Eric Trump seems different these days.
First, there’s the beard.
Then there’s the sunburn.
But at the end there is a smile.
Looking at him now, it’s hard to remember him as the punching bag on Saturday Night Live or the quiet figure at his father’s campaign rallies.
Instead, he’ll be onstage himself tonight, joining Hulk Hogan, Dana White and, of course, his father, Donald Trump, to close out the final night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
It’s a moment years in the making, but it comes less than a week after an assassin’s bullet nearly took the former president’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“He’s the toughest guy I’ve ever met,” Eric Trump told The Washington Post on the night of the attack.
Now he’s ready to tell the world even more, with just one speaker (Mr. White) left from the biggest political speech of the year.
The RNC will be a string of speeches, but the most important one will be Trump’s tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Becoming a member of that initiation group is a huge badge of honor, but Eric Trump says he wasn’t necessarily sure he’d receive it.
“My dad certainly pushed me to work hard,” Trump told The Washington Post when asked about his own rise within his father’s inner circle.
“He never wants us to go through anything we’re not ready to endure. But I’m ready now.”
It’s a shift driven by the often-overlooked business acumen that Trump calls his greatest strength.
In fact, the Trump family’s second son appears to be quietly inheriting his father and grandfather’s first and most sacred skill — the skill that made the entire family famous in the first place.
Eric Trump knows how to make money.
“Before 2016, we were everywhere,” he told The Post.
“When I was in Iowa, I remember everything was happening so fast; [Donald] He called me and said, ‘Hey, I want you to run the company,’ and then I just totally dove in. Since then, I’ve acquired all the assets, I’ve managed all the teams, and I have to say, I really found a new love in my life in the process.”
Trump said it was an honor to be approved by his father to take over, but he also recognized the heavy responsibility expected of him — a responsibility that underscores just how important the new Eric has become to the overall functioning of the ever-expanding Trump ecosystem.
“Like I said, my father makes you work hard,” he said. “Of course. Nothing in life is free. But at the same time, I don’t think anyone protects their inner circle better than my father, and we know that. He knew you couldn’t run a business and lead a country at the same time. And when he entrusted me with everything he had built in his life, I’ve never felt more determined to succeed.”
But its success was by no means guaranteed.
Trump said his father considered running in 2012 and ultimately ran, winning in 2016, but the family felt he wasn’t ready to step away from the business.
“Frankly, he still didn’t believe we could do it,” he said.
“I had to stand up and prove them wrong, but now I have a framed headline in my office that says, ‘This is all yours,’ and a note from my dad saying how we are the best. That’s when I knew change had really happened and I knew I had helped lift the burden of the business off my dad’s shoulders.”
The framing article, of course, came from the New York Post.
Eric currently serves as Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization alongside his brother Donald Jr., overseeing all aspects of management, operations and new project acquisition, development and construction of their global real estate empire.
It’s the role his father once played and built an empire around.
His son wants to expand that empire even further, and it’s this selflessness that makes Eric so special to the family – in fact, it makes him indispensable to them.
“You’ll see me a lot at events over the next few months, but if after he wins he doesn’t hear from me or see me for a year, I’d be totally fine with that,” he said.
“I’m much more comfortable chatting to a foreman in a hardhat or helping a cleaning team solve a staffing problem than I am in front of a reporter. This is how I can. I think this is what makes me, in a way, fatalistic in this big, complicated game. I can switch off. I can work in the background. Make fun of me all you want, hate my family, because I can’t hear you, because I’m at work.”
The Trump Organization is privately held and does not release detailed financial information or track its stock price, but it has seen impressive growth over the past seven years.
Since taking over from their father in January 2017, Eric and his brother have worked hard to grow the company, with notable projects including the $250 million redevelopment of Trump National Doral in Miami and the acquisition and renovation of Trump International in Ireland and Trump Turnberry in Scotland.
When asked if he thought he was running the company better than his father, Eric again demonstrated the incredible lack of ego that has made him such a reassuring and trustworthy figure among the Trump family.
“Nobody is better at business than Donald Trump,” he told the Post.
“I wouldn’t be so foolish as to say I’m doing better, but I can tell you it’s been a long journey, and I’m happy that we’re in the best place we’ve ever been.”
Eric Trump is scheduled to speak in Milwaukee tonight just after 9pm ET.
