Eric Trump said he believes Ivanka Trump likely had influence over their father’s decision last week to launch a missile strike on a Syrian military airfield.
During an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Eric Trump said he thinks the first daughter encouraged President Trump to launch the airstrikes last week in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that killed dozens of civilians.
“Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I’m sure she said: ‘Listen, this is horrible stuff,’” Eric Trump told the Telegraph.
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“My father will act in times like that.”
Eric Trump said his father was against “doing anything with Syria” two years ago.
“Then a leader gasses their own people, women and children,” Eric Trump said.
“At some point America is the global leader and the world’s superpower has to come forward and act and they did with a lot of support of our allies and I think that’s a great thing.”
Eric Trump added he felt his father was “deeply affected” by the pictures that surfaced in the aftermath of the chemical attack in northern Syria, which was allegedly carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“I stay out of politics and I stay out of the administration, but you can tell he was deeply affected by those images of the children,” Eric Trump said.
“There isn’t a single decent person in the world who saw those images and saw those kids being sprayed down by hoses to keep their skin from burning, who wasn’t deeply affected by what happened over there.”
After the U.S. launched the missile strike on Syria last week, Ivanka Trump tweeted praise for the decision.
“The times we are living in call for difficult decisions,” the first daughter said in a tweet last week. “Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity.”
