Steve Feinberg
Deputy Secretary of Defense
Steven Andrew Feinberg was born in March 1960 in New York City. He earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University. He worked as a trader for investment brokers to start his career.
Feinberg co-founded a very successful capital management company. He served on the Trump Economic Advisory Council during President Donald Trump’s campaign for his first term. President Trump appointed him as chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in 2018.
Fienberg was nominated by President Trump to be U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense in December 2024. He was confirmed by the Senate and sworn into office in March 2025.
Feinberg is married to Gisela and they have three children.
In the News…
Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg recently made an equity investment, under the Defense Production Act, in MP Minerals, the only U.S. miner of rare earth elements. The investment with the Las Vegas-based company is intended to leverage both support from the Pentagon and large financiers, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, to loosen the United States’ dependence on China’s supply of critical minerals.
During Deputy Secretary Feinberg’s confirmation hearing before the Senate in the spring, he pledged to prioritize the development of U.S. rare earth mineral production. The investment comes with a 10-year agreement on pricing to ensure profitability and the promotion of the ‘permanent magnets’ that the company will produce to defense and commercial buyers.
A spokesperson from the Pentagon stated, “DoD selected a unique approach to this agreement to account for the difficulties in establishing and sustaining production of critical rare earth magnets in a market environment in which China controls much of the supply chain.”
