Where Trump goes, so do his children, and the Trump clan doesn't just follow their father
on his career trajectory. They also follow him on the path of controversy and public scrutiny,
often generating headlines with their comments.
Here are some of the Trump kids' most controversial interviews.
Donald Trump has spoken about the concern of raising children in an
ultra-successful family. In 1990, he told Playboy,
"Statistically, my children have a very bad shot. Children of successful people are generally very,
very troubled, not successful. They don't have the right shtick."
Well, the Trump children seemed to surpass this expectation. At least,
this is the impression they vehemently made in a 2015 interview with Barbara Walters for ABC News.
Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany all sat down
with the host as Trump himself was campaigning for president,
so the interview seemed endorsement-heavy. When asked what made Trump tick, Eric said,
"He loves work."
Ivanka added,
"He was the first to tell us how privileged we are, and with that privilege, how much
responsibility we had to really earn what we were so lucky to have been afforded since birth."
"We always had to sort of earn whatever it is that we wanted."
Perhaps the most notable part of the interview was when they spoke about how they inherited,
quote, "the Donald Trump work ethic."
"We refer to it as the 'Trump Guilt.' It's when we wake up on Saturday and we're not working."
Some viewers, however, didn't jive with this. One commenter on YouTube said,
"Trump children: we need to earn every dollar. Also Ivanka:
Senior advisor to the president despite having no qualifications for it except being his daughter."
It's not surprising that
the 2003 documentary Born Rich might be a recipe for some controversial quotes. Jamie Johnson,
heir to pharmaceutical empire Johnson & Johnson decided to film his friends,
all of whom were children of the super-rich which, of course, included Ivanka Trump.
"You know, there's some sort of pride in the fact that
people would even take an interest in me just because I'm a part of them."
One of Ivanka's comments rubbed audiences the wrong way. She told the camera crew,
"I remember once my father and I were walking down Fifth Avenue and there was
a homeless person sitting right outside of Trump Tower, [...] and I remember my father
pointing to him and saying, 'You know, that guy has $8 billion more than me.'
"Because he was in such extreme debt at that point, you know?"
As later noted by The New York Times, Trump's businesses were hemorrhaging money based on
records obtained from 1985-1994. Trump's glossy empire of hotels and casinos was actually losing
close to $250 million a year from 1990-1991, and his grand total was a deficit of $1.7 billion
over a decade. While the losses are considerable, Ivanka's comments, which seemed to romanticize the
plight of the homeless, registered as privileged and tone-deaf. This was underscored by the fact
that most of her scenes in the documentary were shot in her father's $100 million penthouse.
There seems to be a pattern to the Trump kids' most unsavory comments.
While Ivanka Trump has been called out for tone-deaf comments, so has Donald Trump Jr.
"My best friend, my father: Donald Trump."
In 2018, Don Jr. went to India on business in the service of the Trump family real estate.
He told to CNBC,
"There is something about the Indian people that is unique here to other parts of the
emerging world. You go through a town, and I don't mean to be glib about it,
but you can see the poorest of the poor, and there is still a smile on a face,
you say hello. [...] That doesn't exist elsewhere and it always struck me. I know some of the most
successful people in the world, and some of them are the most miserable people in the world."
"And there's that spirit that really shines through.
And I think that speaks to the future potential of what this country can do."
He went on,
"Not to say that there aren't hardships. I understand that and fully recognize
that. But there is something that's different about the people here that
I have not seen to the same level in other parts of the emerging world."
People on Twitter quickly called him out. One person wrote,
"Wow it is a shame none of them will be able to afford a Trump condominium but
they should [have] worked harder. [...] Glad [they're] still in a good mood!!"
Another person Tweeted,
"They constantly show their ignorance. I'd love to see him live for 6 months
without his Daddy's money. [...] He is so tone deaf I can't even stand it."
Ivanka Trump got caught
in a famous Face the Nation interview from December 2019,
when she spoke with Margaret Brennan and was asked about Donald Trump's immigration policy,
which led to families being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump signed the policy in
April 2018. Brennan pointed out that Ivanka was initially vocal in her opposition to the policy.
"And I am very vehemently against family separation."
Brennan asked Ivanka to comment on the around 900 children who at
that time remained separated from their families.
"Is that something you continue to remain engaged on when it comes to immigration?"
Ivanka tried to dodge the question.
"Well immigration is not part of my portfolio, obviously."
Ivanka went on to say that the Trump administration was working
to prevent human trafficking across the border.
"Which this president has committed to
countering and combatting human trafficking in an incredibly comprehensive and aggressive way."
In tweets captured by the HuffPost, Ivanka was attacked online for her comments.
One person Tweeted,
"Ivanka's portfolio only [covers] photobombing and lots of vacations."
Following the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th,
Eric Trump made some comments that didn't go down well with audiences. The riot started
after Donald Trump gave a speech, making false claims that the election was taken from him.
"We will stop the steal."
Several of Trump's supporters were arrested following the insurrection, and Trump himself
was impeached for a second time. There were also repercussions on Trump's businesses.
In a speech on the House floor, Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, spoke against
impeaching Trump, but he also said Trump was responsible for the riot.
"The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters."
In contrast, Eric spoke with The Associated Press in an interview shortly after the riots
and blamed the backlash aimed at his father on, quote, "cancel culture." He told the AP,
"We live in the age of cancel culture, but this isn't something that started
this week. It is something that they have been doing to us and others for years.
