THE Trump family’s relationship with the American media, particularly CNN and the New York Times could not be described as convivial. However, speaking to The Clare Champion in Doonbeg this week, Eric Trump has expressed particular distaste for how elements of the American media have written or spoken about his brother Barron, who turned 11 last month.
“There was an unspoken rule for years that you do not attack the (young) children of the President of the United States. They have nothing to do with the administration. They didn’t have any part in being put in that role. They are very willing to attack him and I find that awful. They are willing to attack (sister) Tiffany as well. If they attack me the difference is I was out on the campaign trail, side by side with him for 18 months. I put myself in the cross fire so tee off on me but it’s sad when they do it to them. If I have a microscope on my head, that’s fine. I’m a big person. I have to live very cleanly and I do. I need to carry myself well but that’s part of being an adult. We all have to do the same thing,” Eric Trump commented.
His dislike of elements of the traditional media is not something that Eric Trump seeks to hide.
“There is a level of hatred that hasn’t been seen before. You have bad eggs in the profession. I can’t tell you how many times unnamed sources are not sources. You see all of these articles but they never had a source. I think based on how big an industry it has come, there are a million means in which to convey information. I think a lot of these writers have found that the more sensational they become, they more they are noticed. There isn’t a day that you can’t find some little blogger, that has three followers, that isn’t writing the most outlandish stories in the hope of getting one more follower.”
He is certain in his view that the US media is out of touch with the American people.
“The media, most of which is parked in mid town New York, were talking about the issues of the country when they have never made it over one of the rivers. They are in New York going to their socialite parties every night, while you have factory workers in Ohio, Carolina, Michigan and so many others who are losing their jobs and haven’t got a pay increase in 15 years. They are seeing all of that and then they are preached to on TV by somebody who lives in mid town New York. The problem is that the majority of the media has lost touch with the majority of people in the country. They didn’t see the passion where people were painting their barns with an American flag and Trump on the roof. They lost their connection with the people of the country while they preached from their ivory tower.”
Eric Trump attributes some of his father’s success to his enmity with the media.
“I think the reason his message was so loud and clear was because he was honest. He wasn’t politically correct. He was speaking to people like a normal person. In doing so, he won the confidence of a lot of people. He said a lot of things that were very popular, that the media said weren’t popular. He wasn’t afraid to say them. I think that message ultimately won the day. If he walked across the water, as one pundit said, to save a drowning child, some media would come out with the story that he couldn’t swim. I think a lot of journalism has been lost to click bait. I think a lot of journalistic integrity has been lost. Right now for the first time in the United States, media has a lower approval rating than Congress. Congress didn’t make double digits,” Eric Trump pointed out.
Meanwhile, Eric Trump denied that his father is completely oblivious to global warming.
“His point has always been, in terms of regulation, you have to be reasonable. You can’t just shut down every single industry. You can’t put every person in the United States out of a job because you want to to comply with regulations, 99% of which have zero impact on anything. Believe me my father is the biggest believer in clean water and clean air. At the same time he is also a big believer in jobs, in industry, in making things and in people not having to be subsided by the government. When one kills the other, there is a little bit of a balancing act needed. You can probably achieve 95% of your intended mission, clean water and clean air by doing some really smart, sensible things. No one wants a dirty environment but at the same time, you can’t put every single company totally out of business,” he said.
“You see other countries, they are doing nothing about these issues. Every power plant we have has scrubbers on it and this and that. It’s so regulated. You look at other countries, they are dumping crap into the sea, they are building islands in the middle of oceans from coral reefs. A population of 320 million compared to other places. You’ve got billions of people in other countries who are doing nothing yet America is losing industry because of over regulation. He’s not against clean water for clean air. He’s for commons sense regulation, not industry destroying regulation,” Eric Trump insisted.
By Peter O’Connell
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.