJacono to continue to appeal to a third-party arbitrator, who in November 2023 ruled in favor of LoJacono.
Instead of returning to the police force, however, LoJacono has gone down a different path. A LinkedIn account with LoJacono's name, likeness and employment history lists his occupation as “director of security and facilities management” at an unnamed private club in Washington, DC, from June 2025 to present. Official incorporation paperwork for the Executive Branch Limited Liability Company filed with the District of Columbia government's corporation division in March 2025, shortly before the club launched, lists LoJacono as the “beneficial owner” of the company. The address listed on the paperwork corresponds to the location of the Executive Branch. Donald Trump Jr. and other reported owners are not listed on the paperwork; Gilmore is listed on this document as the “organizer” of the company.
The paperwork indicates that LoJacono is considered a beneficial owner of a legal entity associated with the Executive Branch. But what does that mean, exactly?
