ABC News and Donald Trump have clashed many times over the years, but neither party’s previous actions against each other have been as blatantly false and deceptive as ABC’s latest libelous accusations.
Investigative reporter Nathan Lee wrote an article on October 7 concerning his findings about a new $6.6 billion deal between defense contractor Anduril and the U.S. Navy. Anduril has been tasked with building a new state-of-the-art submarine shipyard in Maryland and, in return, is receiving a large amount of money.
Lee focused more on the financial side. He wanted to dive into the Trump family’s dealings, noting that Donald Trump Jr. is a partner in investment firm 1789 Capital, which Lee claimed had “a major stake in Anduril in June 2025 from a $2.5 billion investment into the company.”
The goal seems to have been a hit piece on the Trump family, claiming the Trump children are the major beneficiaries of lucrative military contracts over which the president would have direct supervision. Given that the Trump family’s dealings have been heavily scrutinized over the years, this would maybe provide a drop in the bucket to an audience of ABC News’ mostly far-Left audience.
The real story here is that Nathan Lee reported blatantly false information concerning Trump Jr.’s involvement in Anduril.
Anduril responded to the article by immediately debunking it, saying 1789 Capital owned only 0.13% of the company, roughly a $50 million investment — basically pocket change for a massive defense company. 1789 clearly had no significant ownership, major stake, or considerable influence in the company, effectively rebutting any narrative that the Trump children have any major control over Anduril.
Lee and ABC responded by minimally tweaking the article to clean up the language but did not address the story’s core narratives or the major falsehoods. Naturally, Anduril was not happy, but ABC News stood its ground.
It took Anduril threatening a massive lawsuit for ABC News to finally cave. The network finally took the story down, but the damage had pretty much been done. The article was up for a full day, meaning ABC’s core readership and then some had read it.
The GOP was clearly not happy with this, either. Senator Bernie Moreno went so far as to call on the FCC to formally investigate ABC News:
I urge the Commission to open a formal investigation into ABC News’s political hit job. We must know who signed off on the publication of this false story, who may have asked to profit from the attack, and whether ABC News’s conduct violated its obligations as a licensee.
Eric Trump took to X to echo Moreno’s concerns:
You can’t publish a [falsified] hit piece, let it spread and go viral, then delete it 24 hours later, under the cover of darkness with no explanation or apology. Who approved it? Has the author been fired? ABC owes us answers.
As ABC’s actions show so far, this article was not “an honest mistake.” This article was edited and vetted by several experienced editors, both in its initial drafts and during revision. This was the product Nathan Lee and his editors intended to release. You could argue that Lee is simply a poor journalist, but that doesn’t excuse rereleasing a nearly identical article after Anduril provided the correct information. Besides, if Lee was that bad a journalist, how did he land a job writing for a major news outlet in the first place?
No, this was a hit piece fully intended to push false claims about the Trump family, knowingly asserting claims that simply aren’t true. Accountability won’t happen, though, because ABC News cares more about the narratives it pushes than the facts.
