Under Siege: My Family's Fight to Save Our Nation

Eric recounts the transition after the election, emphasizing steps to formalize separation between the presidency and the family business with the help of “the best attorneys and ethics experts” (83). He cites the January 2017 press conference in which Donald Trump outlined a plan for management and oversight while distancing himself from daily operations. Eric then describes the continued scrutiny over potential conflicts, regardless of the supposed separation. Eric presents his role as operational: Handling acquisitions and dispositions, litigations and covenants, while elected officials and opponents spread stories about corruption. He goes into specifics about deals such as the eventual sale of the Old Post Office hotel, the decision to forego hosting the G7 at a Trump property, and responses to international trade disputes that placed the family name inside policy debates which, Eric believes, were not legitimate. Eric believes that the business was attacked by bad faith political actors who opposed his father’s politics, even though Donald Trump was securing better deals due to his desire to “negotiate everything” (88).

Eric also traces legislative and rhetorical efforts to limit presidential business activity, framing them as partisan. Eric argues that institutional players often conflated branding with policymaking and that the organization had to absorb reputational costs from controversies with little connection to property operations.