January 1, 2022

The beliefs and background of Eric Trump - Season 2 Episode 8

‍

Kyle: [00:00:00] Hey guys, as you can, uh, see by the title. Um, this interview was with Eric Trump. Uh, I just finished it. Uh, it was a good one. Um, right before the interview did start, he did ask me to not touch on any social issues, so I couldn't ask about abortion or marriage or. Any, any of those things, um, which kind of sucked 'cause I had a whole bunch of questions, uh, for him on those topics.

Uh, what actually happened was last year I interviewed him, uh, and I, uh, as some, as you guys, some of you guys know, I lo I lost that whole interview, so I was hoping to ask those questions again and, and get it on. I recorded, but. Uh, he, he told me personally that, uh, um, yeah, I don't, he just didn't wanna share those views, and I think it's just for political reasons that he didn't want to tell people what he, uh, believes on those issues.

So that was kind of disappointing. But I did, uh, get, ask him a lot of other questions and try to stay away from more of the, um, the questions, um, that he gets asked every day in the media with just the, the same answer, but more, try to get behind, [00:01:00] uh, the curtain a little bit and, uh, see what he is like just as a, as a regular dude.

Um, having a dad that just happened to become, uh, the president. So, yeah, it was a fun interview. I'm happy, uh, thankful I gotta do it. I hope you guys, uh, enjoy it and, uh, uh, yeah. Thanks.

So I, I guess, um, I, I'd love to start off with, uh, we'll just jump right into it here. So I'd, I'd, I'd love to start off with, um. Um, you know, so you hold conservative values, you hold, uh, working hard, uh, all those things. Um, and so, uh, I I guess was that instilled in you, uh, instilled in you from the very beginning?

Uh, like what was it like growing up in, in your household way before your dad, uh, was known as a politician? You know, like, like just as a, he was just a businessman in New York. What, what, what was it like? Well, Kyle, I think everybody in the world

Eric: knows my father and kind of knows the hard driver that he is.

And that's kind of how he raised us. He expected us to work, he expected us to get good grades. I think I've told you this before, but every day when [00:02:00] I went to school, he used to always say, right kids, you know, three rules, no drinking, no drugs, no smoking. Then he would add a fourth in. You better get good grades.

And listen, he expected us to be good kids. He expected us to have manners. Um, my mom came from communist Czechoslovakia. Uh, she's a, um, tough, um, awesome, you know, elegant woman. And, you know, she didn't put up with kids who didn't say, please didn't say thank you, didn't open up doors. Um, you know, so she really kind of, you know, grounded manners into us.

You know, my father grounded work ethic into us. Um, when we were 11, we started working on our construction sites. It's funny, I just bought a house and half the work in the house, I did myself, right? I could do electrical, I could do plumbing, I can do, yeah. You know, sheet rock work. I can do framing work.

I'm, you know, it's just, we were put on construction jobs at very young age making minimum wage. And guess what? If I wanted a new fishing rod, if I wanted a bike. Congratulations, you're gonna go work for it. And it did a, a bunch of things. Um, certainly constructive value Kyles, but it did a bunch of things.

You know, a taught [00:03:00] you the, you know, value of a dollar, um, b at the end of a long day work on construction site, you know, busting your, you know, what, you know, you weren't exactly gonna go take that money and go spend it on, you know, booze or drugs or, you know, something insignificant, right? Yeah. So it made you respect money.

Um, it tired you out At the end of the day, you want to go to bed, you didn't want to go partying. And so it kind of kept me, and I can't tell you, listen, the circle that we traveled in, right? New York, good schools, you know, et cetera, there's a lot of money that flowed through those place. I can't tell you how many of my good friends back in the day went to rehab and you know, in some cases much worse.

And, um, we never went down that path. We were all very straight edge kids. Uh, we worked very hard and, you know, to this day, you know, he won't find harder workers than than us in just about every regard.

Kyle: Yeah. So, I mean, those are just, uh, Judeo-Christian values. Did, would you say you grew up in a Christian home?

Did your, was your, uh, your grandpa, uh, uh, um, uh, instilled that in in your father? Like where, where did these values, what was [00:04:00] the basis of these values?

Eric: Yeah, well, obviously very Christian. Um, in fact, literally right before this podcast. I'm away from my child tonight. Um, I'm in New York, they're down in Florida.

And, uh, I said a little prayer. We say three prayers every night. In fact, we say three prayers and then we say the, you know, the Pledge of Allegiance here in, in the us But, um, it's really cute and I started that with my son. So every single night before he goes to bed now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the lord my soul to keep right.

