Eric Trump on new NYT analysis of father’s taxes: ‘My father has lost a fortune’

Eric Trump defended his father’s business dealings in response a New York Times article published on Saturday that unveiled reported White House favoritism toward hundreds of companies, lobbying groups and foreign leaders who stayed at President Trump’s commercial properties.

The newspaper reported that the president used his political position to create new, more lucrative forms of income through his hotels and golf courses.

“We’ve lost a fortune. My father has lost a fortune running for president. He doesn’t care. He wanted to do what was right. The last thing I can tell you Donald Trump needs in the world is this job. He wakes up in the morning, and he has to fight you, and he has to fight the entire media. He has to fight the Democrats, and he gets punched in the head every single day,” Eric Trump told Jonathan Karl of ABC’s “This Week.”

NEW: “My father has lost a fortune,” Eric Trump tells @jonkarl when pressed on a NYT report that Pres. Trump turned “his own hotels and resorts into the Beltway’s new back rooms, where public and private business mix and special interests reign.” https://t.co/fsCP2um0H5 pic.twitter.com/MtZLiszs2K

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 11, 2020

Karl quickly interjected, asking for a response that directly addressed the claims made by the Times. Eric Trump instead called into question former Vice President Joe Biden’s finances.

“Go Google Biden’s house right now and tell me if you think that a person who’s been in government for 47 years can afford that mansion on the water in Wilmington, Del.,” he said. Both Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), released their tax returns right before the first presidential debate.

When Karl again asked him to address the article, Eric Trump said, “We’re a hospitality company. We’ve got tens of millions of people staying at our properties every single year. The New York Times is absolute fake news. All they want to do is take down my father.”

He then went on to claim that the media in the U.S. has become an “activist arm for the Democratic Party.”

Karl responded, “Eric, we’re asking legitimate questions.”