ABC SCREWS UP Trump Hit Piece – They Just DELETED It

Photo: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock

ABC News published a bombshell report on Trump family defense contracts, then quietly deleted it within 24 hours, leaving behind nothing but an error page.

Story Snapshot

ABC News reported that firms backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump landed more than $6 billion in active or promised government contracts.
The network pulled the article without explanation, replacing it with a “page unavailable” notice.
Critics say the quick deletion suggests the story could not hold up to scrutiny.
Other outlets and Senate Democrats have pushed similar claims using different dollar figures and methods.

What ABC’s Report Actually Claimed

The original ABC News story said defense companies tied to the president’s two eldest sons had pulled in over $6 billion in government business since the brothers invested in them. The piece singled out Anduril Industries, claiming it had won 135 separate federal contracts worth roughly $1.8 billion since Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, took a stake in the company.

ABC’s analysis also named Powerus, a drone maker that lists both Trump brothers as investors. The report claimed Powerus got its first Air Force purchase order just one month after the investment became public, followed later by a contract worth up to $90 million. Within a day, the story vanished from ABC’s site, with no note telling readers why.

Why The Deletion Became The Story

Reporters trying to revisit the piece found only an “Oops! Page unavailable” message where the article used to be. No editor’s note. No correction. No explanation from ABC News at all. That silence is what turned a contested contracting story into a bigger argument about media credibility, with critics arguing a network doesn’t yank a major investigative piece unless something inside it couldn’t survive a second look.

A deleted article, by itself, doesn’t prove a story was false. Newsrooms sometimes pull pieces for legal review or sourcing cleanup. But ABC’s total silence left a vacuum, and in today’s media climate, silence gets filled fast with suspicion, especially when the subject is a sitting president’s family.

The Bigger Pattern Behind The Numbers

This isn’t the first time reporters have tried to put a dollar figure on the Trump sons’ defense investments. The Washington Post separately reported that fifteen companies tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had generated at least $3.2 billion in direct government business, plus another $3.1 billion in potential future contracts. Notice the gap between that number and ABC’s $6 billion claim. Different outlets, different methods, wildly different totals, which is exactly the kind of inconsistency that should make any reader slow down before accepting a headline number at face value.

House Oversight Democrats have also weighed in, sending letters to the Pentagon’s inspector general demanding records on contracts awarded to companies linked to the president’s sons. Senators including Elizabeth Warren have pushed similar requests, arguing the Defense Department has no real system in place to separate merit-based awards from family connections. These are legitimate oversight questions. But a letter demanding answers is not the same as proof of wrongdoing.

The companies named in these reports have pushed back hard. A spokesperson quoted by the Independent said flatly that the Trump sons “have no role whatsoever in the awarding, oversight, or management of any government contracts” and remain “proud to invest in American companies and American technology”. That’s a direct, on-record denial, not just silence, and it deserves real weight when critics build conspiracy narratives around raw contract totals.

What Readers Should Actually Weigh Here

Defense contractors like Anduril and Unusual Machines were already winning government business before the Trump family ever invested a dollar. Unusual Machines, for example, had existing federal work before Donald Trump Jr. joined its advisory board in late 2024. Correlation between an investment and a later contract isn’t automatic proof of favoritism. Pentagon procurement runs through career staff, competitive bidding, and layers of review that exist specifically to resist political pressure.

None of that means the questions are unreasonable. Family members profiting anywhere near federal contracting decisions deserves sunlight, regardless of which party holds the White House. But ABC News owed its readers a clear accounting of why a major investigative story disappeared overnight. Instead it gave them a dead link, and that failure to explain itself is now doing more damage to ABC’s credibility than the original numbers ever did to the Trump family’s.

Matt, I don’t use a burner account. I voted for Trump in 16 and I will confirm that Trump and his family are the most corrupt in American history. A million times worse than the Bidens.

Crypto scams, DJT stock, huge gov’t contracts, Saudi blood money, shoes, bibles, watches…

— Lon Steger (@StegsLon) October 8, 2026

Until ABC News explains what went wrong, or stands behind its reporting with a correction and the underlying data, the deletion will keep getting read as an admission. Readers deserve transparency from newsrooms chasing stories about transparency in government. Right now, ABC isn’t delivering either.