We do, you know, three different prayers. We do the Lord's Prayer and, um, so there's no question, there were same prayers that were said to me, you know, every night or that I said every single night when I was a kid. You know, I'm certainly get passed that on to my daughter who's just kind of getting to the age.

She's two now and she's just getting the age. But that's a kind of moment of bonding for us every single night. Um, I don't care where I am. I don't care, um, who I'm with. Um, short of literally being a a hundred percent inaccessible because I'm on an airplane in the middle of the Atlantic or something along those lines, um, every single night at 7 45.

Um, I'm either with [00:05:00] my, you know, kids saying prayers or. If I'm away, I'm on FaceTime with them saying prayer. So it's something that we really do hold, uh, near and dear. So yeah, religion played a, you know, big part of our life. Um, I think it still does. Um, it's amazing how religion works. I saw it in a really interesting way through, uh, politics in this country where every place I went, people would come up to me, put their hand on my shoulder, say a prayer, we're praying for you, our family's praying for you, our community's praying for you.

Um, and it's, uh, it's incredibly powerful and, um. Believe me, we've gone through a lot in the last five years, uh, politically and you know, the amount of times people shoot arrows at with us, you know, at us, and

Kyle: yeah.

Eric: Um, I don't think we could have made it through that process if there wasn't somebody looking down and guiding the process and guiding what we did and how we did it and where we did it, and how we set it and, uh.

Everything else that went along with it. So now I'm very religious and I, um, I believe in, I believe in religion and I, [00:06:00] um, I just believe it's a huge face of society and I think the whole world needs a lot more religion in it right now. I think we'd be a better place if it had more of it.

Kyle: Yeah. And so would you say that you, um, you, you call yourself a Christian and that did, did you, uh, believe in Lord Jesus Christ at a certain point in your life?

Would you say you, you would just, you always have been, or like what, was there a defining moment or. Yeah,

Eric: listen, I always have been, I think religion goes in, in cycles and um, you know, I think there were times in my life where I was probably more religious than less and I'm probably, uh, the most now. Um, and I think everybody can kind of express religion in different ways and, you know, that's what's kind of interesting and unique about, uh, religion, yet kind of get to the same place.

Um, and, uh, you know, for me, so oftentimes I'll be sitting in a tree stand and like, you know, that's my connection with. Um, with God, with, you know, with, with nature. And, um, I don't necessarily think religion always has to be as formal as, um, you know, going to, um, [00:07:00] you know, mass, you know, several times a week.

Like, I think maybe people can manifest religion in different ways, uh, for themselves. So I'm very religious. I say prayer every single night. Uh, again, as I mentioned, I pray with, uh, my children. Um, yeah, I'm certainly, um, you know, Christian and, um. Again, I kind of hold firm to the fact that we need a lot more, um, family in our lives.

We need a lot more, uh, religion in our lives. And, um, I think if you look at the vast majority of problems that, you know, kind of our cultures face or cultures faced around the world, it's actually when you have a breakdown of religion, when you have a breakdown of values, when you have a breakdown of family, yeah.

Um, you start breaking down those kind of core values. And I think you start that stacking the deck, um, against success. Um. Very, very quickly. And, um, I think they're pretty easy examples to give of, um, communities that have gone, um, astray, places that have gone astray. Um, so oftentimes, you know, that was a [00:08:00] cognizant effort to, um, rid religion from those societies, um, rid that kind of family bond, that family spirit.

And, uh, it's never worked out well.

Kyle: Yep. So, I I, in the politics that you see nowadays, uh, on the left and the right, there's a, there's a visceral hatred, uh, it seems, um, for each other. Um, there's, um, there's just a lot of name calling. There's, there's. It's just, it's, it's, it's like the wild West almost of, uh, in, in, in just words.

Uh, and then of course the, we, we both know that scripture talks about loving your enemies, uh, praying for those that persecute you. How do you, um, take, uh, being in politics and, and being in that world, uh, and having to engage and defend yourself? Uh, but on the flip side, still, um, uh. Doing it with, uh, loving your neighbor, um, and, and, and, and, and dealing with the enemies in a, in a Christian way.

Eric: Yeah. Well, it's a great question. I think it's kind of the dichotomy of, of the two, um, you know, as a family, believe me, [00:09:00] the last thing Kyle, we needed in the world was to get into politics. Um, you know, we need politics like a hole in the head. Um, we live great lives, get to enjoy ourselves. We have some of the best properties in the world.

We're really good at what we do, meaning the real estate world. Um, you know, and then one day we all sat there and said, you know, my father goes, listen, kids, I wanna hop into this. Um, let's do this. We didn't know a damn thing about politics. We didn't know about the, you know, I mean, yes, Republicans, Democrats, et cetera, but we didn't know the system.

