ABC News deleted a report on Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s defense-linked investments after accuracy challenges and legal warnings, then gave the public no explanation.
Fox News Digital reported that the Disney-owned network published the online story Wednesday and removed it Thursday, scrubbing both the page and a promotional post on X that several prominent Democrats had shared.
The link now returns a dead page. No correction. No editor’s note. No on-the-record reason. A spokesperson for the venture firm at the center of the piece had already told ABC the story got basic finance facts wrong and that lawyers would follow up if it stayed up.
Readers can still find the removed text through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. What they see is a report that framed President Donald Trump’s oldest sons as cashing in on Pentagon contracts through private investment ties.
The deleted ABC piece focused on 1789 Capital, a venture firm that listed Donald Trump Jr. as one of six partners. It claimed the firm took a major stake in defense technology company Anduril in June 2025 from a $2.5 billion investment.
From that point, ABC wrote, Anduril won 135 additional U.S. government contracts and received about $1.8 billion, citing active defense listings on SAM.gov, the federal contracting system. The story also noted Anduril’s plans for a new shipyard in Baltimore and said the Trump sons’ reach extended to other firms beyond Anduril.
Alexa Henning, spokesperson for 1789 Capital and a former chief of staff to the director of national intelligence, rejected the core claim. She said ABC never sought comment from the firm before publishing.
Henning posted a detailed rebuttal and sent ABC an email listing errors. She told Fox News Digital the network’s account treated a fundraising round as if it were 1789’s own capital going into the company.
"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,"
She continued in the same thread:
"Meaning the ‘investments’ mentioned were actually the total number raised for a funding round, that MANY companies contribute to,"
In plain terms, many backers can fill a large funding round. That total is not the same thing as one firm’s ownership stake. Henning said 1789 does not hold the “major stake” ABC described.
Henning also argued the deleted report buried a fact that undercut its suggestion of improper dealing tied to the Trump family.
"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 later told Fox that people covering 1789 often miss how the firm actually works.
"The majority of people reporting on 1789 do not fundamentally understand how it works,"
After the takedown, Henning said the firm appreciated that ABC removed the piece. Fox News asked ABC for comment on the deletion. The network did not immediately respond, and it has not issued a public explanation.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom had shared the original ABC report on X. Once the story disappeared, Donald Trump Jr. replied directly.
"ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last,"
The sequence was short. Publish on Wednesday. Pushback from the firm, including an email that flagged mistakes and warned lawyers would be in touch. Delete on Thursday. Pull the promotional post as well. Leave the Wayback copy as the only easy public record of what ABC put on its own site.
No court filing appears in the available account, only the warning that legal contact would come if ABC failed to act. No absolute calendar dates beyond the weekday markers and the June 2025 investment claim inside the deleted text. No full release of Henning’s email. And still no statement from ABC about why a story it promoted was erased inside a day.
Legacy networks still hold major reach. When they publish claims about private investment, federal contracts, and the president’s family, the public has a right to clean facts and a clear record when those claims collapse.
Here the record shows a contested story, a firm that says ABC skipped basic comment and mixed up fundraising totals with ownership, a rapid deletion, and a blank space where an editor’s note should be. Taxpayers fund the Pentagon contracts at the center of the dispute. They also deserve media outlets that correct in public instead of vanishing the evidence and moving on.
If a report cannot stand up to a finance lesson and a lawyer letter, it should not have run. And if it runs, the correction should be as visible as the original headline, not a quiet 404.
