Venture capital firm tied to Donald Trump Jr weighs legal action against ABC News over botched report
- ABC News published, then scrubbed, a report claiming Trump Jr.'s firm secured billions in Pentagon contracts, based on a botched $2.5B investment figure that was actually a $50M stake in Anduril.
- 1789 Capital, the firm in question, confirms lawyers are 'plugged in' and 'not taking options off the table,' signaling a potential defamation suit against ABC and Disney.
- The retraction didn't come with an apology; ABC just swapped the headline, changed the byline to 'ABC News,' and added a vague editor's note, leaving the subject demanding a full public correction.
- The original false story was amplified by high-profile Democrats like Gavin Newsom before being deleted, highlighting the viral spread of misinformation before correction.
- This is ABC's second major Trump-related legal entanglement, following the $16M settlement with President Trump over George Stephanopoulos's false 'rape' claim.
Brief Summary
In a stunning display of journalistic whiplash, ABC News published a damning report on Trump Jr.'s investments, let it go viral, and then silently deleted it as if it were a typo in a tweet. The story claimed 1789 Capital bagged a $2.5 billion stake in defense contractor Anduril, but the reality was a measly $50 million slice—a math error that would flunk an accounting 101 class. After the internet Wayback Machine caught the deletion, ABC republished a scrubbed version with a new headline and a byline of 'ABC News,' which is journalistic code for 'we have no idea who wrote this or what happened.'
Now, 1789 Capital is threatening to make ABC's legal department as busy as a airport tarmac during a government shutdown. The firm's spokesperson, Alexa Henning, is doing victory laps on Fox News, claiming ABC is all lies and hit jobs, and hinting that Disney's lawyers should start sweating. With a prior $16 million defamation settlement already on the books for ABC's treatment of the President, this story is less about a correction and more about a media giant repeatedly shoving its foot in its mouth and blaming the carpet for the taste.
Why This Matters
For the average reader, this is a crash course in why you shouldn't believe every headline that flashes across your screen—especially the ones that confirm your biases. The initial report was a viral hit, shared by governors and partisans, but it was built on a factual foundation as solid as quicksand. It's a reminder that the media's 'publish first, verify later' model is not just an annoyance; it's a liability that can reshape public perception and trigger legal consequences.
But the real kicker for you, the taxpayer, is the precedent at stake. When news outlets can report wildly inflated numbers about government contracts and then just 'clean up' the article while muttering 'our bad' under their breath, it erodes trust in everything else they report. And if 1789 Capital actually sues, it could set a standard that forces newsrooms to have a basic grasp of venture capital before writing about it—a truly terrifying prospect for the industry.