We didn't know the players in the system. We didn't know the evilness of the system. And by the way, it's not just, you know, states around the world and, um, politics is, is a nasty, nasty game. So I think you're right. You go into it for all the right reasons. Listen, you know, we're fortunate. Um. We can make decisions.

Um, my father was in a great spot to lead an economy. He led the, you know, greatest economy this country has ever seen. Lowest unemployment, lowest, um, African American unemployment, female unemployment, uh, youth unemployment, Hispanic unemployment. I mean, set every single [00:10:00] economic record that you could ever set.

Um, and guess what, you know why you're doing that? You know why you give up a billionaire lifestyle to do that? Not because you wanna get attacked by CNN every single day, and not every, because you wanna take. You know, bullets and arrows in the back every single day. Um, and give up your whole lifestyle and give up your freedom and have, you know, another side trying to impeach you multiple times for nothing.

Right? You do that 'cause you wanna make a real difference in the world. Believe me, life is a lot better outside, you know, the political sphere. So you go into it with that intent. Um, and that's what you try and do. Um, at the same time, it's a vicious. It is unfortunately a vicious game. It's not just here, it's in Canada.

It's all over the world. It's just a vicious, you know, vicious game. And you know, it's really interesting. I've always operated in kind of business world, right? Where you could have two people, you could have somebody on the far right, and you could have somebody on the far left. And in business they'll get along.

You know why? They wanna make the new best widget. They want to innovate, they wanna make a great product, they wanna sell it. Um, and at the end of the day with capitalism, [00:11:00] you know, I think money ultimately, you know, for the most part there's other things, but you know, money for, for the most part, and success speaks, you wanna build that great apple.

You want to become the next, you know, general Motors, you know, whatever it might be. Yeah. You know, in politics. You know, if, if everybody's locked in, by the way, there's plenty of people who have made money in politics, don't get me wrong. But if everybody's locked into the same wage to the same, this, right?

I mean, what differentiates, you know, somebody on the right and somebody on the left. And if you really answer that question, it's it's power. Um, you know, politics at the end of the day is kind of a power grab. So the only way you differentiate yourself from the other person sitting to your right or left, you know, in, in a parliament or in a Congress or wherever it might be, around the world.

Is that political power, being able to control people, being able to manipulate system, being able to enact things that you believe in and that causes people to get awfully skewed very, very quickly. Right? I mean, that takes the two people that would've worked great together in capitalism [00:12:00] and it almost pits 'em against one another.

And I saw that kind of firsthand and it's, it's sad. It's the way the system works because if you're actually able to kind of channel that energy, um. Certain places the United States can't, it would just, you'd be unstoppable. Uh, you'd be unstoppable. And you know, the sad thing for kind of, you know, the western world, um, you know, you look at the adversaries that we both share, you being Canadian, me being, you know, guy from the us you know, there's a lot of countries around the world that do, don't have our best interest at heart.

China's one of them. You have to be honest about it. Anybody who's not honest about it is, you know. You know, they're stealing intellectual property every single day. They're manipulating currencies. They wanna become the world language. I mean, they have a business plan to, you know, effectively be the superpower.

And, you know, effectively 2035, they don't have our best interest at heart yet. You know, so oftentimes the society in Canada and the US and so many other places in kind of the western world, you're, you're sitting there tearing each other [00:13:00] apart for no reason. While you know these people are licking their lips.

Kyle: Um, so do, do you think you, you think unity is possible? Do you think there, there, there can be a, a, a cooling down of the, the, the temperature, um, like, like it was in the Ronald Reagan days, for example? Or, or do you think this is just we're gonna keep going down this road and there's not much we can do about it?

Eric: No, I, listen, I certainly hope there would be, um, there is no reason, you know, a couple years ago that frankly we shouldn't. Um, and everybody shouldn't have been cool at the same time. You know, every time my father, you know. Sneezed. Um, they're trying to impeach him for no reason whatsoever. I mean, he spent four years of his presidency fighting impeachments at the same time having the best economy this country's ever seen.

Rebuilding. Yeah. Our military focusing on education, all the things that matter, you know, to society. I mean, what really matters to society, and that's happiness, you know, at the end of the day. And how do you have a happy society? Well, you have a strong economy. You have people that can live the American dream.

You have [00:14:00] protection, meaning no one messes with you. Uh, no one can kind of take, um, what you are as a country away from you. You have true patriotism, uh, you have upward mobility. Uh, we have all those things in the United States and probably more so than any country around the world. And, um, you know, I think we have a lot to, to celebrate about.

