Eric Trump ‘Sure’ Sister Ivanka Pushed For Syria Strike

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By Daniel J. Solomon April 12, 2017

Ivanka Trump might have made the difference when it came to President Trump’s decision last week to attack a Syrian airbase following dictator Bashar al-Assad use of chemical weapons on thousands of civilians.

“Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I’m sure she said: ‘Listen, this is horrible stuff,’” first son Eric told Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

He added, “She is not involved in everything. I think she comes and goes with issues she deeply cares about but when you get to a certain level of power a lot of times, and you see this in business too, a lot of times people will say yes just because you happen to be the boss.”

Ivanka is now a special assistant in her father’s West Wing, while Eric and brother Don Jr. are busy running the family’s real estate, golf resort and hotel business. She applauded the president’s strike on Syria in a tweet that cited the Assad regime’s human rights abuses.

She and husband Jared Kushner are seen as key players within the administration, and possible sources of moderation for a White House that has seemed erratic to many outside followers. But their influence has worried some on the far-right, some of whom have denounced the couple in anti-Semitic terms as puppet-masters.

Ivanka has been coy about her influence within the government, telling CBS News in an interview recently that “I’ll weigh in with my father on issues that I care about,” advising critics not to “conflate the lack of public denouncement with silence.”

She added cryptically: “Most of the impact I have over time, most people will not know about it.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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