The Trump Organization is demanding that The New York Times retract a story it calls ‘libelous’ and claims was deliberately crafted to suggest financial impropriety by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The story, published this week, ties the elder Trump brothers and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s sons to a tungsten deal secured by President Donald Trump with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in September 2025.

Background

The deal involves a mining project in Kazakhstan, which is rich in tungsten, 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, as China, Russia, and North Korea currently have a stranglehold on the resource.

A spokesperson for The New York Times defended its reporting, stating that the Trump Organization does not deny the main point of the story: that Eric and Donald Jr. have profited from the U.S.-Kazakh tungsten mining agreement. However, the Trump Organization claims that the story is ‘deeply misleading’ and ‘appears deliberately crafted to create the false impression’ that the Trump brothers were involved in the decision to award the mining contract.

Response

The Trump Organization has sent a letter to The New York Times, demanding a retraction and stating that the story is ‘categorically false, misleading, and libelous.’ The letter also accuses The Times of intentionally misleading readers and failing to verify facts before publishing the story.

The White House has also weighed in, stating that the Trump administration’s decision-making is guided by 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.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.