ABC News deleted a report linking President Donald Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., to billions in government contracts on Thursday without issuing a public statement or editor’s note explaining why.
The page that once held the report, published on Wednesday, now shows an “Oops! Page Unavailable” message and directs readers back to the ABC home page.
The article claimed that “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.” It also reported that defense companies backed by Trump’s sons had received more than $6 billion in active or promised government contracts since their investments.
Andril founder Palmer Luckey called on ABC News to correct the article, disputing its description of 1789 Capital’s investment. Luckey later called the analysis “totally bogus.”
“1789 Capital has only invested a total of $50M in Anduril, and this so-called ‘major stake’ is about 1/1000th of the company,” Luckey said. He added that Anduril had provided the reporter, Nathan Lee, with the actual figures.
Luckey also speculated about why ABC News had not issued a correction or explanation. “Admitting they got this wrong would make a legal judgment against them trivially easy,” he said.
ABC News did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
Donald Trump Jr. challenged the story’s accuracy in a reply to California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had shared it as evidence that Americans “were fleeced.”
“ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last,” Trump Jr. said. Newsom’s post sharing the story received 1.1 million views.
Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for 1789 Capital, disputed the article’s suggestion that companies benefited from government contracts because of investments by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
“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,” she said
She told Fox News Digital that ABC News did not seek comment from 1789 Capital before publishing the article.
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