Eric Trump is backing a Senate push for an FCC investigation after ABC News published, then deleted and rewrote, a flawed report on Trump family investments and Pentagon contracts, a sequence he says left the network with no explanation and no apology.

Fox News Digital reporting detailed how Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, pressed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to open a formal inquiry into the ABC News piece, and how Eric Trump quickly lined up behind that demand.

The original Wednesday article carried the headline “Trump sons’ investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election.” It framed companies tied to the president’s sons as having locked in huge government work, including through the venture firm 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner.

ABC later yanked the story without a public explanation, then put up a heavily revised version on Friday. The network acknowledged errors on the investments, the government contracts, and the timeline. The new headline shifted to “New shipyard announced amid earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest.” The original reporter’s byline was replaced with a generic “ABC News” credit.

That sequence is exactly what drew the Senate letter and the Trump family response.

Moreno demands answers from the FCC on ABC’s licensee duties

Moreno wrote Carr urging a formal investigation into what he called ABC News’s “political hit job.” He wanted to know who signed off on the false story, who may have sought to profit from the attack, and whether the network violated its obligations as a broadcast licensee.

In the letter, Moreno stated:

“Thus, 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,”

The letter followed ABC’s decision to pull the report. No public word has come from the FCC on whether an investigation will open. ABC News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Readers tracking Trump family business stories have seen similar scrutiny in other settings, including when Cassidy pressed for proof about Trump Jr. and a disputed wedding contribution.

The numbers ABC got wrong on 1789 Capital and Anduril

The core factual problem was the size and meaning of the investment. The original ABC characterization treated 1789 Capital as taking a major stake in defense contractor Anduril Industries through a $2.5 billion investment.

That $2.5 billion figure instead described Anduril’s broader fundraising round. 1789 Capital’s own investment was approximately $50 million, a fraction of the number the first version put front and center.

The corrected article also clarified that Donald Trump Jr. does not serve on 1789 Capital’s investment decision-making committee. That detail undercuts the suggestion that he was steering capital into contracts that then flowed back as Pentagon billions.

Family-linked business coverage often collides with larger political weather. Separate polling has shown Trump approval falling to 32 percent as midterms approach, which only raises the temperature around any story that paints the sons as cashing in on federal work.

Editors stood by the piece before the quiet deletion

A 1789 source told Fox News Digital that an ABC News journalist involved with the story defended it by phone before the piece was deleted. Semafor reported Sunday that editors initially stood by the published story, citing emails between ABC investigative reporter Nathan Lee, the original author, and an Anduril spokesperson.

That account sits in tension with the network’s later message to other media outlets that the story had been published “prematurely.” If editors were still defending the copy after it went live, “premature” is a thin label for a story that needed a full revise on investments, contracts, and chronology.

The revised piece kept a conflict-of-interest frame, only now tied to a new shipyard announcement and earlier Democratic concerns. The factual scaffolding underneath had already cracked.

Eric Trump says ABC owes answers after the viral hit-and-run

On Monday, Eric Trump posted on X thanking Moreno and saying he looked forward to taking part in any probe. His October 12, 2026 post did not say much about the way the story was handled.

Eric Trump wrote:

“Thank you @berniemoreno, can’t wait to participate! You can’t publish a bulls*** 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 zeroed in on process: approval, accountability for the author, and the absence of an on-the-record apology after the piece had already traveled. Those are fair questions when a major network airs a high-stakes claim about the president’s sons, watches it circulate, then scrubbs and rebuilds it out of public view.

Trump-world legal and personnel fights remain a constant backdrop. Recent coverage has even noted how Trump has voiced regret over elevating certain Supreme Court justices, another reminder that personnel and institutional choices invite second-guessing long after the initial decision.

What the correction still leaves open

ABC’s Friday republication fixed the investment math and the committee role. It did not publicly name who green-lit the original version, whether any staff faced discipline, or why the first deletion carried no editor’s note readers could see in real time.

Moreno’s letter treats those gaps as more than an internal newsroom mess. Broadcast licensees operate under public-interest obligations. A senator asking the FCC whether a false, high-impact political story met those duties is using the tools Congress gave the commission, not inventing a new power.

Other Trump-adjacent investigations continue to draw public attention as well, from lingering questions after violent episodes to fresh demands that authorities reopen old cases, including a British mother’s call for Texas to reopen a shooting probe tied to a Trump-related dispute.

None of that settles the Anduril math. It does show why accuracy on family business claims matters: once a “billions in Pentagon contracts” frame is loose in the bloodstream, a quiet rewrite days later does not fully erase the first impression.

ABC had the chance to get the stake size, the fundraising round, and Trump Jr.’s role right the first time. It did not. Moreno wants the FCC to examine how that happened. Eric Trump wants names, consequences, and a real explanation. Networks that police everyone else’s conflicts should expect the same standard when their own copy collapses under basic fact-checking.