Yeah. Again, but there's a lot of adverse interests that are out there sowing dissension because frankly it works for whatever cause they're part of. And, uh, and you see that all over the world and. Um, it'd be nice

Kyle: if, when, when you're in the room with, uh, a, a political foe and the cameras are off and there's no recording devices, which is, I guess people are always trying to get little sound bites here and there, but, uh, is the temperature cooler there?

Like is there, is there more of like, Hey, I know I, I said this online. I don't, I don't really need it, but I have to do it for my, my side or, yeah. There, I mean.

Eric: First of all, lucky if I, uh, I run hotels, I build hotels, I build golf courses and commercial buildings and, you know, real estate projects. So I spend much more side, [00:15:00] you know, obviously on, on private enterprise.

I run our company and the Trump organization, everything else. But yeah, there's no question about it. I mean, you'd see, uh, you know, in the US you have obviously the Republican, you know, party, the, you know, um, the RNC, you have the DNC, the Democratic Party. Yeah. And ut people, members of the DNC, you'd be on, you know, Fox News and they'd come up to you, they'd shake your hand and, Hey, how are you doing?

I saw you do this the other day. The picture of your kid was incredibly cute. And you know, about two seconds later you see them go on TV and they were just absolute animals. It's like, I don't recognize the person I was speaking to who was literally just. You know, is that, is that surprising to you? Or is it just that's just, that's part of the game that's normal?

God, it's incredibly surprising to me, especially as a guy who's not a politician. Right? You gotta realize we're not politicians. We didn't come out of this world, right? This is, you know, now we understand it probably better than anybody, but like, this isn't who we are. You know? Again, I'm a bricks and mortar guy.

I grew up building skyscrapers and big projects and, you know, running businesses. So that doesn't really make a lot of [00:16:00] sense. Not that you don't have sharks in that world. You have a lot of sharks in. You know, New York real estate and, you know, kind of bus big business around the world. Yeah, uber competitive.

But, um, you don't see it as in, as you know, the same ways you see it in in politics. It's again, back to that power grab. That power grab is um, truly what kind of separates the politicians from normal people who just believe in. Ordinary capitalism.

Kyle: Yeah, fair enough. Um, I, I wanna change gears here a bit. Um, and so I, as I got ready for this podcast, I texted a bunch of my buddies and said, Hey, if you had a question for Eric, what, what would you ask him?

And I, I have a friend Peter Hetro in Minneapolis. So he's an American, and, and he wanted to know what's the most dad thing you could remember growing up, uh, with your father? Did, did he teach you how to drive? Uh, do, do you remember camping with him? Like, what, what, what were some of those things that's kind of behind the curtain?

I mean, a lot of the talking points you get asked every day on the different organizations you, uh, get asked to speak on. But take us behind the, the curtain a little bit more of, of, [00:17:00] uh, of what it was like growing up in your house and what are some of those memories you have?

Eric: I have a lot, you know, and it's actually, this is a great format to actually talk about the mon Most of the time you've got a two minute clip and you can't really elaborate, but.

You know, Donald Trump is obviously a very different type of father. He is a guy who, you know, worked tremendously hard at the same time. He never, I, I told you a story about Luke before, you know, Luke and Caroline and my kids, no matter where I am in the world, no matter who I'm with, I don't care who I'm with.

I will step aside and say little prayers before they go to bed. Right? It's just, that's religion to me. And it's, uh, you know, both kind of metaphorically and just, you know, um. No matter where we were, if we called his office, it didn't matter who he had in his office. It could be the mayor of New York, it could be, didn't matter.

We were put through on his line, you know? And, um, I, I remember one time specifically Rudy Giuliani, right? America's mayor. Um, yeah. You know, and probably, I'm sure very well. And I called up the office and, you know, he was in my father's office and. Eric say hi to, you know, um, Mr. [00:18:00] Mayor, you know, Mr. Mayor, how are you Mr.

Giuliani? Yep. How are you doing? It didn't matter who he was with, he always had time to take his kids calls and he would never miss 'em. So that's really one thing that I really, you know, admire. Um, it was less of kind of a relationship of playing catch. It was more relationship, you know, every time we could, we'd walk, you know, one of the real estate projects, we would walk a building.

So you'd have Trump Tower that was being built, right? And you've got 70 stories of steel going up. And we'd be walking some random floor and you know, he'd be talking to Foreman and he'd be talking. And I can't tell you how many lessons I learned from doing that. I was a young little kid. I thought this was the coolest thing in the world.

You know, these buildings were bigger than life. You're watching steel fly through the air and concrete and everything else. But I remember one time we'd go up and there was a piece of asbestos of all things that they were moving from a project. Right. And you know, it was a renovation of a project. Um, my father goes, you know, asbestos, how is that?

