ABC claimed to have a scoop that would make the Hunter Biden scamming look tame by comparison: the Trump brothers used inside information to make enormous investments in the up-and-coming defense contractor Anduril, profiting from their father steering government contracts to help them.
They promoted it as an "investigation," which kinda, you know, implies "investigating" things and not just putting idle chatter out there to get reposted by politicians and pundits who have a permanent target on the Trump family's backs.
The story was explosive. Democrats and leftists picked it up as proof that Trump and Sons were all about profiting from government contracts. It was meant to be an October Surprise bombshell to drive another nail into the coffin of Republicans in the midterms.
The only problem was that the whole controversy was as bogus as the fine people hoax. And once people without an axe to grind started looking into it, the story fell apart.
So ABC did what every responsible news organization does: they memory-holed it, leaving a 404 page behind with no explanation, and finally, after days, put up a version that was not quite so damning, or rather not damning at all unless you were already in the "Trumps Are Corrupt" camp.
A source familiar with the situation told me that the ABC News article on the Trump sons' investments in companies receiving Pentagon contracts was published prematurely and it has been taken down while the reporting is being finalized.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 9, 2026
ABC didn't get some facts wrong—it got the story wrong by claiming things that were obviously untrue if you understand anything about finances.
ABC News deleted a report criticizing the business dealings of President Donald Trump’s oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Thursday after facing legal threats but has failed to provide any explanation or editor’s note for the vanished "hit piece."
The now-deleted report, which can still be viewed via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, was published Wednesday with the headline, "Trump sons' investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election," and said Anduril, the company investing in a new Baltimore shipyard, had ties to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
"1789 Capital — a venture capital firm that lists Donald Trump Jr. as one of six partners along with three founders — claimed a major stake in Anduril in June 2025 from a $2.5 billion investment into the company," ABC News reported in the deleted story.
Wowza! Trump's sons own a major stake in Anduril after dumping $2.5 billion into the (admittedly great) company last year!
Uh, well, not exactly. Or, should I say, not even close. Anduril did indeed raise $2.5 billion, and a tiny fraction of that was from the 1789 fund (although it's unclear that Donald Trump, Jr. had anything to do with that, since he isn't on the investment committee of the fund), but the claim that their share of the company is substantial is totally bizarre. Anduril's success isn't a surprise, given that it has been producing amazing products that the Pentagon has been snapping up or investing in for years.
"Since that investment, Anduril has been awarded 135 other contracts with the U.S. government and to date has received around $1.8 billion from those agreements, according to active defense contracts posted to SAM.gov, the official system for government contracting.
"The company is one of the largest manufacturers to receive an investment from Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump, but they are not the only one."
Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for 1789 Capital and a former chief of staff to the director of national intelligence, took to social media, insisting the company does not have a "major stake" in Anduril and blasting the "biased hit piece."
"Here's a small lesson, that I also explained to ABC, the ‘reporter’ who is a complete idiot conflated raising funds with investment by 1789. Those are two separate actions," Henning wrote.
"Meaning the ‘investments’ mentioned were actually the total number raised for a funding round, that MANY companies contribute to," Henning continued.
"Another thing that the reporter buried the lead on was that many of these companies have gotten government contracts during Biden AND Trump, which completely negates the assertion by ABC that Don Jr and Eric Trump are doing anything wrong."
I've been following Anduril for years because it is doing something necessary: breaking up the oligopoly that's pillaging the public purse and producing over-budget, always-late, and less-than-promised weapons systems. Its business model is reshaping the entire defense industry, and that is a very, very good thing. Even the Biden administration saw that. Anduril is succeeding despite political pressure, not because of it. Trust me, the other defense contractors would love to see Anduril die a slow and painful death.
Shortly after, ABC News deleted the story from its website. The link to the original report now states, "This page either does not exist or is currently unavailable."
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The network has not issued a correction or provided a public explanation for why the report was removed from its website.
ABC News also deleted a viral X post intended to promote the story that was shared by several prominent Democrats.
Henning spoke to Fox News Digital after ABC News deleted the story. She said that in addition to calling out the story publicly on X, she sent a detailed email to ABC News pointing out mistakes in the reporting and informing the Disney-owned network that lawyers would be in touch if action was not taken.
Rather than retracting the story, making an immediate correction, or appending an "editor's note" as is standard when someone makes a boo-boo, ABC just...deleted the story and kept it memory-holed for days without explanation or any sign of shame. Liberal politicians got their political hits in, the story spread, and a mainstream news organization gave it the imprimatur until it sank into the public consciousness.
You had to go to the Internet Archive to even fact-check it yourself.
Friday night, with no fanfare and little explanation, ABC republished the story, absolutely gutting the accusations that made the story a story in the first place.
ABC News quietly republished a watered-down version of a previously deleted report scrutinizing the business dealings of President Donald Trump's oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Friday evening.
The original report, published earlier in the week, was removed following criticism of its accuracy.
The original report, which remains accessible through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, was published Wednesday afternoon under the headline, "Trump sons' investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election." ABC News removed the report less than 24 hours later without a public explanation at the time.
However, the revised report reappeared on ABC News' website Friday with an editor's note, factual corrections and a new headline: "New shipyard announced amid earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest."
There was no apology or explanation of how wrong the facts were. They simply said that they got a few facts wrong without explaining what they were:
"Editor’s Note: CORRECTION: A version of this story published on Oct. 7 contained errors in the description of certain company investments, government contracts and event chronologies," the statement read. "After subsequent reporting, this version contains corrected information and additional context regarding some of those investments, contracts and events."
Without the explosive accusations, the story would have been about as close to a non-story as you can get. Sure, insiders care about what is going on in the Defense industry, but most people are interested in things going boom, why they went boom, and whether it was a good idea to make them go boom. I watch YouTube videos about such things, but your average voter is more interested in the top and bottom lines, or, in the case of the original ABC story, the political implications.
Of course, they do add the "Earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest," as if ABC had not itself falsely ginned them up.
Normally, we would call this shameful behavior, but then again, we are talking about Pravda, where shame is a long-forgotten emotion. ABC News, after all, is the producer of The View, which is presented as 'news" and not "Harridans Lying for Fun and Profit."
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