All posts tagged "eric trump"

'Not good ganja!' Ex-RNC chair warns against Eric Trump presidency

Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee and current MSNBC host, referenced marijuana when asked about Eric Trump's political ambitions.

Chris Jansing began Monday, "So, Michael, there is so much confidence in the power of Trump and the Trump name, his son Eric's interview with the Financial Times ignited talk of a potential Trump dynasty."

Jansing read a portion of the report where Eric Trump claimed that "the political path" for a family dynasty "would be an easy one," opening the door for another Trump to seek office after his father leaves the White House.

"'I think I could do it," Jansing read Eric's words. "And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it, too."

Eric Trump's wife, Lara, who hosts a show on Fox News after a brief stint as head of the RNC, could make that dynasty a reality. Rumors have swirled that she'll run for Sen. (R-NC) Tom Tillis's seat in next year's midtermelections, since he announced he won't run again.

Eric Trump "also said he's wholly unimpressed by half the politicians I see," Jansing read, with Eric adding, "I could do it very effectively."

"You know, if Americans are drunk on stupid, yeah, Eric Trump is your next president," Steele said. "Put that one in your pipe and smoke it. That's not some good ganja, let me tell you!"

Steele continued, sarcastically, "Sure, why not? You know, let's expand the grift. Let's widen the opportunity!"

He then got serious.

"Look, this is all unserious stuff," Steele remarked before talking about the impact a Trump dynasty would have on "real people."

"It's on the members of my party, the Republican Party, that have agreed to cut programs that they told the American people they would not cut, to expand the reach and the depth and breadth of dollars for to the benefit of those who are much, far wealthier than those red districts that they that they represent. And they will have to now look those voters in the eye, and they'll either continue to lie to them, and the voters will buy it, or they won't, and they'll unelect them. That's the politics of this."

Read the Financial Times article here.

'I could do it very effectively': Eric Trump boasts about his political future

In an interview released on Friday, Eric Trump predicted a Trump family dynasty in America's future and noted he could easily slide into the role of a lawmaker.

Speaking with Alex Rogers of the Financial Times, Donald Trump's middle son, who has been frequently mocked on Saturday Night Live as intellectually diminished, claimed he sees a path for members of the Trump family to make a career in politics on the heels of his father being elected president twice.

According to Eric Trump, the path "Would be an easy one," and then added, "The real question is: ‘Do you want to drag other members of your family into it?'"

“Would I want my kids to live the same experience over the last decade that I’ve lived?" he continued. "You know, if the answer was yes, I think the political path would be an easy one, meaning, I think I could do it. And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”

As for his own political aspirations, he stated he is not a fan of a lot of lawmakers and thinks he can do better.

The report notes, "Eric Trump described himself as 'wholly unimpressed by half the politicians I see . . . I could do it very effectively," before he added, "The question is, do you want to do it? And do you want to subject the people that you love to the brutality of this system? And I’m not sure if I can answer that question yet.”

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Ex-Trump insider turns the tables on president's sons over their 'major grift'

Donald Trump's sons are in on a "major grift" directly comparable to the one they accused Hunter Biden of, according to a former member of the Trump inner circle.

Former adviser to Trump, Omarosa Manigault Newman, appeared on MSNBC over the weekend to discuss a variety of developments in the Trump universe.

At one point, the host asked her about Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and their big crypto deals that are seeing them rake in cash.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

"Watching what Don and Eric are doing in the crypto space, I mean, it's just after we heard so much and their complaints about Hunter, Hunter, Hunter Biden and how Hunter leveraged his father's presidency to make all of this money, we see that they're not reluctant in any way to utilize and leverage their father's presidency to put more money in their pocket," she said. "That's what you're seeing is this major grift on their behalf, and they are completely erasing the boundaries that traditionally were set for families and what they did while parents were in the Oval Office."

She added an ominous prediction, saying, "You're going to see more of this. Remember, we're only about six months into the Trump presidency."

Watch below or click the link.

