Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Goes into Business with Donald Trump Jr.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham is joining a venture with Donald Trump Jr. after years of framing Hunter Biden’s business dealings as a conflict of interest for President Joe Biden.

In a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Oct. 17 — which was first reported by Bloomberg — Ingraham and Don Jr. are named as directors of “Colombier Acquisition Corp. III,” a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that is seeking to raise $260 million in an initial public offering in order to acquire another company.

The CEO of the Cayman Islands-based SPAC is Omeed Malik, co-founder and managing partner of the MAGA-aligned venture capital fund 1789 Capital. Following Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, Don Jr., 47, announced that he was joining 1789 Capital rather than serving an official role in his father’s second administration.

Ingraham’s involvement with Don Jr. on a MAGA-oriented venture introduces what some have characterized as potential conflicts of interest as she continues to regularly cover President Trump and his family on her show. The Ingraham Angle, which airs on Fox News every weeknight, covers politics, business and legal matters.

Left-leaning watchdog Media Matters expressed concerns that Ingraham, 62, could financially benefit from a business plan that is only as successful as the MAGA movement — and be financially harmed by questioning the “sprawling business interests” of Don Jr. on her show. The outlet also opined that someone who is brought into a business venture because of their loyalty to MAGA could feel more pressure to remain loyal.

Ingraham was additionally designated as the future chair of the company’s compensation committee, which could give her a key role in determining the compensation of officers and directors.

PEOPLE reached out to Fox News for comment about Ingraham’s involvement with the SPAC.

The Trump world’s ties to Fox News have grown increasingly close since January. As of May, President Trump had poached two dozen former or current Fox News staffers to join his administration, including in multiple Cabinet-level positions.

Additionally, after he seized control of the Kennedy Center board, he installed Ingraham and fellow Fox News host Maria Bartiromo as new trustees. He also made Fox host Mark Levin a member of his Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Fox News, meanwhile, gave the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump her own weekend program in February, marking the first known time that a sitting president’s family member has been platformed with a TV show.

Media Matters reported that, in the less than two years between when Republicans took control of the U.S. House in January 2023 until President Trump’s election victory in November 2024, Hunter’s name was mentioned on at least 164 episodes of The Ingraham Angle. House Republicans had promised to use their majority to investigate Hunter’s businesses, which cast a shadow on President Biden’s reelection campaign.

After Hunter, now 55, appeared on Capitol Hill in December 2023 to request a public hearing from Congress, defying the House Republican-issued subpoena that called for him to testify behind closed doors, Ingraham insinuated that the Biden administration was orchestrating Hunter’s legal moves in order to cover for his father’s involvement.

“He may not care about the border, or fentanyl, or inflation, forget it,” she said of the president on Dec. 15, 2023. “But Joe is very much locked in on solving Hunter’s legal troubles, which are a mortal threat to his reelection.”

She continued by suggesting that President Biden was tuned into Hunter’s business actions while he was the vice president, and claiming he “knew that his son was getting paid millions of dollars from foreign entities, and that those entities expected something in return.”

“This is all coordinated,” Ingraham alleged, later concluding: “The White House is helping quarterback Hunter’s defense. It had to.”

Hunter repeatedly denied that his father was financially invested in any of his business dealings. “Not as a practicing lawyer, as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist,” he said.

Despite the attention on Hunter, the eldest Trump sons — Don Jr. and Eric — help run the Trump Organization, which regularly makes business deals with countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, all of whom also have foreign policy interests with the White House.

The intersection of the Trump family’s politics and business recently generated headlines when Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was caught on a hot mic asking the U.S. president to set up a meeting with his son Eric.

“I’ll have Eric call you,” President Trump, 79, told Subianto, when the two crossed paths on Oct. 13 at a Gaza peace summit in Egypt.

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Eric, 41, defended the exchange in multiple interviews, touting his family’s real estate projects in Indonesia.

“We’re building a great hotel, and that’s going to start very soon. And I never met the [Indonesian] president, and I used to go over there quite a bit,” he told conservative commentator Eric Bolling. “Obviously, we manage teams over there, and it’s pretty amazing that he knew who I was.”

“I don’t get involved in politics in Indonesia, but when I heard that, I started laughing,” Eric continued. “‘Can I please meet Eric?’ He must know the projects very well. And so, you know, we’re very proud of what we did in Indonesia. We’ve been there for, you know, well over a decade. And so, you know, I’m sure he hears about our great success.”

In a statement to ABC News, the Trump Organization said, “The Trump Organization has two of the largest and most substantial projects in all of Indonesia, which began in 2015, long before President Trump entered office for the first term.”