Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization, joined Brian Kilmeade to discuss the latest on being targeted by the Congressman Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, why he personally feels the pressure his family has gone through may not be worth the price of his father’s election and why re-election means more now than ever.
Watch here:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX HOST: Joining us now, one of those executives in the Trump Organization who makes all the big decisions, Eric Trump. Eric, welcome to the Brian Kilmeade show.
ERIC TRUMP, AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN: Hey Brian, it’s great to be on with you.
KILMEADE: First off, what was it like seeing your name in a list of targets in demand of documents from Congressman Nadler?
TRUMP: Welcome to another Tuesday in our world. It’s just a — it is what it is Brian. I mean, these people are so desperate. I mean, that’s what it comes down to. If you can’t win what do you do? You obstruct, you try and impeach, you try and harass, you try and distract. I mean, that’s all these people know how to do. I mean, they can’t win.
My father’s poll numbers are the greatest that they’ve ever been. This country is soaring, our economy is awesome, our military is incredible. I think you’re going to talk about in a little while with a gentleman from the Air Force.
I mean, our country is doing so unbelievably well on just about every front and the Democrats have totally lost control. They have no message, they have no rising stars. Their rising star, AOC, has proven to be absolutely insane. The Green New Deal, which is going to cost the U.S. $93 trillion. No airplanes, no cows, no cars, I mean it’s just — they’ve got no message, they’ve got no leadership.
Our country’s doing awesome, and so what do they do? They go on a witchhunting expedition. They weren’t able to find anything with Russia, you know that. I mean, last week the Senate’s Intelligence Committee came out and said Richard Burr came out and said, we found absolutely no evidence and we’ve turned over just about every stone. It looks like Robert Mueller is going to come out and say the exact same thing.
They’ve pretty much dropped the Russian narrative at this point, even though it’s the only narrative that they’ve been touting for the last two years and all of a sudden it’s, let’s just go harass anybody who has every made contact with Trump.
Let’s send out 81 document discover requests for everything under the sun, let’s harass, let’s make a spectacle, let’s take a convicted felon and put him on the stand and let him lie to entire world. By the way, he perjured himself, Brian, about 12 different times. I’m talking about Michael Cohen, to that whole testimony and …
KILMEADE: So, Eric, when you got the …
TRUMP: … this is the evilness of politics. I mean, this is the evilness of politics. Instead of actually trying to fix healthcare, instead of trying to fix a lot of problems that the country still has, it’s let’s just distract and disrupt and it hurts the country. I mean, it really, really hurts the country.
KILMEADE: Well Eric, in particular with you guys, you brother, Corey Lewandowski, it’s a list of everybody who’s been in the news associated with you guys. You’re CFO, are you going to get a lawyer, are you going to produce documents that they requested in two weeks?
TRUMP: Yes, we have plenty of lawyers, don’t worry about lawyers. And that’s — that’s all this is. They’re the only people — the only people who will win, unfortunately, in this whole game are the lawyers and the people who lose are the American people who actually expect their public servants to be working on their behalf and not playing nonsense games all day.
I mean if you look at how incompetent Congress is overall, it’s just — it’s incredible, but yes, we’re going to fight the hell out of it. And we’ll fight where we need and we’ll cooperate where we need and — but the desperation shows. I mean, I think that’s the point, Brian. The desperation shows.
KILMEADE: But I just didn’t think, Eric, when you stayed back and you became — and you stayed Vice President with the Trump Organization, you and Don, Jr., that was — it was supposed to keep you out of this. They brought you into this. So, Nadler brought you into this. I image Schiff is going to bring you into this, somehow the Southern District is going bring you into this. Just as Eric Trump, what is that like?
TRUMP: Yes, listen, we’re big boys and girls and I never realized politics was nearly as brutal as it was and but at the same time Brian, we stood on the stage for — with him.
We probably did something as a family that no family in American history has every done, and we fought, and we fought very hard, and we worked our butts off, and we went off and we won something that everybody was saying was impossible to win against the Clinton powerhouse machine.
And you have a lot of people out there, whether it’s kind of mainstream media, who’s lashing out over it, a political party who felt that they were entitled to win even though they didn’t have a good message and they didn’t work that hard.
And — but — and you have all of those individuals lashing out and then you have my father who’s going in there and he’s disrupting the system that has been in place for a very long time, that hasn’t worked for the benefit of the American people, in fact, in most cases has worked against the American people.