Trump official rakes in $280M tax free with 'ethics agreement': report

President Donald Trump's commerce secretary Howard Lutnick is emulating his boss by transferring away "his ownership interests in multiple affiliated companies" to trusts that will benefit his adult children, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Lutnick, a billionaire, served as chairman and chief executive of financial-services firm Cantor Fitzgerald until he was appointed to Trump's cabinet in February.

In keeping with "a government ethics agreement," Lutnick created the trusts to benefit sons Brandon Lutnick and Kyle Lutnick, "as well as Lutnick’s other adult children."

In addition, former Cantor Fitzgerald affiliates "agreed to buy back more than 16.4 million shares of its stock from Lutnick," leaving him $151.5 million richer.

Add to that $127 million from real-estate adviser Newmark Group, which agreed to buy back 11 million shares from Lutnick, the company's former executive chairman.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

"Lutnick won’t have to pay capital gains taxes on the sales as long as he puts the proceeds into Treasuries or a broadly based mutual fund — assets that don’t pose a conflict of interest," Bloomberg reported.

Brandon Lutnick, who serves as chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald said in a statement, “Kyle and I are honored to continue building on our father’s legacy, leading Cantor Fitzgerald alongside the exceptional executive team we have in place today."

Donald Trump has come under fire for remaining in charge of his businesses despite transferring his assets to "a trust managed by his children while he is working overtime to lead the country to economic prosperity," according to a White House spokesperson.

The New York Times reported this month that sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have raked in billions of dollars in recent deals that "directly benefit the president."

The deals include a luxury hotel in Dubai, a residential tower in Saudi Arabia, two cryptocurrency ventures, a new golf course complex in Qatar, and a new private club in Washington that "will personally benefit not only Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., but also President Trump himself," the Times reported.

Read The Wall Street Journal story here.

Trump's favorite newspaper fears he may be neck-deep in 'Hunter Biden-style scandal'

President Donald Trump's once favorite daily tabloid, The New York Post, set off alarm bells Monday over his "questionable" cryptocurrency dealings that threaten a "Hunter Biden-style scandal at the White House."

Reporters Thomas Barrabi and Isabel Vincent cited experts who concluded "Donald Trump risks undercutting his presidency with a Hunter Biden-style influence-peddling scandal unless he clamps down on questionable crypto deals."

The story took aim at Trump's "latest apparent conflict of interest" involving a Chinese e-commerce firm pledging to buy up to $300 million of $TRUMP meme coins. The Post also cited another case of a Chinese billionaire investing $75 million in Trump's World Liberty Financial that lists Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as top executives.

Trump is currently considering plans to allow Chinese-run TikTok "to stay online in the US despite Congress’s ban," the story said.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

“I think that the president’s involvement in crypto ventures creates a very easy opportunity for the president to engage in pay to play politics using crypto and vice versa for foreign actors," the paper quoted cryptocurrency expert Mark Hays with Americans for Financial Reform. "There are many ways to move money quickly and opaquely that will not show up on a balance sheet.”

Former lawmaker Charlie Dent (R-PA), who served as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, told the Post, “There’s certainly a parallel to Hunter Biden, who traded off his father’s name while he was vice president."

Dent continued, “You have to start with the president telling his family what they can and cannot do and what lines cannot be crossed. It has to come from him. If the shoe were on the other foot, Republicans would be screaming bloody murder over this stuff.”

The Post article cited a report in Fortune saying that "nearly 40% of Trump’s overall net worth, or the equivalent of $2.9 billion," are due to his crypto holdings.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Post, “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”

Read The New York Post story here.

Trump has 'botched' his whole tariff plan with a single slip of the tongue: report

The Atlantic's Jonathan Chait claimed in an article Friday that President Donald Trump's plan to encourage American manufacturing by imposing huge import tariffs was doomed from the moment he offered to negotiate with targeted countries.

"The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable," Chait wrote. "Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United States to create goods that until last week could be imported more cheaply unless they’re certain that the tariffs making the domestic version more competitive will stay in place."

White House talking points described the tariffs "as a permanent new feature of the global economy," Chait wrote.

"But not everybody got the idea. Eric Trump tweeted, “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump. The first to negotiate will win - the last will absolutely lose.”

ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

Chait wrote that "Eric’s father apparently didn’t get the memo either. Asked by reporters whether he planned to negotiate the tariff rates, the president said, 'The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.'"

