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

Eric was at home watching the July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with his family when he heard “the crack of gunshots” (218) through the broadcast. He describes seeing blood on his father’s ear as Secret Service agents swarmed the stage. He relates the shot’s distance at roughly 130 yards and notes that his father turned his head to glance at a border chart just before the bullet struck, implying a near-miss that could have changed history. He recalls a massive flag twisting in the wind, looking like an “angel” (219), and the charged stillness of a worldwide broadcast.

He details the chaos of calls and texts, a friend offering a plane within an hour, and the long moments before agents helped his father stand. The next day, Donald Trump told him that “nothing changes” (225). In the aftermath of this event, his father displayed a renewed commitment, setting up the Republican National Convention and a campaign defined by resolve rather than fear. Just two months later, on September 15, a second assassination attempt was foiled, providing further evidence for Eric of the violence directed at his family. Eric thanks the members of the security detail for their help, shares his frustrations that the attempt was possible, and describes the way in which his family and his party rallied around Donald Trump in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.

The closing chapter returns to the campaign trail after the attempted assassinations. Eric Trump describes how he felt “extremely confident” (234) going into election day, convinced that signs pointed to victory while acknowledging lessons from 2020 about mail voting and process disputes. Donald Trump holds late-night rallies through early Election Day, culminating in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after midnight, which Eric frames as both campaigning and a thank-you tour. Invited onstage with his siblings and spouse, Eric delivers a tribute casting his father as a tireless fighter who endured investigations, impeachments, censorship, and a raid, and vows family loyalty. On the predawn flight back to Florida, the family listens to a wide mix of music before heading into Election Day.

At Mar-a-Lago, the “exhausted” (236) team keeps the watch party small. Eric praises campaign manager Susie Wiles as calm and publicity averse, arguing that Wiles’s role as campaign manager disproves media narratives about his father’s sexism. Cautious optimism prevails while Eric shuttles between the ballroom and a data room. He credits Lara Trump, as RNC co-chair, for pushing early voting among Republicans and claims the party finally blunted Democratic advantages there. He fixates on Pennsylvania, recounting alleged irregularities, access fights over poll watchers, and investigations into registrations, portraying the state as pivotal. As results roll in, networks call Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida for Donald Trump. North Carolina follows, which the room celebrates as a personal win for Lara. Internally, staff conclude that Pennsylvania is secured, and the media later calls it, triggering celebration. Eric highlights flipping Miami-Dade by a large margin and claims broad demographic gains. He says his father writes speeches only after winning, preferring to spend the final hours campaigning.

Two days later, Eric calls to congratulate his father and announces that he is “officially retiring” (240) from politics to focus on family and the Trump Organization. He describes phones lighting up with job seekers and former critics. He says world leaders quickly reached out with changed tones and notes a call from New York’s governor despite past antagonism. These episodes prompt reflections on loyalty, resilience, and staffing with people who endured lows as well as highs.

Eric argues the 2024 result discredited mainstream media, pollsters, and celebrity influencers, citing pundits who sought access despite having harshly criticized his father when he was out of office. He contrasts his father’s willingness to reset relationships with his own harder line. He promotes a governing vision focused on cheaper energy, reshored manufacturing, public order, border security, school quality, and shrinking bureaucracy, while rejecting DEI priorities. He recasts impeachments, social-media bans, and legal battles as fuel that strengthened a movement, culminating in a successful comeback. The chapter closes with inauguration scenes at Arlington and the Capitol, brief encounters with tech leaders, gratitude to supporters, and a final claim that all 50 states shifted Republican, which he calls “a good start” (248).

Eric argues that losing in 2020 ultimately strengthened Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement by exposing the shortcomings of Democratic governance and giving Trump time to recalibrate, rebuild a team, and return to Washington as a seasoned, “battle-tested” (249) leader. Eric portrays the current moment as fundamentally different from 2016: Trump reenters office with a zero-tolerance approach to bureaucracy, a strong cabinet, Republican control of Congress, a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, victories in seven swing states, and a weakened mainstream media replaced by independent platforms. Eric describes the Republican Party as reborn under an unapologetic “America First” banner, with “Trump 2.0” (250) acting more aggressively and confidently.

Eric writes how the “quiet” (250) support for his father in 2016 turns to open endorsement in 2024, illustrated by a flight attendant who loudly professes support and delivers handwritten notes to the family. He revisits the trajectory from ridicule to victory, asserting that the Russia-collusion narrative was fabricated by Hillary Clinton’s camp, allegedly backed by George Soros, and shielded by Barack Obama; citing newly declassified documents, Eric claims that this “hoax” was designed to distract from Clinton’s emails. Eric further claims that Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, engaged in a pay-to-play scheme, and he highlights the supposed collapse or discrediting of prosecutions by Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith, and Letitia James, though in fact his father was convicted on all 34 counts in the Bragg case and escaped consequences only by winning re-election. Eric declares that “woke is dead” (252), the border secured, Democrats exposed, and Trump’s voice the world’s loudest after prior social-media bans. Eric boasts that despite slander, lawfare, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and an assassination attempt, his father and his family have emerged victorious.

Eric frames the past decade as a family trial shouldered collectively for the nation’s sake, guided by faith, love of country, and the Constitution. Eric links his father’s books The Art of the Deal and The Art of the Comeback to their experience of rise, crisis, and resurgence. He describes assuming a quasi-patriarchal role at 33 to protect the business and create space for his father’s political mission. He asserts there was no roadmap; they “wrote [their] own” (253), winning by sacrifice for their children and the country. Eric closes with thanks to supporters and a call to persist, casting the movement as a cause and a rebirth of core American ideals, concluding that the family stood under siege but did not break and now rises “stronger. Freer. Unafraid” (254).