That’s the reason we were loosing all our jobs to every country around our world, that’s the reason our military was totally run down, that’s the reason our GDP growth was a total joke. We were getting universally screwed by everybody, Brian, and you know that better than anybody. You talk about it all the time.
KILMEADE: Well, I — I’m a stander by. Listen, nobody’s perfect. No president’s perfect, no organization’s perfect, but the attack that’s turned around, any other businessman who doesn’t spend his life — or woman, who doesn’t spend his life in politics doesn’t deserve to have an autopsy on their previous life if it doesn’t effect governing.
One of the things that Adam Schiff said, we have to see if the Russians are laundering money through the Trump Organization now. When does — where did that come from?
TRUMP: It’s such a joke. There’s no one who knows this company as well as I do. I mean, it’s such a joke. I was watching his A&E biography the other of Trump and they were trying to link to Russia and it’s like, I mean, Brian, it is such a joke.
The whole think is such a — it’s just a sham and that’s exactly what Robert Mueller is going to come out with. It’s — I mean this whole thing has been an absolute sham. I mean, people are still talking about the dossier. The dossier is — has been discredited and the people on the left are still …
KILMEADE: But Eric, I — listen …
TRUMP: … housing (ph) it as it’s real, and …
KILMEADE: … as people in — most people in our audience just say, what does that have to do with getting immigration reform? What does that have to do with getting the deficit under $22 trillion? What does that have to do to getting a Democratic leader into Venezuela?
I mean issues that are facing this country, Joe diGenova, a U.S. Attorney, you know him well, former U.S. Attorney for D.C., saw the — saw all the demands, the 80 plus requests for documents that has Eric Trump’s name on it too and says — this is his advice, cut 11.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JOSEPH DIGENOVA, AMERICAN ATTORNEY: This is a letter to 81 people to produce documents. Everyone should refuse and when they’re subpoenaed, they should all take the fifth, because this is a perjury trap. This is not a legitimate investigation, it is a phishing expedition. They are trying to get people up there to make them look bad so they can try and make the president look bad.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: Will you take his advice? I mean does that — is that something you’re considering?
TRUMP: I think he’s spot on. I mean, first of all, we have nothing to hide. We have absolutely nothing to hide. In fact, we have a fairly simple company. We build great golf courses and hotels and some of the best of the world, and you’ve seen many of the properties, and we do an unbelievable job and we’re really, really good at what we do.
But I mean, the point — the point that you’re making is, look at last week, how much time was spent on the Michael Cohen think? Right? So, Michael Cohen is a convicted felon, he’s going off to jail. He skipped out on what, $4 million, $4 plus million worth of taxes, he committed bank fraud? All of this stuff in his personal life, having nothing to do with Trump.
So, they take this convicted felon who’s about to go off to jai, they put him up the stand, he tells lies the entire time.
Then the Republicans, who are really, really smart start asking very basic questions, hey, are you going to use this testimony to try and reduce your prison sentence? Yes I am.
Are you going to use this testimony and possibly go out — can you ensure us that you’re not going to go out and write a book? No, I’m not. I’m not willing to ensure you I’m not going to write a book.
Oh really, you’re going to write a book? Are you also going to participate in a movie? Yes, I might participate in a movie.
I mean, this is the biggest crock of — I mean, I can’t even say it Brian, but it is crazy.
KILMEADE: But Eric, I’ve seen him, you worked with him everyday. Did — how did you misjudge him so, or did you?
TRUMP: Listen, I think desperate guy who did some really — and by the way, Brian, they haven’t even — I mean the Republicans were hitting on it the entire time, right? But, all the illegal lobbying, you see all these things, right?
He was illegal lobbying in all these countries around the world, Kazakhstan, all these things, he was trying to do it for AT&T, he was trying to do it for various pharmaceutical companies, and I mean, there are plenty of crimes to charge Michael Cohen for, outside of what he’s been charged for and he committed perjury more than I can count.
KILMEADE: So, you just think he’s not the — you just say he got backed into a corner, he’s actually a good guy that got backed into a corner when the FBI raided his house or is he not a good guy?
TRUMP: Brian, they were threatening him with — I mean clearly he’s not a good guy and clearly they were threatening him with many years, and clearly they pretty much said to him, hey, you flip, you come do exactly what you do and we’re going to bring your prison sentence down to three years or three and a half years. I mean, it’s a joke and they didn’t change for many of the crimes that are front and center and very obvious.
