Eric Trump, a son of President Donald Trump, threw his support Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, behind a demand by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, for a federal investigation of ABC News over a since-corrected report on his family’s investment ties to defense contractor Anduril Industries.
Eric Trump wrote on X, “Thank you @berniemoreno — can’t wait to participate!”
“You can’t publish a bull**** 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,” he wrote in the same post.
Whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will open an investigation remains unclear. The commission’s published guidance says its authority over complaints about news accuracy or bias is narrow and that federal law bars censorship or interference with press freedoms.
ABC News editors initially stood by the network’s report, according to emails between ABC News investigative reporter Nathan Lee and an Anduril spokesperson reported by Semafor on Sunday, Oct. 11.
That account contradicts what the network told other media reporters, which was that the story had been published “prematurely.”
An ABC News network source told Fox News Digital: “We always review every situation in a thorough and thoughtful manner and will not be providing further comment at this time.”
Moreno’s Letter to the FCC
Moreno wrote to Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, on Saturday, Oct. 10, asking for a formal inquiry into what he called a political hit job. He demanded to know who signed off on the story, who stood to profit from it and whether the network violated its obligations as a licensee.
Moreno argued that broadcast licenses issued by the commission are a privilege that carries a public-interest duty. He wrote in the letter, “You would expect such a comically botched cover-up in Soviet Russia, not the United States of America,” and he called the report “false, inflammatory, and deliberately malicious.”
Moreno also pressed the economic stakes in his home state, where Anduril is developing its Arsenal-1 manufacturing plant — a nearly $1 billion investment the company says will create more than 4,000 jobs. Moreno said workers whose jobs were put at risk by the reporting deserve accountability.
What ABC Published, Then Deleted
ABC News published the article on Wednesday, Oct. 7, under the headline “Trump sons’ investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election.”
The report said defense companies backed by the president’s sons held more than $6 billion in active or promised government contracts. It said 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is one of six partners, claimed a major stake in Anduril in June 2025 through a $2.5 billion investment, and that Anduril had received 135 other federal contracts since that investment, worth around $1.8 billion.
The report also noted the Maryland submarine project announced Tuesday, Oct. 6, in which Anduril announced a $3.7 billion private investment in Arsenal-2, a shipyard to produce Virginia-class submarine components. Anduril also announced a $5 billion fundraising round in May valuing it at $61 billion.
The story disappeared less than 24 hours after publication, with no public explanation, and the link redirected to an error page.
ABC News republished a substantially revised version on Friday, Oct. 9, under the headline “New shipyard announced amid earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest.” The network replaced the original reporter’s byline with “ABC News” and added an editor’s note acknowledging mistakes in the description of the company investments, the government contracts and the sequence of events.
The revised account put the 1789 Capital investment at roughly $50 million within a $2.5 billion funding round, framing it as a comparatively small position in a company valued at more than $60 billion. It said Donald Trump Jr. does not sit on the three-person committee that makes the firm’s investment decisions.
A 1789 Capital spokesperson told ABC News: “Don Jr. has no ability to decide any investments at this fund.”
Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, who also founded Oculus VR, said the stake amounts to about 0.1 percent of the company.
Alexa Henning, a 1789 Capital spokeswoman, said on X that the reporter had conflated money raised in a funding round with money her firm actually invested. Henning told the newsletter Status that ABC News senior coordinating producer Justin Fishel defended the reporting to her before the network pulled it.
Lee, the investigative reporter who wrote the original piece, joined ABC News in January 2026 as a David Kaplan Memorial Fellow in the Washington, D.C., bureau. His employment status is unclear. The story does not appear to have aired on television.
A spokesperson for Moreno declined to elaborate on the allegations.
The report traveled widely before the deletion. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, shared it on X in a widely viewed post. Donald Trump Jr. replied that the network took the article down within a day because it was false.
A Wider Fight With the Network
The dispute is the latest between the Trump family and the network. ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit brought by President Trump in December 2024, paying $15 million to his presidential library plus $1 million in legal fees and posting a statement of regret over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ on-air claims about the E. Jean Carroll case.
The network is already fighting Carr’s agency in court. The FCC ordered all eight ABC-owned television stations in April 2026 to file for license renewal well ahead of schedule, an unusual move. Disney, ABC’s parent company, sued to block that review, calling it a retaliatory campaign against the network. The commission has said the early renewal grew out of its investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Disney and ABC filed the suit challenging the early license review in August. Disney’s lawyers accused the administration of censorship at a court hearing on Oct. 6, and the FCC defended the review as a regulatory action.