January 1, ABC News Forced to Gut False Hit Piece on Trump Sons After Backlash

Wyatt’s Take

• ABC News quietly tried to bury a botched story attacking President Trump’s sons and got caught in the act.
• The network had to delete the original hit piece within 24 hours after it was exposed for mixing up basic facts about investments and contracts.
• Working Americans are tired of legacy media pushing sloppy attacks on the Trump family while refusing to own up to their mistakes.

ABC News quietly republished a heavily edited version of a report about President Donald Trump’s sons on Friday evening after the original story was yanked without explanation earlier in the week.

The network replaced the original headline that claimed the Trump sons’ investments had won billions in Pentagon contracts with a milder version about a new shipyard and Democratic concerns over potential conflicts.

“ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last,” President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X after the story was removed.

The revised piece carried an editor’s note admitting errors about company investments, government contracts, and the timeline of events. The byline was also changed to simply “ABC News.”

Public criticism from 1789 Capital spokesperson Alexa Henning helped force the corrections after she challenged the original report’s claim that the firm held a major stake in defense contractor Anduril.

“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,” Henning wrote.

The original story wrongly stated that 1789 Capital made a $2.5 billion investment in Anduril when that figure actually represented total funding the company raised last year.

“This is bad. @ABC must take responsibility for their failed journalism. Basic journalistic ethics requires it,” billionaire investor Bill Ackman wrote on X. “A quiet unexplained withdrawal of a false article does not constitute a proper error correction.”

The updated version now states that 1789 Capital previously invested $50 million in Anduril and clarifies that Donald Trump Jr. does not sit on the three-person committee that makes investment decisions for the firm.

Wyatt Matters

Middle America expects news outlets to get basic facts straight before launching attacks on the president’s family. When networks quietly delete and rewrite stories without owning up to their errors, it only deepens the distrust that hardworking folks already feel toward the media.