And I'll never forget the foreman. It's horrible for you. It's horrible for obviously, right? It [00:19:00] causes all sorts of problems, which is why we don't have a society. But I'll never forget, and I remember this as a kid, you know, sir, it's the best fireproofing, you know, in the world. There's just nothing that even remotely compares.

And he pulls out an acetylene torch that was there and he puts it on this piece of asbestos and guy's holding a torch there. That's a couple thousand degrees.

Kyle: Yeah.

Eric: On this piece of asbestos is hardly. Turning to color, right. I mean, it just, it was unbelievable. And then, you know, at the same time they had some of the, you know, fireproofing that they spray on metal beams and they put the torch on there and 30 seconds later, you know, it's bubbling up and yeah, obviously you can't use asbestos for all the reasons we know.

Um, but it was just a little lessons like that that, you know, kind of, I'll never forget, stick with you walking to construction sites, being on bulldozers. And, um, it was, uh, it was really amazing. You know, he always. Took us with him, uh, we were always allowed to play in his office. No, no matter how serious the meeting was, we'd play with Legos on his office floor.

Um, great father, you know, and again, high expectations. You know, you better work. Yeah. Um, and you're gonna [00:20:00] work for your keep and you're gonna get good grades in school and you're gonna behave. And, you know, at the same time, he wasn't so handsy that you didn't have your own individual freedom. And I, uh, always respected that about him.

Kyle: Fair enough. So, uh, we just had Thanksgivings or you guys did, I, I always tell my American buddies, we were thankful a month ago. Uh, but, uh, um, that, uh, you guys sat around the table. I'm sure you guys had a nice dinner together. Um, but there's no, uh, cameras around. There's no none of that. So what, what gets talked about when, when, when you're around the table with your family, uh, today, uh, I mean, I'm assuming you just had a dinner there, so,

Eric: yeah.

Um, well, I mean, it, it, it ranges obviously, we talked about. You know, work, we talk about life, we talk about kids, we talk about, um, obviously politics. Politics always comes into it, right? In some way, shape, or form. It's, um, a lot of our lives, um, today. Uh, but everything, I mean, we're a, we're a funny family and I think people saw that throughout the Apprentice.

I think people saw that probably watching us out on the campaign trail. Um, you [00:21:00] know, we take life very seriously in a certain way. At the same time, you know, we never go into something like this with a. Prerecorded message with notes. I mean, we are very much a family that talks from the heart, um, yeah. You know, and, and says the things that we feel and hey, sometimes it's not that politically correct and, um, you know, sometimes it is.

But you know, we talk about sports, we talk about, you know. Probably not all that different than any other family. I mean, we joke, we're, we're incredibly competitive, as you can imagine. You know, there's a lot of type A personality in the Trump family and, uh, we have a lot of fun.

Kyle: Who, who I gotta ask, I gotta jump in some gun stuff here.

Who's better Shooter? You? You are don me. Nice. I wanna take you guys both to a PRS competition and let you guys take it out.

Eric: Would you'd be, you'd be surprised how well I can nerd out in that subject. I think, uh, you and I can do that offline one of these days, but Yeah, no, that's, uh. You know, it, it's actually funny if you, if you look at the shooting sports, one of the things that kept us [00:22:00] outta bars, you know, when so many of my friends, as I mentioned before, you know, went down bad paths in lives, I'm sure, you know, you had plenty of them as well, right?

If they're excessive drinking, um, you know, excessive drugs, you know, we never did that. And you know, for two reasons. I told you one before. You know, my parents put us to work. Uh, the other one for us was literally the outdoors, which was really instilled in us through my grandfather. You know, we were in the woods, we were in a tree, uh, we were hunting, we were shooting.

Um, yeah. And you know, if you're waking up at, you know, four o'clock in the morning to go out in the field, you're not exactly, you know, wanting to stay at a bar until three o'clock at you. Right. You're just, yeah. The two don't really go hand in hand. And, uh, I think I learned more responsibility from kind of the outdoors and, and that stuff then.

Um, maybe any other aspect of my life.

Kyle: Yeah. So as kids, uh, growing up, we, we've all misbehaved and, and needed to get disciplined by our parents. Uh, tell me about a time when, uh, [00:23:00] you, you got called into, uh, uh, talk to your dad and he had to give you crap for something you did. Uh, I'm, I'm curious what, what that was like.