And quite frankly, they should be charging him for those crimes, but I mean, go back to that — go back to the amount of time and energy and resources that were wasted with that hearing, right, when they could have been sitting there, they could have been figuring out healthcare in this country, they could have been debating school choice, they could have been taking care of educational problems, they could have been taking care of infrastructure things.
I mean, but yet they sit there all day, they put a convicted felon on the stand for what purpose? Only one purpose, and that’s to try to embarrass the President of the United States, right?
I mean, it’s only for their own political gain. They don’t have a message, they don’t have a party. Their candidates are proven to be absolutely crazy, AOC, right?
AOC’s own mom came out the other day, as AOC is trying to raise taxes and she just drove Amazon out of our state, so we lost 25,000 high paying jobs in New York State, a state that’s bleeding people every single day to other states because taxes are too high, they asked her own mom the other day in an interview, well, why did you move down to Florida. And her mom said, because taxes are too damn high in New York.
I mean, is this — this is the leadership of the Democratic Party, the Green New Deal, again, is going to cost $93 trillion. We’ll bankrupt our nation in about two minutes.
KILMEADE: Eric, I hear what you’re saying, and that’s — just from your perspective and you obviously could punt on this question easily, but when you and your dad talk with your family around, do you guys ever look at each other and say, was this worth it? Was it worth it to be — to have the family dynamics to be put on this type of pressure?
TRUMP: You know what, I can say, no, not with him. Have I thought it in my mind, have I said it casually at dinner with my wife? A hundred percent. The one thing that I can tell you is — and people, by the way, Brian, I think people realize that, there is not a day that goes by where people don’t come up to me on the street and say, hey, thank you for what your families doing.
Like, thank you for the sacrifices you’ve made. And I used to kind almost roll my eyes at the statement, thank you for the sacrifices. You see sacrifices that people have made for this country and they’re unthinkable, right?
I mean, so many people have paid the ultimate sacrifice, but people have — people come up to us and say that everyday. I think the American public realizes it.
I mean, this was a — this is a billionaire who gave up an unbelievable life to go get punched on the chin every single day. To get abused, and quite frankly as a family we’ve done that as well.
At the same time, we’re proud Americans; this country has given us absolutely everything. We have the wherewithal to fight, we have a very, very thick skin, I think you know that from knowing me as well as you do personally.
KILMEADE: Oh absolutely. You have not changed one bit, from day one. And do you ever think about how much would re-election mean? Does it mean more now or less now?
TRUMP: You know what, in a certain way, I want to win this thing. This nonsense — this is the deep (ph) state of work, make no mistake about, right? I mean — and I’m not even that guy, Brian.
People used stay I’d deep (ph) state and I’d roll my eyes a little bit, right? I’m not that guy. This is absolutely the deep (ph) state of work. I mean, this is our political system. I mean it’s so unbelievably incompetent and then you have my father in there who’s doing such a phenomenal job, everything is going well in this country. I mean, look at the unemployment numbers, look at the consumer confidence numbers, right? Look at …
KILMEADE: Wages, blue collar wages.
TRUMP: … our margins, look at 401ks. I mean, just look at overall happiness and society and so many other things. I mean, every metric of our country, every quantifiable metric of this country is doing incredible, absolutely incredible, and the question I have and my father posed this question a couple days on Twitter and he’s absolutely right, I mean, think about even how much better you could if you had another side who actually wanted to fix problems, fix the immigration system, fix the healthcare system, I mean fix so many things? I mean, he’s done so much.
KILMEADE: Right.
TRUMP: He’s done so much with one side of the equation. I mean, think how much could be accomplished if you actually had people who gave a damn and didn’t just care about their political party. And by the way, the American people are really, really smart Brian.
They were told by just about every media outlet other than yours that Trump was a lunatic, that he wasn’t to be trusted around nuclear code, that he wasn’t this, that he wasn’t that, that he wouldn’t make a good president, all the reason why.
I mean, everything anybody could ever conjure up, right? And guess what? They elected the man overwhelmingly. You don’t think the American public sees through this nonsense, sees though Adam Schiff?
KILMEADE: Thirty states to 20. Eric, I’ve got to — I’m up against a hard break, but I really appreciate you joining us. Giving us your perspective, because once again, now, you guys, the whole family is in the eye of the storm and you guys have not changed one bit. Eric Trump, thanks so much.
TRUMP: Thanks so much Brian.
