Eric Trump faces pressure on his father’s support for Israel

Eric Trump faced hostile questions at a Turning Point USA event over his father’s relationship with Israel . Trump’s second son joined students at Auburn University on Wednesday night at a TPUSA tour event, honoring the late Charlie Kirk . During the question and answer phase of the event, one student pressed the younger Trump on the president’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The unidentified student asked Eric about Trump’s decision to bomb Iranian uranium nuclear facilities over the summer amid Iran’s 12-day war with Israel. ‘Even though he [Trump] advised against it, Israel still attacked Iran and the US still bombed on behalf of Israel,’ the student asked Eric as he sat on stage with his wife, Lara Trump, and TPUSA’s Benny Johnson. ‘Your father’s frustrations with Netanyahu have been made clear when he cursed on national TV over the situation.’

The student went on to claim that ‘Israel is a nation where Christians are constantly under attack in both Gaza and the West Bank. We talk about America first and defending Christians. But how can we do this if we align ourselves with a nation that does not do that itself?’ The president’s son responded by acknowledging that his father has had ‘frustrations with both sides’ in the Israel-Iran conflict. ‘No question my father has had frustrations. In fact, I think he’s had frustration throughout the whole conflict with both sides.’

Eric, however, went on to claim that Iran’s desire to manufacture a nuclear weapon remains a significant threat to the US, and helped inform Trump’s decision to bomb the country. ‘Make no mistake, you have a nation that is chanting Death to America every single day on the streets of Tehran. You have a nation that will develop a nuclear weapon, and you have a nation that will use that nuclear weapon against the Western way of life.’

The Justice Department under the Biden administration charged three Iranians with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp. for hacking the electronic accounts of Trump campaign aides. Moreover, the FBI informed Eric during the 2024 election that Iranian hackers were targeting his family’s Trump Organization company. Eric ended his remarks to the student by acknowledging that his father has been enraged with Netanyahu, but said it was used as a ‘tool’ to bring peace to the Middle East.

‘What I can tell you about my father is in terms of Israel, he wants a peaceful Middle East. He wants peace around the world,’ Eric noted. ‘So there have been times that he got mad at Netanyahu. There’s plenty of times where he’s gotten mad at Putin, there’s times where he’s been mad at Zelensky, and he uses all of that as a tool to stop pain and destruction and death of people that are your age.’

The unidentified student previously responded to Eric’s comments by claiming the Israeli government under Netanyahu has mistreated Trump. ‘It’s just sad to see, because I’ve never seen the American President get treated the way he does by the Israeli government.’

Despite implementing the first stages of Trump’s peace agreement in Gaza, Israel has resumed warring with neighboring Lebanon on Thursday after striking several towns with aerial bomb jets. The Israeli military claims the airstrikes targeted military infrastructure for Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militants, in Southern Lebanon.