Eric: Well, you know, maybe I'll bring my mom into this right now. I, I told you a little about, about her before she came from Communist X bia. An amazing, yeah. Skier, um, phenomenal, phenomenal skier, you know, um, Czech national team, et cetera, et cetera. But you know, Ivana, right? You don't mess with her. She was elegant, great athlete, but at the same time, if you messed around, it's, you know, you had her nails in your, in your throat.

I mean, you ate the food on your plate. You did not waste food. You opened doors. You said please. You said thank you. Um, you were polite. Um, you know, it's just very kind of old school. Um, you didn't want to be on the receiving end of her. If, uh, if you weren't, uh, you know, today it would probably be modern day child abuse.

But honestly, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to us. You know, if we misbehave, we knew about it and we didn't do it again. And, um, and so I would say a lot of the discipline actually came from her. She was [00:24:00] tough and hard, um, but fair And, um, it was, uh. She's a good woman.

Kyle: She's really a good woman.

Yeah. That's awesome. Um, uh, what would be the quality that you would say, um, your parents, uh, mom or dad would say is your strongest quality? How would they describe you now? Yeah, do you think? Yeah, we talk about like every, I'm sure they, you're a hard worker, but I'm sure your siblings are as well. So, uh, like, like specifically, um, what, what makes, uh, if I had to describe Eric, how, how, what would they say?

Eric: You know, I'm a guy that I think operates very well in a couple different spheres, right? Um, I'm a very good operator and that's what I do. When I say operator, meaning operations, I'm very good at running things, very good at running properties. Um, it's what I do every single day. Run hotels, golf assets. I understand the discipline of it, I understand the structure of it.

Um. And, uh, and I really enjoy that. Um, and with that, I can be in operation mode or I can kind of be in public mode and I [00:25:00] don't need to be in, in both modes all the time. Uh, during a campaign cycle, you know, I can step out of kind of my, you know, um, head to the ground kind of work. You know, I can get up on stage and I can speak and I can deliver a great message and I can be on TV all day long.

And then I can turn that off like that and I can kind of get back in, you know, 100% work mode where I've got my eye enterprise and I can, you know, do whatever I need to do to kind of accomplish whatever the respective goal is. And so I've always been very organized and I've always been the type of guy who doesn't need to be front and center, in fact.

So oftentimes like to, likes to operate in the background. Um, and, uh. I really enjoy being able to kind of go back and forth, right? Like, I don't always need to be on, um, I can be quiet.

Kyle: Yeah.

Eric: And, um, introvert, no, I don't think any of us are, but what I'm saying is I don't always need to be in the middle of that spotlight.

I'm also happy to be behind the scenes, [00:26:00] albeit when I am in the middle of the spotlight, I can do that very well. And so I like being able to operate in both universes and I think that's what they would say. I'm, I'm good at, I'm a very organized person. I'm a very disciplined person. Um, I can operate publicly, but I can also be, um, quiet, um, maybe introverted in a certain way.

Um, at the same time, again, it's probably not a word that's ever been used to describe any of us. Right? Fair enough. I mean, we're all free type A and we can be loud when we need to be, but, um, it's, uh, it's a great trait that I've realized. Um, it's nice to be able to turn things on and off when they serve a purpose.

Kyle: Yeah, fair enough. Uh, I mean, uh, in, in the, in the world you live in and, and with the media surrounding your, your whole family and, um, there's obviously a lot of misconceptions about you guys and so I, I've, I've, I know you a little bit, know your brother a little bit and stuff like that. And, and so I was always surprised for, I remember, um, walking the NA show with Don and how nice he was and he, he, yeah, he remembered my name and that kind of thing.

Um, what, what are some common misconceptions that are just. [00:27:00] Widely believed, um, in, in the mainstream that just are false, that bother you the most. Obviously there's a ton. Every politician, everyone in your, the political world has that, but what are some ones that you're just like, that irk you?

Eric: Yeah. Well, listen, I think, you know, so often times people, you know, view us as the face of a company, um, but not actually kind of the doers and, you know, the guiders, um, nothing's kind of further from the truth, right?

I mean, I'm the first person I work every single day. I'm the last one to leave. Um, probably, uh, bear more responsibility than any, um, person on every aspect of the company. Have to be in a hundred places all at one time, always, um, you know, deal with 2000 things that come in your direction, you know, have to sort them all out.

And, you know, so oftentimes again, people kind of label you as, um, frankly, they're probably not wrong, right? So many celebrities out there who, um, you know, can show up to a cocktail party, smile, take a picture. Um, and then go sit on a, you know, boat in the med for, [00:28:00] uh, for three months. That's not us. I mean, we don't vacation very, very rarely.