If you disagree with them, if they don't like you, they try and cancel you."
Eric added of his father,
"You have a man who would get followed to the ends
of the Earth by a hundred million Americans. He created the greatest
political movement in American history and his opportunities are endless."
It's clear that the Trumps don't shy away from interviews,
part and parcel to their love of the spotlight. But in one case,
Ivanka Trump actually stormed out of an interview with Cosmopolitan. In September 2016,
Ivanka was questioned by the magazine about Donald Trump's childcare policy of six weeks
paid maternity leave, which only covered benefits for women who physically give birth to a child.
The interviewer, Prachi Gupta, posed the question to Ivanka, asking,
"In 2004, Donald Trump said that pregnancy is an inconvenient thing for a business.
It's surprising to see this policy from him today. Can you talk a little about
those comments, and perhaps what has changed?"
Ivanka replied,
"So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions. So I don't know how useful
it is to spend too much time with you on this, if you're going to make a comment like that."
Gupta apologized if the questions seemed negative but said they were relevant to the
president's stance on families in America. Gupta asked about other parents, saying,
"For same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men,
they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don't need to recover or anything?"
Ivanka replied,
"Well, those are your words, not mine. Those are your words."
She added that the Trump administration was focusing on mothers. When Gupta
asked about the Mexican wall, Ivanka abruptly ended the interview, saying,
"I'm going to jump off – I have to run. I apologize."
Ivanka Trump sat down with CBS' Norah O'Donnell
on CBS This Morning in 2016 to respond to allegations concerning her father that were
published in The New York Times about him groping women. Ivanka said in the interview,
"I found it to be pretty disturbing, based on the facts as I know them. And obviously,
I very much know them, both in the capacity as a daughter and — in the capacity as
an executive who's worked alongside of him at this company for over a decade."
"So I was bothered by it."
Ivanka stressed her disbelief in the claims, saying,
"It's been largely discredited. [...] Most of the time, when stories are inaccurate,
they're not discredited, and I will be frustrated by that. But in this case,
I think they went so far. [...] They had such a strong thesis and created facts
to reinforce it. [...] And, you know, I think that narrative is — has been playing out now."
"But he's not a groper. It's not who he is."
Trump himself responded to the Times piece on his now-deleted Twitter account,
saying on May 16, 2016,
"Over 50 women were interviewed by the [New York Times] yet they only wrote about 6.
That's because there were so many positive statements."
Trump continued to deny the allegations,
as did Ivanka, defending her father and stressing his support of women.
Ivanka Trump caused a stir in 2018 on Good Morning America with Deborah Roberts. Roberts asked
Ivanka about the violence seen on the border between the United States and Mexico, saying,
"There are some very shocking images coming across
these days at the border. [...] How have you responded to those images?"
Ivanka replied,
"I think like any other person with a heart. It's devastating to see the images
and seeing children put at risk, running towards the border is heartbreaking. "
"There's no other way to process it."
In turn, Roberts questioned Ivanka about some of her father's comments.
"Your father has authorized lethal force, he says, 'if necessary. Does that concern you?"
Ivanka replied,
"I don't believe that that's what he said. But his primary role as commander-in-chief is
obviously to protect the nation's borders."
"That is not, I think, something that anyone's talking about."
Later, Roberts spoke on ABC News and discussed her interview with Ivanka.
Roberts knew the exact dates when Trump had spoken about lethal force.
"She wasn't clear that he had said that. [...] She actually did not know that he
had come out and said 'lethal force was necessary'
and of course, she had a reaction to it. She doesn't feel good about that."
When the coronavirus pandemic was underway, Donald Trump Jr. spoke on Fox News and made
an astoundingly inaccurate claim. In October 2020, Don Jr. said that the
death toll from the coronavirus was, quote, "almost nothing." He told Fox,
"These people are truly morons. The reality is this — I put it up on my Instagram a couple
days ago, because I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections."
"But I was like, well why aren't they talking
about this? Oh, oh: because the number is almost nothing."
Don Jr.'s claims were flatly contradicted. The Washington Post jumped in, noting that
a thousand Americans died of the coronavirus the same day
Don Jr. made the comments, adding that the death count was, in fact, rising.
Twitter had a field day over Don Jr.'s comments too. One person Tweeted,
"The overflowing hospitals would disagree."
Another asked,
"[A thousand] Deaths are nothing??"
The Post also linked Don Jr.'s Instagram post that he was referring to which,
like Twitter, was full of comments calling him out. Someone wrote,
"Didn't exactly turn out this was the truth, did it."
Donald Trump Jr. made another appearance on Fox News, speaking with Sean Hannity. The
2017 interview came after news aired that Don Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in 2016 to get
information about Hillary Clinton that could be used against her on behalf of his father.
Don Jr. told Hannity,
"In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently. Again,
this is before the Russia mania. This is before they were building it up in the press. For me,
this was opposition research that had something,
maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I had been hearing about."
"So I think I wanted to hear it out."
Hannity pressed Don Jr. about the potential dangers involved in meeting with the Russians,
especially with what was circulating in the news at the time.
"When you read the parts about the Russian government, or Russia supporting your father,
did that put off any sirens in your head?"
Don Jr. replied,
"Honestly, I don't know. I mean, I think — this was, again,
just basic information that was going to be possibly there."
"But you know, people are trying to reach out to you all the time with this."
According to The Daily Beast, lawyers speculated that Don Jr.'s
show of ignorance could actually be a defense against prosecution.
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