Donald will throw Eric under the bus - but the #2 son might surprise all and get in some licks
The line-up is set for the Trump family to testify in the Trump Organization’s existential civil fraud trial. First up on Wednesday is the oldest son, EVP Donald Trump Jr. The second son, EVP Eric Trump, follows either later or on Thursday. Next Monday, the Trump paterfamilias will take his sound and fury to the witness box. And lastly, Ivanka “I haven’t worked there in ages” Trump will do her best to look serene as she denies ever doing anything besides arranging flowers and stapling documents.
Beyond the generally expected avalanche of denial and obfuscation, I have no idea what the parties will specifically say. However, I think the most interesting back-stabbing will involve Donald Sr. and Eric.
Senior laid the groundwork for his “It wasn’t me” strategy during his deposition on April 13, 2023. During that interrogation, the prosecuting attorney opened the substantive portion of the seven-hour slog with a simple question of decision-making responsibility. It did not take long for Eric to see the bottom of the bus.
Q. Mr. Trump, are you currently the person with ultimate decision-making authority for the Trump Organization?
A. No.
Q. Who would that be?
A. My son Eric is much more involved with it than I am.
Trump continued to scrub his fingerprints off the evidence as he explained that he had put the business in a revocable trust and was not aware of what was going on.
“It, essentially, meant that I was not involved or at a very minimal -- I can't even think of anything where I was involved.”
It probably seemed like a winning strategy at the time. Unfortunately for Trump, people in the know have testified that he was the prime motivator of the fraud.
Worse for him, Eric will have an opportunity to do some distancing of his own. The #2 son has already started. In his deposition, Eric claimed he is nothing more than a construction laborer who moonlights as a building superintendent — while he knows nothing about the money. His exact words were:
“I don't recall this. I pour concrete. I manage properties. I don't focus on appraisals. It's just not what I do in my day-to-day responsibilities,'"
Eric is so desperate to be loved by his father (at least according to the memes) that he is beginning to sound like him. And they are both imitating Sgt. Shultz, “I know nothing.”
The Trump Organization is an international branding mill. The family name has been stuck on buildings from Dubai to South Korea — even, without any acknowledgment of the irony, in Mexico. Yet the business is nothing more than a glorified mom-and-pop store. Each family member can improve their standing only by chopping the legs off another.
Ivanka is sitting pretty. She is shielded by the statute of limitations and is not a party to the case. She will lose most, if not all, of her financial stake in the company. But she and her co-marital grifter, Jared, have other income streams beyond the imagination of avarice.
She has taken a beating in social status. The people who matter have turned their back on the notoriety. And she has fled to a gilded swamp in the land of alligators. But she will salve her hurt with bundles of the foldable. And maybe the Saudis are sparkling dinner guests.
Mini-Me Don Jr. is welded to his father. He will go down with the ship while bleating on social media about the socialist Voldemorts who have stollen his mojo. But Jr. is terrified of his father — and will say nothing to risk his progenitor’s wrath. He tried independence for one year after college. But that rumspringa is a faded memory. And the weakest link skulked back to the family fold — an eviscerated yes-man.
Eric is the less-known quantity. He has been a loyal son. And has defended his father and damned shadowy cabals for his legal troubles. But he is not nearly as splashed on social media as his drug-addled older brother. (Note: I do not know that Jr. is a drug abuser. But if he is not, he is doing a spot-on imitation of one.)
Time for a commercial break.
There is no definitive answer as to who is the dumbest Trump. As soon as you have locked in your pick, another will force you to recalculate. Eric is the choice of many. Yet, instead of adopting the desperate and doomed braggadocio of his Father and Jr., he has chosen the wiser path of relatively calm denial and less dramatic lying that makes him harder to pin down.
And because everyone thinks he is an idiot, his stumbling depositions are greeted with a “what do you expect from a moron” explication. And thus, he does not engender the primal revulsion the others do.
None of the Trumps will look good after their testimony. And regardless of what they say, their liability has already been adjudicated. All that remains undecided is the size and nature of the penalty. But I will be interested to see how aggressively each points at the others.
We all know that Senior will say and do anything to protect whatever reputation he thinks he has left — including child sacrifice. But I would not be surprised if Eric gets in some licks of his own. Although it is more likely — especially if Dad is sitting in court glaring at him malevolently — that the hesitant son will lose the plot and spiral out.
We will find out soon enough how the Trumps fare. And anyone who thinks they already know should pause. It is easy to say things when you suffer no legal penalty for saying them — especially in the friendly environs of the internet and RW media.
It is not so easy when your “interviewer” is not friendly. They are trying to catch you prevaricating. You are not playing on your home turf. And you are in legal jeopardy if you lie. Let the games begin.