ABC News removed a report on Thursday criticizing business dealings between President Trump’s sons and Pentagon-linked investments after facing legal threats. The deleted article, which is still accessible via Internet Archive, alleged that Donald Jr. and Eric Trump had significant stakes in Anduril through their venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, which invested $2.5 billion into the company in June 2025. This investment reportedly led to Anduril securing over $1.8 billion from U.S. government contracts since then. ABC News has not provided any explanation or editor’s note for removing the story despite criticism and a demand for retraction by the company's spokesperson, Alexa Henning.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
ABC News deleted a report on February 23, 2023 criticizing the business dealings of President Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, after facing legal threats but failed to provide any explanation or editor's note for its removal. The article claimed that 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm listing Donald Trump Jr. as one of six partners, had invested in Anduril, a defense technology company, through a $2.5 billion investment in June 2025. This led to Anduril receiving around $1.8 billion from U.S. government contracts and securing 135 other contracts since Trump's election. A spokesperson for 1789 Capital denied the report's claims, asserting that the company does not have a "major stake" in Anduril.
Written for “ABC Deletes Anti-Trump Story” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted
verbatim and was checked against the article text before being
stored, so you can find it in the original.
Leaning: leans strongly right for article 66929 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-10-08
ABC News deleted a report criticizing the business dealings of President Donald Trump’s oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, on Thursday after facing legal threats but has failed to provide any explanation or editor’s note for the vanished "hit piece."
asserted
News → delete → 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.
"
asserted
Anduril → delete → Jr.
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.
asserted
News → list → story
"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.
uncertain
Anduril → award → 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."
asserted
they → receive → Jr.
1789 Capital spokesperson Alexa Henning, 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.
asserted
who → take → 1789
Those are two separate actions," Henning wrote.
asserted
Henning → write → ?
"Meaning the ‘investments’ mentioned were actually the total number raised for a funding round, that MANY companies contribute to," Henning continued.
asserted
Henning → mean → that
"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."
asserted
Jr → bury → anything
Shortly after, ABC News deleted the story from its website.
asserted
News → delete → website
The link to the original report now states, "This page either does not exist or is currently unavailable."
asserted
page → state → report
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
asserted
News → respond → comment
The network has not issued a correction or provided a public explanation for why the report was removed from its website.
asserted
report → issue → website
ABC News also deleted a viral X post intended to promote the story that was shared by several prominent Democrats.
asserted
that → delete → Democrats
Henning spoke to Fox News Digital after ABC News deleted the story.
asserted
News → speak → 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.
asserted
action → say → touch
She "really appreciates that they took it down," but wants a clear explanation of why it was published in the first place and believes ABC News should inform readers of its errors.
asserted
News → appreciate → errors
Henning also told Fox News Digital that ABC News never asked 1789 Capital for comment prior to the story’s initial publication, despite being mentioned several times in the initial report.
asserted
News → tell → report
"The majority of people reporting on 1789 do not fundamentally understand how it works," she said.
asserted
she → report → 1789
Once the story had vanished, Trump Jr. responded to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had shared the initial ABC News report on X.
"ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false.
asserted
it → vanish → hours
Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last," Trump Jr. wrote.
asserted
Jr. → sound → ?
Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
asserted
Phillips → contribute → report
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