REPORT: Don Jr. Hit Piece in ‘Business Insider’ Backfires Spectacularly on Outlet’s Foreign Owners

May 14, 2025

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From Breitbart: Talk about your all-time backfires. Instead of landing a major hit on the president’s son, a German-backed publication has drawn massive federal attention onto its foreign ownership structure and lobbying activities before the federal government.

This broader “German Influence Operation” has grabbed the attention of the White House and senior administration officials and even entangles a key Washington lobbyist who has reportedly had an on-again-off-again lukewarm relationship with the president. It all comes, too, as worldwide pressure builds on German government officials over their censorship regime against political opponents and the efforts of a central European nation with a dark history to silence people it disagrees with. Now, Axel Springer as a company is in federal crosshairs as U.S. officials determine if the media conglomerate that owns Business Insider and Politico among other major publications in the U.S. and around the world is running afoul of federal ethics norms.

Business Insider published a meaningless hit piece this week on Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s eldest son, over Trump Jr.’s business enterprises. The story ludicrously compares Trump Jr. to previous first son Hunter Biden, former President Joe Biden’s son, over Trump Jr.’s work with a venture capital firm. Absurdly, the article declares in the headline: “Don Jr. is the new Hunter Biden.”

The central allegation is that Trump Jr. is a partner in an investment firm called 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that’s invested in a number of companies in the United States. The article goes through several of the investments that 1789 Capital has made, and then quotes three different experts by name and one anonymous Wall Street investor as arguing there is something possibly untoward going on here. Then later in the story, the article from Business Insider’s Bethany McLean says: “Don Jr.’s involvement in 1789 bears an eerie resemblance to what Trump blasted Hunter Biden for doing: trading on his father’s name to win lucrative business deals with countries like Ukraine and China.”

Pointing out the absurdity of the hit piece, Breitbart notes that “unlike Hunter Biden, Trump Jr. is not a convicted felon who needed a pardon from his father the president to avoid federal prison time.”

Breitbart also notes that “Trump Jr.’s firm is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on acquiring minority stakes in exclusively American-owned companies—not in companies based in foreign countries where there is a major conflict of interest.”