The Trump Organization has demanded a retraction of a story that it claims is libelous and was deliberately crafted to suggest financial impropriety by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The story in question ties the elder Trump brothers to a tungsten deal secured by President Donald Trump with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in September 2025. The Trump Organization claims that the story is misleading and creates a false impression that the brothers were involved in or sought to influence the decision to award the Kazakhstan tungsten mine project.
The letter, addressed to the editor-in-chief and authors of the story, states that the implication of the brothers' involvement is demonstrably false. The Trump Organization argues that the story does not deny the main point that Eric and Donald Jr. have profited from the U.S.-Kazakh tungsten mining agreement, but rather disputes whether the article gave enough prominence to the fact that the brothers were indirect and passive investors. The Trump Organization claims that the brothers had absolutely no involvement in the award of the Kazakhstan project and exercised no control over the companies involved.
Tungsten is a mineral used by the United States to develop military equipment, including missiles and fighter jets. The Trump administration has made it a strategic priority to secure a pipeline to obtain the mineral, and Kazakhstan is rich in tungsten. The deal culminated in a September 2025 meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, where the parties came to a verbal agreement for the United States to procure tungsten. The letters of interest from U.S. government financing agencies were officially inked in November.
The Trump brothers' relationship to an investment firm called Dominari Securities is at the center of the story. The brothers invest in some deals made by Dominari and have a minority share in its parent company, Dominari Holdings Inc. An investment fund by Dominari Securities invested in a publicly traded construction company called Skyline Builders in August 2025, which later solicited a merger with Cove Capital, the company that invested in the tungsten mining project.
The Trump Organization letter to the editor-in-chief and authors of the story accuses the publication of intentionally misleading readers and demands a retraction or prominent correction of the false and misleading impression created by the article. The White House has also weighed in, stating that the only special interest guiding the Trump administration's decision-making is the best interest of the American people, and that securing and reshoring America's critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump.
The Commerce Department has not returned a request for comment on the deal or allegations that the sons of the Commerce Secretary improperly benefited from the agreement. The Trump Organization has called the insinuation that the Trump brothers had involvement in the tungsten deal "categorically false, misleading and libelous." The statement addresses the timeline of events and reiterates that the Trump brothers had no control over Cove Capital, its affiliates, or Skyline Builders.
