MILWAUKEE — Despite Eric Trump serving up red meat to former President Donald Trump‘s base during his Republican National Convention address, he has spent the majority of the past week representing his father on major television networks and cable news channels, not just Fox News.
The posturing, though not unusual during the 2024 convention, closes a gap opened by older sister Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, portrayed as moderating influences on the former president, taking a step back from politics.
During his speech, Eric Trump, 40, repeated that he has never “been more proud to be a Trump,” or to stand by his side.
“Your optimism is contagious,” he said. “Your backbone is unbreakable. Your conviction to fight for what is right and against all that is wrong, is truly next level.”
Donald Trump reciprocated, quipping that he paused before delivering his remarks because, “Boy that was good,” describing Eric as a “good, young man.”
“They got subpoenaed more than any people probably in the history of the United States,” he said of Eric and his older brother Don Jr., 46.
Eric Trump was “incredibly honored to be given this prestigious spot,” according to his spokeswoman Kimberly Benza.
“He is nothing but proud of his father and cannot wait to see him inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States,” Benza told the Washington Examiner.
Eric Trump’s increased national media presence this week coincides with his wife Lara, 41, helping to lead the convention as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, providing a personal closing address on Tuesday night.
“When I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law and, of course, grandfather to my two young children, Luke and Carolina,” Lara Trump said. “It’s through that lens that we sometimes wish more people could see this is a man who has sacrificed for his family and a man who has truly sacrificed for his country.”
Eric and Lara Trump’s appearances complement Don Jr.‘s more conservative outreach, though he did speak at a sideline convention event with Axios. Meanwhile, Lara was profiled by the Washington Post in “How Lara Trump found her place in the family business.”
“Man, they make it all so nice for us in politics, why wouldn’t we want to get more involved?” Lara Trump joked to the Washington Examiner during an interview on the convention’s media row. “For those of us in our family, it was really about getting out and pushing back on some of the character attacks on him. And here we are today. It’s been sort of a natural, you know, ascent for so many of us in the family. I think that we are so proud to be by his side in this fight.”
Eric Trump has always been less partisan and polarizing than Don Jr., per Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos.
“He seems to be more willing to adopt a more moderate tone and approach,” Panagopoulos told the Washington Examiner.
Although it remains to be seen whether Eric and Lara Trump will succeed in connecting with more centrist Republicans and independents, their heightened profiles amplify the Trumps as a family whose business is politics after Ivanka, 42, and Jared Kushner, 43, followed the then-president to the White House and half-brother Barron, 18, made his political debut last week during a rally. Don Jr.’s eldest daughter Kai, 17, similarly made her debut, with her first speech in a convention’s spotlight.
“To me, he’s just a normal grandpa — he gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking,” Kai said. “He calls me in the middle of the day to ask me how [my] golf game is going and tell me about his.”
In a separate interview, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AK), the only daughter of a governor to become a state chief executive herself, in addition to being one of Trump’s former White House press secretaries, praised Trump’s “five amazing kids that can do and take on anything.”
“They have endured relentless attacks from all over and yet, not only, like their father, do they continue to keep standing up, but they fight back,” Huckabee Sanders told the Washington Examiner.
“I don’t think that this is the end of the Trump line by any stretch,” she said. “One I certainly am keeping my eye on is his granddaughter who took the stage for the first time and did just a really incredible job. I loved the heartwarming stories and I think one of the coolest moments that she shared was how he printed off her honor roll paper and showed it to all of his friends, like any other proud grandpa would do.”
Though she has not met any of them, Kansas RNC alternate delegate Linda Borror, 74, was adamant the Trump family had integrity, saying she was “comfortable with watching them and listening to them.”
“I did read that Ivanka said she was not going to be involved at all this time,” Borror told the Washington Examiner, alongside her husband Barry, a delegate. “I’ve heard others say they feel that Don Jr. is stepping up. But I think Eric has a lot of things that he does in the background that we don’t see and we don’t know.”
The retired nurse and home school teacher said she respected Ivanka Trump’s decision to step back, adding “they’re a close family and they respect each other’s fences, if you will.”
“We never know how they’re involved in giving just moral support inside of family events, in which we never see,” she continued. “I absolutely believe he draws strength from their support in ways that he knows and we don’t know.”
Chuck Lothrop, 78 and a New Hampshire alternate delegate, has met both Eric and Don Jr., recalling the men to be “very casual” and “open.” The retiree, who drives rental vehicles, agreed that Don Jr. was closer to the base than Eric and that the Trumps could be the next Kennedy-esque political dynasty.
“I think so,” Lothrop told the Washington Examiner.
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When asked whether the Trumps could be the next Kennedys, Borror, of Kansas, said that “Kennedy would have been a Trump except they killed him.”
