> I can't decide whether to put more money into DJT or start investing in SyberJet.

At last year’s Kennedy Center Honors, the venue’s biggest event of the year, Trevor Milton took in part of the show from the balcony where honorees, celebrities and the president and first lady sat. Afterward, the entrepreneur mingled with guests—honorees included Sylvester Stallone and George Strait—inside the SyberJet Lounge, a swanky space that his company had spent millions to sponsor and that President Trump had called “gorgeous.”

That the 43-year-old was attending the black tie event with stars and Washington elites in December is a sign of how drastically Milton’s fortunes had changed in 2025.

Early that year, Nikola, the hydrogen truck company Milton had founded, filed for bankruptcy. Milton had left Nikola in 2020 under a cloud, and by 2022 had been convicted of defrauding the company’s investors with what prosecutors said were his repeated lies about the development of the company’s zero-emissions trucks and technology. He faced a four-year prison term—he was free on appeal—and federal prosecutors were seeking roughly $676 million in restitution from him.

It was wiped away with a phone call. In March 2025, Trump called Milton to tell him he had signed an unconditional pardon. Milton had styled himself as a political victim of the Biden administration, and Trump agreed.

Milton and his wife had also donated at least $3.2 million to Trump’s 2024 election and to political groups and people in Trump’s orbit, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Milton said the donations weren’t related to his pardon.

Now, Milton has joined an exclusive group of post-pardon businesspeople, seemingly anointed by Trump’s favor. “I walk into meetings now, and I’ll get high-fives from the most wealthy people in the world,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Welcome to the club. You can withstand the fire. We can trust you now.’”

Milton has wasted little time embarking on his second act. He’s now CEO of SyberJet Aircraft, an ailing jet manufacturer, which he said he purchased with an investment group. He brought on dozens of former Nikola staffers to rejuvenate it. “I love to find products that are unreal and need someone with vision or guts to be able to bring it to market,” he said.