ABC News quietly restored a watered-down version of its deleted report examining the business dealings of President Donald Trump’s oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, on Friday evening. The original article had been removed after its accuracy came under public criticism.

The initial report appeared Wednesday afternoon under the headline, “Trump sons' investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election.” It remained accessible through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine after ABC News pulled it less than 24 hours later without offering an immediate public explanation.

By Friday, a revised version had returned to the ABC News website with factual corrections, an editor’s note and a dramatically different headline. The replacement was titled, “New shipyard announced amid earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest.”

The article’s byline also changed to the institutional label “ABC News.” The revised version no longer carried the original presentation that had accompanied the report before its abrupt disappearance.

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The editor’s note acknowledged that the earlier report contained errors involving its descriptions of company investments, government contracts and the chronology of events.

“Editor’s Note: CORRECTION: A version of this story published on Oct. 7 contained errors in the description of certain company investments, government contracts and event chronologies,” the statement read.

It continued, “After subsequent reporting, this version contains corrected information and additional context regarding some of those investments, contracts and events.”

ABC News faced criticism from media industry figures after removing the initial article without immediately explaining the decision. The corrections followed public objections from Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for 1789 Capital, who disputed how the original article described the venture firm’s investments.

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Henning said “1789 Capital does not have a 'major stake' in Anduril” and also challenged the report’s characterization of the Trump brothers’ involvement with other companies. Trump Jr. serves as a partner at 1789 Capital.

“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 report incorrectly attributed a $2.5 billion investment in Anduril to 1789 Capital. ABC News had reported that the venture firm claimed a major stake in Anduril in June 2025 through that supposed investment.

The revised article clarified that $2.5 billion represented the total amount of funding Anduril raised last year, rather than an investment made by 1789 Capital. That correction substantially changed a central financial claim in the deleted version.

The updated report also said Trump Jr. does not sit on the committee of three people responsible for investment decisions, according to a spokesperson for 1789 Capital. The revised story stated that the firm previously invested $50 million in Anduril.

ABC News identified Anduril as a defense contractor and valued the company at approximately $60 billion. Those corrected details replaced the original report’s much larger and inaccurate description of 1789 Capital’s investment.

Trump Jr. noticed the article’s swift removal and used the episode to mock California Gov. Gavin Newsom on X. “ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last,” he wrote.

ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 8, 2026

Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, also criticized ABC News for taking down the report without publicly issuing a correction at the time. He argued that quietly removing a false article did not meet basic standards for correcting an error.

“This is bad. @ABC must take responsibility for their failed journalism,” Ackman wrote.

He added, “Basic journalistic ethics requires it.”

Ackman also wrote, “A quiet unexplained withdrawal of a false article does not constitute a proper error correction.”

This is bad. @ABC must take responsibility for their failed journalism. Basic journalistic ethics requires it.

A quiet unexplained withdrawal of a false article does not constitute a proper error correction. — Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) October 9, 2026

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