ABC News published a story Wednesday alleging that companies backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had secured more than $6 billion in active or promised government contracts. By Thursday, the story was gone, replaced by a 404 error page, with no correction, no editor’s note, and no public explanation.
The deletion came after people inside the companies named in the piece pushed back hard on its claims. Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for venture capital firm 1789 Capital, called it a “total biased hit piece” and laid out multiple problems with the reporting. Palmer Luckey, founder of defense tech company Anduril, also said the story was false.
CNN media reporter Andrew Kaczynski, no ally of the Trump family, said the way ABC handled the retraction broke with standard practice. “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,” he wrote.
As of this writing, ABC’s original page still returns nothing but a 404 error. Kaczynski says he was told the article was “published prematurely” — a line he and others consider far short of an actual explanation for pulling a major story about the president’s sons with no public accounting of what was wrong with it.
The story had already spread widely before it vanished. California Governor Gavin Newsom was among the officials who shared it before ABC took it down. Donald Trump Jr. fired back directly at Newsom over that.
“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. wrote.
ABC News has not issued any public statement explaining what was inaccurate in the story, why it was removed without a correction, or why readers and the lawmakers who amplified it were given no notice.