Um, you know, I'm in the office all the time and, you know, we don't stop. Our cell phones don't stop, you know, we are just hard workers. It's just kinda, you know, who we are. Um, you know, that's one. Um, fake news is rampant and not just in the US but kind of around the world. You guys have a lot of it in Canada.

Tremendous amount in Europe. Um, you know, England probably makes us both look, you know, nice civilized in terms of media, but, you know, the amount of things that get said about us every single day is just, you know, it's horrible and, and, and they're never based. In fact, there was a story the other day talking about me using a burner phone for the last four years.

It's, this is my phone. I don't have a burner phone. I'm not really the burner phone type. Right. Um, that's pretty straight edge guys. No, no drugs. Work hard. Have good kids. You know, say prayers at night and don't use burner phones, you know, but yeah, the story will literally pick up traction based on some, you know, well, somebody told an unknown source [00:29:00] said that, you know, Eric used a burner phone.

I'm like, you freaking kidding me? It's like, where are you getting this? You know, I'm, yeah, I'm talking to my kid in at eight o'clock and I, what, what, what could I possibly, you know, so you have all that stuff every single day. Um, you know, so when you're in that public domain, the amount of nonsense. You know, that gets spread.

You know, one of my, the greatest accomplishments of my life is I, I raised a lot of money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, probably the best pediatric research hospital, um, in the world. Um, and, you know, when my father got into politics, Hillary was getting attacked every single day because of the amount of kind of, you know, waste and abuse in the Clinton Foundation.

And so they started attacking my foundation, right? And I raised, you know, $25 million at a 9% expense ratio, you know, before the age of 30. Um, you know, for dying children, for children with stage four cancer, I built the largest ICU, uh, and surgery center in the United States dedicated to, you know, terminally ill children.

The sickest children on planet Earth are in, um, you know, an ICU and intensive care unit [00:30:00] that I built for St. Jude. Yet it was very kind of expeditious and, um, you know, politically, um. You know, I don't know what you call it, but it was, um, it was politically convenient for them to attack, you know, those efforts.

And so, you know, those are the things that are a shame about society. Right. You, you know, so they'll spread lies. Well, he didn't raise that money, much money. I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's pretty easy to prove I raised that much money, or his expense ratio was off the charts. It's like I ran the lowest expense ratio of any charity in, you know, in the country.

Yeah. They funneled money to themselves. I'm like. Guys, if I have a 9% expense ratio and all that money is going to St. Jude, meaning it's hitting their books, which is all very publicly recorded in the United States, like how can you, you know, when you just, there's a lot of nonsense. I won't use the word on, you know, nice podcast, but there's a lot of BS that gets, you know, spread about people.

A lot of misconceptions gets spread about people and. You know, it's infuriating, but you know, again, it comes with the, the territory. Um, yeah. How,

Kyle: how [00:31:00] do you, I'm not sure exactly the ages of all your kids, but how, how much do they see this stuff? I mean, I'm sure they go to a, a, a good private school, um, but I'm sure their, their friends might poke them on it.

Like how, how do you manage that side?

Eric: Yeah. Well, two and four, fortunately they see very good. Okay, so they're pretty young still. Um, I should have, you know, um, there have been instances where you'll have parent that will, you know, say something, um. It's kind of, but overwhelmingly, I'm telling you the love in this country, you know, for kind of what we did and what my father did.

Yeah. Kyle is tremendous. I mean, I can't, I mean, I can show you a note that somebody gave me. You know, every single time I'm on a plane, somebody will come up with me, hand me a note, you know, Hey, thank you for what you've done for this country. Yeah. Um, you know, we love you. We appreciate you do it again in 2024.

You know, sign the silent majority and. I get hugs from people, you know, God bless you. God bless your family. Thank you for fighting for, you know, American values. Thank you for, you know, standing up for Christianity. Thank you for standing up for [00:32:00] religion. Um, you know, thank you for standing up for the Second Amendment in our economy and our military.

And, um, you know, I hear thank you for your service all the time, which traditionally you'd always kinda hear that in the context of somebody who served in the military. Thank you for your service. And I think a lot of people in this country, I think everybody in this country, again, saw how many arrows and bullets.

We as a family took, um, as outsiders, and by the way, not just from the Democrats, from the Republicans as well, from both sides. Yeah. And um, you know, kind of, you know, it's become a different political party now. It's not just a political party of the right or the left. It's kind of a political party that.

And my fa father walks into a stadium. Now they start chanting, you'll have 30,000 people start chanting U-S-A-U-S-A-U-S-A. I mean, he kind of stands for, um, red, white, and blue and the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance and, um, American patriotism and, and, and toughness, you know, near American toughness and, and grit.

