The Trump Organization has formally demanded The New York Times retract a recent article that it characterizes as "libelous" and deliberately misleading. The article, titled "Trump Cut a Billion-Dollar Mining Deal. His Sons Stand to Profit," suggested that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump stood to benefit from a U.S. government-backed tungsten deal with Kazakhstan.
In a legal letter addressed to The Times' editor-in-chief and the story's authors, Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten asserted that the article creates a "false impression" of the Trump brothers' involvement and influence over the project awarded to an affiliate of Cove Capital. The letter states that the implication of their involvement in securing the deal is "demonstrably false."
A spokesperson for The New York Times, Charlie Stadtlander, pushed back on these claims, telling Fox News Digital that the Trump Organization "does not deny the main point of our story: That Eric and Donald Jr. have profited from the U.S.-Kazakh tungsten mining agreement." Stadtlander added that the letter disputes whether the article adequately conveyed that the brothers were "indirect and passive investors," a point he stated is clearly outlined in the report.
Tungsten is a critical mineral for U.S. military equipment, and the Trump administration had prioritized securing a domestic supply chain to reduce reliance on China, Russia, and North Korea. The Times reported that a verbal agreement for the U.S. to procure tungsten was reached in September 2025 during a meeting hosted by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was joined by Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. President Trump reportedly participated by phone. Letters of interest from U.S. government financing agencies totaling up to $1.6 billion were officially inked in November 2025.
According to the Trump Organization's letter and a source familiar with the matter, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were passive investors in Dominari Securities, which in turn invested in a publicly traded construction company, Skyline Builders, in August 2025. Following the September 2025 agreement, Skyline approached Cove Capital, the company investing in the tungsten mining project. Cove Capital was reportedly not introduced to Skyline Builders until approximately one month after the verbal agreement.
The Trump Organization's letter emphasizes that the brothers had "absolutely no involvement in the award of the Kazakhstan project," nor did they have any control over Cove Capital, its affiliates, or Skyline Builders. It further states that they had no knowledge of Cove Capital's pursuit of the project, participated in no negotiations, and never discussed the project with any involved parties. The letter argues that their connection to Cove Capital is "remote, indirect and highly attenuated."
Prior to publication, the Trump Organization claims, The Times' team acknowledged in a message that the brothers were not "actively a part of this deal." The organization demands a prompt retraction or prominent correction to ensure future reporting accurately reflects that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had no operational role, no involvement in the project's negotiations, and could not have influenced its award based on the timeline of events.
The Trump Organization issued a statement calling the insinuation of involvement "categorically false, misleading and libelous," and stated that the facts could have been easily verified through due diligence. The White House issued a statement asserting that the Trump administration's decision-making is guided solely by the best interests of the American people and that securing critical supply chains remains a top priority.