ABC News posted — then retracted — a hit piece against President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons without explanation earlier this week. The headline suggested Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s investments won them billions in Pentagon contracts since 2024. The legacy media outlet offered no reason for removing the story and has not acknowledging the growing controversy surrounding their report.
The media company owned by Disney wrote in a now-deleted post on X, “An ABC News analysis found defense companies backed by President Trump’s sons have now raked in more than $6 billion dollars in active or promised government contracts since those investments were made.”
The post was deleted but archived in a screenshot by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski. In a newsletter shared by K-File, one left-wing media critic wrote:
ABC News remained conspicuously silent Thursday, more than 24 hours after making the stunning decision to outright delete a story from its website linking federal contracts awarded to companies with investments made by Donald Trump’s children. The Disney-owned news organization quietly scrubbed the article from its website Wednesday evening, leaving the original URL to direct visitors to a 404 error page.
Kaczynski posted on X on Friday, “This is absolutely wild per Status — ABC News completely retracted this story like two days ago just totally nuked it. No note, no explanation, no comment. It had been shared by tons of top lawmakers and democratic officials.”
The mystery retraction comes as Disney has tried to end an FCC review of its broadcast licenses, claiming the move was a “retaliatory campaign” led by the Trump administration, with a decision pending by a federal judge.
Follow Matt Mercer on X: @mattmercer.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.