The second son of former president Donald Trump , Eric Trump , has been performing his political campaigning duties diligently. During a rally in Iowa recently, he stirred up feelings of the “working class” asserting that at the age of eleven, he had experience working on construction sites. Grateful that his billionaire father let him labor for a minimal wage, he revealed working “on construction sites cutting rebar with acetylene torches, doing plumbing and electrical, running tractors, backhoes, chain saws, digging holes.”
As per OK Magazine , however, his speech invited ridicule from political watchers who mocked his statement on X.
Eric Trump was laying stone at construction sites at age 11? Was that to save building costs? Hope his on-site work was permitted. OSHA knew kids worked on Trump site? https://t.co/QiDyAoxJt0
— Karin McKenna (@KarinMcKenna4) September 22, 2022
One X user wrote, “I don’t know which is a bigger stretch, that Trump was a great dad or that construction crews would let a fifth-grader operate an acetylene torch.” A second user commented, “Besides lying, Eric is also heavily insinuating that Donnie broke like every child labor law ever created.” A third user expressed sarcastically, “I wonder if Donald ever failed to pay his kids like he’s done so many of his employees in the past.”
As reported by The Independent , during an exclusive interview in October 2023 with Senate hopeful Kari Lake on her popular The Kari Lake Show the younger Trump made the same statements while recalling his childhood and working under the direction of his father. “What kind of a dad was he?” the Lake had asked then. “I can’t imagine you guys got away with a lot. Or, was he constantly telling you guys how to behave or was it pretty hands-off?”
HAHA the great thing about lying is that you can say whatever you want. Fortunately no one sane will believe it… Eric Trump Claims He Worked On Construction Sites At Age 11 https://t.co/Qnt9fuFjUz
— YkB Urban (@YkBUrban) September 22, 2022
The Republican leader’s son said his father was “strict,” had “high expectations of us,” and “made us work very very hard.” “I was on construction sites when I was 11, 12 years old,” Trump continued, adding that he recalled “breaking down walls, sheetrock, plumbing.”
The Kari Lake Show Ep. 3: Exclusive Interview with Eric Trump! pic.twitter.com/ox2mfV97aA
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 12, 2023
“So you know how a skyscraper is built?”Lake inquired further. “We were making minimum wage and he put us on those sites because my father cared about work ethic,” he responded. “There was no free time, there was no nonsense.” “If you want a bike, you’re going to go work for it,” Trump shared while outlining his father’s strict rules, he also added that the fixed labor schedule kept him and his siblings ‘out of trouble’. “You start working at 6:30 in the morning on a construction site, you finish at 4. You’re exhausted. You don’t have time to go out and party,” he recalled.
“Second of all, if you’re making minimum wage, the last thing you’re going to spend your money on is booze and drugs. So not only did he hire you out and teach you a skill, but he didn’t let you have the funds you needed to otherwise partake in awful habits or whatever you want to call them,” Trump concluded saying. “He was an amazing father.”