Once Trump understood his mistake, he posted on Truth Social, "TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”

The problem, according to Chait was, "Once you’ve said you might negotiate the tariffs, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate." And, indeed, just over two hours later, Chait wrote that Trump posted that he had just negotiated a possible agreement with Vietnam.

Chait concluded that Trump's original plan, even if executed perfectly, was "not a good one by any means." But that plan is now "botched" and the future of American trade remains uncertain.

Read The Atlantic article here.

RNC co-chair Lara Trump's announcement of new crypto venture is a 'scam': Eric Trump

Former President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law has a new project going, according to her social media — but it appears she was the victim of hackers.

On Tuesday, Lara Trump, who currently holds a senior leadership position in the Republican National Committee took to X to discuss a cryptocurrency venture she and her husband, Eric Trump, had been working on.

"I'm excited to finally be able speak on World Liberty Financial, the project I have been working on alongside my husband @EricTrump," Mrs. Trump wrote. "I would first like to discuss what we are trying to build. Our goal at World Liberty, is to utilize our governance token on Solana, $WL, to support our DeFi lending protocol."

"This is to ensure the American people are in full control of their finances, with no single point of failure," she continued. "We want to take power away from the centralized banks, and give it back to the people. We want the people to have better lending and borrowing rates. We want the average person to thrive on taking charge of their own finances."

ALSO READ: Why Trump’s Arlington controversy is actually a crime

Shortly after this, however, Eric Trump took to his own account to warn followers that this post is a scam from hackers who broke into her account — as well as the account of his younger sister Tiffany Trump.

"This is a scam!!" he wrote, adding that their X profiles were "compromised."

But the correction came after many commenters on social media had already widely mocked Mrs. Trump's "project."

"Will your husband funnel this money to other purposes too like he did his charity?" wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss — a reference to the fact that Eric Trump's former foundation has been accused of skimming off money intended for pediatric cancer patients for his personal business ventures.

"Less than 70 days until Election Day and the head of the RNC is launching a money making scheme," wrote James Singer, the rapid response adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.

"Hunter Biden, we hardly knew thee," wrote conservative anti-Trump attorney George Conway, referring to how Republicans spent the last several years trying to make a congressional investigation and impeachment out of accusations that President Joe Biden's son at various points tried to use his family name to benefit his personal business ventures.

Mary Trump issues blistering rebuke to 'self-aggrandizing and vicious' Eric Trump

Donald Trump's niece slammed Eric Trump's attack on the former president's nephew, who made waves this week in a new book about life growing up in the Trump family.

In the book, "All In The Family," Fred Trump III claims he heard his famous uncle repeatedly use the N-word while blaming Black people after his car had been vandalized in the 1970s.

A Trump campaign spokesperson called that claim "completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order."

Fred Trump also shared in the book, published this week, his version of events of the night his uncle 'got out of' Vietnam draft.

A third anecdote caught the attention of Eric Trump.

As the former president's niece tells it, Fred Trump's son William was born in 1999 and has suffered "life-threatening seizures." Throughout his life, he's required "extremely expensive care."

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast

In the late 2000s, Fred Trump asked the family to set up a trust fund for William's medical care, but by 2018, Mary Trump said, "they had grown tired of contributing to it."

Fred and Donald met to discuss the fund, during which the MAGA leader is accused of saying, "I don't know. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida."

Mary Trump said there's no reason to doubt the veracity of Fred's claim, but Eric Trump told his millions of followers on Wednesday that it's "disappointing that after decades of unwavering love, support, golf memberships, family vacations and millions of dollars in support for his wonderful son, Fred Trump has decided to 'cash in' less than a 100 days before an election."

Eric called the account "garbage" and said he's signed checks and seen first-hand as Donald and their family provided "endless financial support" for William's care.

Mary Trump called the statement "full of lies and disinformation," and accused Eric of using his following to "punch down."

"His self-aggrandizing and vicious statement is, quite frankly, abhorrent," she said.

