The Son Donald Trump Claimed Was More Involved In The Family Business Than Him

Donald Trump followed in his father's footsteps by getting into the real estate world. The former president began working in the family business, eventually took control of it in 1971, and renamed it the Trump Organization. The next generation of Trumps did much the same, with Donald Sr.'s three eldest kids — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — joining the family business. 

While Donald Sr. was in the White House, Donald Jr. and Eric were put in charge of the company, and both Donald Jr. and Eric are still listed on the Trump Organization website as executive vice presidents. "Together, Don, Eric, and [CFO Allen Weisselberg] will have the authority to manage the Trump Organization and will make decisions for the duration of the presidency without any involvement whatsoever by President-elect Trump," said lawyer Sheri Dillon, who was representing Trump at the time, in 2017.

There has been speculation that Donald Sr. used his son Eric's elevated position within the company to seemingly distance himself from some allegedly dodgy dealings in his April 2023 deposition in connection with New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit against the Trump Organization. Donald Sr. was asked, "Are you currently the person with ultimate decision-making authority for the Trump Organization?" When Donald Sr. said no, he was asked who was the one in charge. "My son Eric is much more involved with it than I am," Donald Sr. said. "I've been doing other things."

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, about how Donald's loyalty would only go so far. "I keep repeating myself over and over and over. Donald doesn't care about anyone [sic] of you and will look to make you the scapegoat," Cohen wrote, adding in a reply to that tweet, "This includes throwing his own kids under the bus." Donald Sr.'s testimony about Eric Trump was his example.

Cohen has had his own rocky relationship with the Trump patriarch that gives some color to his commentary. Cohen was a loyal employee of Donald Sr.'s, even going so far as to reportedly help pay off Stormy Daniels on Donald Sr.'s behalf to keep an alleged affair with Donald Sr. quiet in the run-up to the 2016 election. But in 2018, when Donald Sr. was asked about the payments to Daniels, he denied having anything to do with it and told people to ask Cohen. This seems to have signaled the end of their relationship with some feeling that Cohen had been used as a scapegoat so Donald Sr. could save himself. Shortly after, Cohen flipped on his boss and started cooperating with prosecutors.

Tim O'Brien, a New York Times investigative reporter who wrote "Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald," also saw that moment in Donald Trump's deposition as somewhat shady when it came to his son. "There's a little whiff of him throwing Eric under the bus there," O'Brien said on MSNBC. "No decision is ever made in the Trump Organization without Donald Trump approving it." So it seems a little suspicious to O'Brien that Donald Sr. named Eric as the decision maker. Admittedly, Donald Sr. didn't say he was entirely out of the loop at the company; he said in the deposition that he'd be involved if there was "something major, final decisions, whatever."

The case against Donald Sr. and the Trump Organization is focused on whether the company fraudulently inflated the worth of its assets to attain favorable rates from banks and insurance companies for years. A judge has ruled that fraud did occur, and Donald Sr. lashed out at the judge in response. Donald Sr. and his eldest three children all testified in the trial, essentially denying wrongdoing.

Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, has asked the judge for a $370 million fine — up $120 million from the start of the trial — and to bar Donald Sr. and his children from running any businesses in New York. Once the ruling comes in, we'll be able to see if Donald Sr. saying Eric was the one more involved results in any larger fine for him.