And, um, it's pretty interesting. And I can tell you there's a lot more [00:33:00] love out there in this world, uh, and in this country. Um, then there is hate. Now you'd never know that if you watch CNN at night. But I'm, um, I think especially now, uh, when you're seeing how bad our current president is doing in this country, um, I can't tell you just the, the love and admiration that there's been for, uh, for our family.

Kyle: Yeah. Well, hey, I, uh, those are all the questions I had. Um, I, I, uh, I appreciate you doing this. Uh, I'm sure you're a busy guy. Sounds you're getting, you're in New York for a couple days there.

Eric: Yeah, in New York for a couple days and had, um, head back home and uh, you know, back and forth. Nice. So you live, you moved to Florida as well?

I do. I spent a lot of time down in Florida, uh, moved my family down there and, um, and I kind of bought back and forth, but, um, you know, Florida's an amazing state and one that's treated us very, very well. And it's, um. It's doing a lot of things right. Florida's doing a lot of things right.

Kyle: Nice. Well make sure when, uh, the border's open again, or, uh, I mean, guys, guys are coming up now, but there's great sturgeon [00:34:00] up here.

Uh, I know, I know you like your fishing. I actually just went off the New York, uh, coast, uh, uh, a couple months ago in, in May. Um, it wasn't very good in May, but, uh, uh, it's, uh, it's fun to do here as well. So

Eric: well as sturgeon fishing is great. Um, salmon fishing is great. The, uh, everything fishing up there is great and um, obviously it's.

Beautiful country. I spent a lot of time there. I spent a lot of time in, in the north. Um, and um. I absolutely love him. I absolutely love him.

Kyle: That's good. Yeah. I think actually that reminds me, at, at one point BC was gonna be part of, uh, America. I think, uh, yeah. In the early 19 hundreds or late 18 hundreds, there was some deal 'cause the railroad wasn't clemen quick enough.

And, uh, always curious what that would've been like. Yeah. If Alaska and uh, Washington State we're connected. But yeah, I guess we'll never know.

Eric: It would, it would've given, uh. We would've given America some great hunting. But, uh, yes. Now listen, we love that part. I was just up in, uh, Norman Wells a couple years ago, all the way up north in the Arctic and, um, and Yellow Knight and some of those places.

And it's, um, [00:35:00] Canada's a beautiful country and so we love our friends to the north and, uh, you always have supporters in us.

Kyle: Yep. Right on man. Hey, I, I appreciate it and uh, I'm sure we'll talk soon. Thanks Kaf. Cheers.

Hey guys, thanks for watching. Uh, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do share it with friends and family or, uh, comment on the, the post on, uh, social media. Um, share it to rate it on the different podcast apps. It helps a lot. I also have my, uh, link down below, uh, through Patreon where you can support the channel, um, and you can watch some of the, uh, blooper, uh, pieces of the, the podcast and also, um, some of the clips, uh, before and after.

Uh, we start recording. Uh, the podcast. So, um, if you wanna support me there, that'd be awesome. But, uh, otherwise, yeah, thanks again and uh, see you in the next one.

‍

keep reading

Uncut Spanking, ADHD, & Raising Strong Kids – Dr. Edward Les – The Briefcase and The Barn – Ep 57

August 20, 2025

Romans 9, Raw Milk, & The Cost of Avoiding Conflict | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 56

August 13, 2025

Freedom Convoy VS Jewish Hate in Canada's Justice System | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 55

August 6, 2025

Stop Work From Controlling Your Life

Together, we’ll forge your path through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff.

book a call

A scenic view of a golf course with tall trees and mountains in the background.

The beliefs and background of Eric Trump - Season 2 Episode 8

January 1, 2022

keep reading

Uncut Spanking, ADHD, & Raising Strong Kids – Dr. Edward Les – The Briefcase and The Barn – Ep 57

Romans 9, Raw Milk, & The Cost of Avoiding Conflict | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 56

Freedom Convoy VS Jewish Hate in Canada's Justice System | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 55

Stop Work From Controlling Your Life

Company

Resources

Opening Hours

Office

Contact us

Podcast Question

The beliefs and background of Eric Trump - Season 2 Episode 8

January 1, 2022

Stay Updated With Our Latest Releases

keep reading

Uncut Spanking, ADHD, & Raising Strong Kids – Dr. Edward Les – The Briefcase and The Barn – Ep 57

Romans 9, Raw Milk, & The Cost of Avoiding Conflict | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 56

Freedom Convoy VS Jewish Hate in Canada's Justice System | The Briefcase & The Barn - Ep 55

Stop Work From Controlling Your Life

Company

Resources

Opening Hours

Office

Contact us

Podcast Question