"If he had any sense of basic human decency, he would understand the bargain he's made and at the very least, not attempt to pass off a blatant theft — from which he's benefitted — as an act of charity. But he's had very good teachers, and instead goes for the threat and the lie while rejecting truth and compassion, because like his father, he's weak and he's cruel in the way of small, unaccomplished men."

Watch Ms. Trump's blistering takedown below, or at this link, as she seeks to "set the record straight."

Eric Trump under fire for 'particularly disgusting' statement on Memorial Day weekend

Donald Trump's son, Eric, is catching some heat this Memorial Day weekend after a "particularly disgusting" statement he posted on social media.

Eric Trump, who made headlines due to his defendant status in a civil fraud lawsuit in New York as well as his appearances at his father's criminal trial, caused the firestorm when he responded to a photo posted of his family on X, formerly called Twitter. In addition to Eric, Donald Trump Jr. and Melania are in the picture.

"The family that gave up everything to Save America," the caption reads. "Thank You!"

ALSO READ: What Trump's weird WWE Hall of Fame speech tells us about his presidential debate strategy

Eric shared that image on Saturday, writing, "And we will do it again!"

Conservative Bill Kristol said it was "Particularly disgusting to post this on Memorial Day weekend."

@mamajello replied, "I’m with you. Tasteless to post that this weekend…or any day. They have sacrificed *nothing*."

@IvanasStairCam chimed in:

"You’ll do what again? Steal from children with cancer? Sell top secret classified documents? Incite an insurrection? Get your followers to smear shit on the walls? Bury your mom on a golf course? Ignore your father’s list for your sister? Commit fraud? Run a scam university? Bankrupt casinos?"

@Leslieoo7 also replied, "The families that gave up everything for this country have family members buried at Arlington."

"How tone deaf can you be? It's Memorial Day weekend, FFS!!" the account wrote. "We are remembering those who actually did give it all. Even for a Trump, this is shockingly awful."

@DeniseBalistre1 wrote that "Trump lied about his wealth and used the presidency to enrich himself and his family and will do it again if given the opportunity."

"How dare you speak of sacrifice on the weekend we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice- the guys your dad called suckers and losers?" she wrote.

'Absurdity and foolishness': Eric Trump has MAGA meltdown over challenge to $175M bond

Former President Donald Trump's son Eric suffered a MAGA meltdown Thursday after New York Attorney General Letitia James raised concerns about his father's $175 million bond.

Eric Trump took to X to sputter outrage that James wanted proof that the insurer backing Trump's $464 million civil fraud ruling is "financially sound."

"The fact that the New York Attorney General is objecting to a bond that is 100% backed entirely by CASH is just another example of the absurdity and foolishness that have been the underlying theme throughout this circus of a case," Eric Trump wrote.

James told the New York City civil court that she had serious concerns about Knight Speciality Insurance Company's agreement with the former president, court records show.

The attorney general requested in her filing that the company prove they can cover Trump's hefty sum if he loses his appeal to Justice Arthur Engoron's ruling.

Trump's bond, initially set at $454 million, was cut to $175 million by an appeals court after he argued that it was too much to pay.

ALSO READ: No, Donald Trump, fraud is not protected by the First Amendment

Trump's attorney Chris Kise reportedly called James' inquiry a "witch hunt" but Adam Pollock, a former assistant attorney general, told CBS News the bond appeared "deficient" in many ways, including that the company did not appear to be licensed in New York.

Bruce H. Lederman, an attorney who has filed multiple bonds, told CBS he was struck by "glaring errors," and believed James' action was simply "requiring strict compliance with the law."

This requirement spurred outrage from Eric Trump — who was swept up in James' sprawling complaint alongside his brother Donald Jr. — as well as his followers.

"Letitia James is wicked," wrote self-described Trump supporter @dollydeleon. " She thinks that everyone else is like her that cannot be trusted!"

"Absolutely outrageous," added X user Shelley Matheny. "How infuriating and disgraceful."

Eric Trump's response also drew ire from those who questioned his characterization of Trump's actions.

"Quit whining, Eric," requested Victoria Block.

"Doofus," added X user John Barron, "the bonding company is not licensed to do business in New York, which is a pretty basically requirement for any legit business."