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Fox News host Laura Ingraham is joining forces with Donald Trump Jr. after years of calling Hunter Biden’s business dealings a conflict of interest for President Joe Biden.
In a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Oct. 17, first reported by Bloomberg, Ingraham and Don Jr. are named directors of Colombier Acquisition Corp. III, a special acquisition vehicle (SPAC) that is seeking to raise $260 million in an initial public offering to acquire another company.
The CEO of the Cayman Islands-based SPAC is Omeed Malik, co-founder and managing partner of MAGA-affiliated venture capital fund 1789 Capital. Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, 47-year-old Don Jr. announced that he would be joining 1789 Capital rather than taking an official role in his father’s second administration.
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Ingraham’s association with Don Jr. in MAGA-oriented business raises what some have characterized as a potential conflict of interest, as Ingraham continues to regularly feature President Trump and his family on his show. The Ingraham Angle airs weekly on Fox News and covers political, business and legal issues.
The left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters expressed concern that Mr. Ingraham, 62, could be financially harmed by questioning Mr. Don Jr.’s “vast business interests” on his show, while potentially benefiting financially from a business plan that has been as successful as the MAGA movement. The newspaper also said that people forced into businesses because of their MAGA loyalty may feel more pressure to remain loyal.
Mr. Ingraham has also been named the future chairman of the compensation committee, which could play a key role in determining executive and director compensation.
PEOPLE has reached out to Fox News for comment on Ingraham’s involvement in the SPAC.
President Trump’s relationship with Fox News has grown increasingly close since January. As of May, President Trump poached 20 former and current Fox News staffers to join his administration, including several Cabinet-level positions.
Additionally, after taking control of the Kennedy Center Board of Directors, he appointed Ingraham and Fox News host Maria Bartiromo as new directors. He also appointed Fox host Mark Levine to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Meanwhile, Fox News gave the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, her own weekend show in February, marking the first known TV appearance by a member of the family of a sitting president.
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Media Matters reported that Hunter’s name was mentioned in at least 164 episodes of The Ingraham Angle in the less than two years between Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2023 and President Trump’s election victory in November 2024. House Republicans had vowed to use their majority to investigate Hunter’s business, casting a shadow on President Biden’s re-election campaign.
After Hunter, now 55, appeared at the Capitol in December 2023 to request a hearing from Congress in defiance of a subpoena issued by House Republicans to testify behind closed doors, Ingraham suggested the Biden administration was orchestrating Hunter’s legal moves to cover up her father’s involvement.
On December 15, 2023, she said of the president, “He may not care about borders or fentanyl or inflation, forget it.” “But Joe remains firmly committed to resolving Hunter’s legal issues, which are a critical threat to his re-election.”
He went on to suggest that President Biden had been keeping an eye on Hunter’s business activities during his time as vice president, claiming that he “knew that his son had received millions of dollars in compensation from foreign companies and that those companies expected something in return.”
“This is all orchestrated,” Ingraham insisted, later concluding, “The White House is helping protect quarterback Hunter. It needed to be done.”
Hunter has repeatedly denied that his father was financially invested in his business dealings. “Not as a lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in partnership with Chinese private businessmen, not in domestic and international investments, and certainly not as an artist,” he said.
Despite the attention to Hunter, Trump’s eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, help run the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization regularly does business with countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, all of which have foreign policy interests with the White House.
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The intersection of politics and business in the Trump family recently made headlines when Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was caught on a hot mic asking the US president to set up a meeting with his son Eric.
“I’ll have Eric call me,” the 79-year-old president told Subianto when the two sides passed each other at the Gaza peace summit in Egypt on October 13.
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Eric, 41, defended the exchange in multiple interviews and promoted his family’s real estate project in Indonesia.
“We’re building a great hotel and we’re going to break ground soon,” he told conservative commentator Eric Bolling. “And I’ve never met the[Indonesia]president, and I used to go there a lot.” “Obviously we manage the team over there, but it’s really amazing that he knew me.”
“I’m not involved in Indonesian politics, but I started laughing when I heard that,” Eric continued. “‘Can I meet Eric?’ I’m sure he knows the project very well. So we’re very proud of what we’ve done in Indonesia. We’ve been there for over 10 years. So, you know, I’m sure he’s heard about our huge success.”
“The Trump Organization has two of the largest and most important projects in all of Indonesia, which began in 2015, long before President Trump took office in his first term,” the Trump Organization said in a statement to ABC News.
