Exclusive — ‘German Influence Operation’: Don Jr. Hit Piece in ‘Business Insider’ Backfires Spectacularly on Outlet’s Foreign Owners

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.”

That’s where things get particularly absurd. First off, unlike Hunter Biden, Trump Jr. is not a convicted felon who needed a pardon from his father the president to avoid federal prison time. Secondly, 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.

“Comparing a lifelong businessman like Don Jr. joining a venture capital firm that invests in minority positions in American companies to Hunter Biden deciding to become a businessman upon his father’s election, sitting on foreign boards and selling access to his dad’s office is utterly laughable, even for an openly leftwing and dishonest publication like Business Insider,” a spokesman for Trump Jr. told Breitbart News.

The spokesman added that Trump Jr. has been a lifelong investor in things like this long before his father ever got into office, that Trump Jr., unlike Hunter Biden, is not sitting on the boards of foreign companies or attempting to influence government policy with regard to any of these, since these investments are all minority stakes in American companies; and that Trump Jr. launched several other related businesses, like a book publishing company, a news aggregation app, and a hunting magazine when his father was not in office, and that he was an early investor in YouTube alternative Rumble and in the company Public Square.

What’s particularly egregious about the Business Insider story, though, is the reporter on the byline—McLean—could have easily figured out any of this had she just reached out to Trump Jr. for comment rather than rushing her hit piece to the presses. The article says that “[b]oth the Trump Organization and 1789 declined requests for comment.” But McLean did not, as Business Insider reporters have traditionally done when doing stories on Trump Jr., call Trump Jr.’s political advisers Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz. The organization has regularly reached out to them for comment on previous stories, and clearly did not for this one.

But that point aside, the fact that Business Insider actually went forward with this has now drawn the attention of key federal officials onto its owners at the German firm Axel Springer, who are deeply alarmed at what they see as a foreign influence operation operating in the nation’s capital.

“Donald Trump Jr is an innovator and visionary who is successfully reimagining the conservative  media eco system—and the left is truly petrified,” a White House official told Breitbart News. “Axel Springer, a foreign-based media organization, is brazenly weaponizing its platforms to sow political division and spread disinformation in a manner that may well stretch beyond journalism, into illegal foreign political meddling.”

Of course, Germany’s top government officials silencing their political opponents is something that has gotten the attention of everyone from Vice President JD Vance to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The weakness of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz—he did not win his first ballot, going to a historic first-ever second ballot to win the position—and his government lashing out against political opponents now has even begun to threaten German companies like the owners of Business Insider and Politico, Axel Springer.

“While everyone worldwide is rightly alarmed by Germany’s crackdown on freedom of speech, it’s worth noting that we are now wising up to a German influence operation here in the United States in their capture and control of several media outlets and their traitorous high priced lobbyists,” a top outside adviser to the White House told Breitbart News.

Interestingly, Axel Springer hired the lobbying firm of Brian Ballard—a top Washington lobbyist who has had on-again-off-again relations with Trump. Ballard was reportedly on the outs with Trump in a big way a few weeks ago. But he has reportedly since made up with the president and met with him recently along with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Interestingly, it was Politico—the fellow Axel Springer outlet along with Business Insider—that reported last week that Ballard was on the outs with the White House. In its story, Politico disclosed that Axel Springer is its owner and that Axel Springer has hired Ballard to represent it in lobbying matters before the administration.

“In April, POLITICO’s parent company, Axel Springer, hired Ballard Partners to engage with the administration,” Politico’s Rachael Bade and Caitlin Oprysko wrote in their story revealing Ballard’s icy relationship with Trump’s West Wing.

Since then, Axios’s Marc Caputo revealed that Ballard met with Trump and Wiles to smooth out their rocky relationship.

Here’s where things get even dicier for Axel Springer: Business Insider did not, in its story on Trump Jr., disclose to its readers as Politico had done in its story that Axel Springer is its owner. The organization also did not include any disclaimer that Ballard was lobbying on behalf of its parent company before the White House and administration.

“The foreign interlopers at Axel Springer know they have a problem with the Republican Party,” Arthur Schwartz, a Republican strategist with close ties to the White House, told Breitbart News. “But they’re trying to fix it by hiring high priced lobbyists instead of firing the Hamas and MS-13 loving, Trump-hating resistance reporters that infect the ranks of every media organization they acquired in the US. It ain’t going to work.”

Another key element of this whole mess is of course the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cutting off millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded subscriptions from across the federal government to Politico—an Axel Springer company. The hiring of a lobbyist while this is all ongoing looks even dirtier.

“Axel Springer is mad they got their precious taxpayer funding taken away and are now engaged in a campaign of smearing the president, his family, and anyone associated with them,” Cliff Sims, a former Trump White House official from the president’s first term, told Breitbart News. “They’re a disgrace to journalism, as evidenced by the fact that they can’t distinguish between Hunter Biden peddling finger paintings and Don Jr. running legitimate businesses.”

Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, made a similar argument. “Anyone with two braincells can see right through Business Insider’s reckless disregard for the truth in their ridiculous smears against Don Jr.,” Kirk told Breitbart News. “Don is a lifelong businessman investing in American companies. Nothing he is doing has anything to do with government cronyism or access. Hunter Biden on the other hand sat on foreign boards and sold the ‘illusion of access,’ as his business partner famously put it, to his father’s office. This is nothing more than a blatant revenge campaign from Business Insider’s parent company—Axel Springer—who is still furious at President Trump for ending government contracts worth millions of dollars to them.”

In an emailed request for comment on all of these points sent to Axel Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner, Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Jamie Heller, and McLean, only McLean responded acknowledging receipt. “Thank you for this email,” Heller told Breitbart News in response to a lengthy inquiry to all of them regarding these concerns over the German ownership structure and lobbying activities of Axel Springer. “We will review it and get back to you.”

Heller has not responded since then to multiple followup messages, and Doepfner and McLean did not themselves answer on the same email thread. However, a Business Insider spokesperson did email a generic statement after deadline that does not answer any of the questions Breitbart News sent but does claim the company does not take direction from Germany.

“Business Insider is editorially independent, and our coverage decisions reflect that,” the spokesperson said. “We followed our longstanding policy to seek comment ahead of publication, and we stand by our fair and accurate reporting.”

Breitbart