In a wide-ranging interview on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft, Trump Organization Executive Vice President Eric Trump weighed in on everything from Chicago’s persistent crime epidemic to the political and legal battles surrounding his family and father, President Donald Trump.
The conversation began with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s fiery response to President Trump’s recent comments criticizing the state’s failure to protect federal law enforcement officers operating in Chicago. Trump’s social media jab, suggesting Pritzker “should be jailed” for neglecting public safety, drew a theatrical rebuttal from the governor—one Eric Trump didn’t seem eager to defend.
“Listen, I love Chicago. I built our building there. I spent years in that city and put my heart into it,” Eric Trump said. “But the leadership has been shocking. You had 70 shootings last weekend. Seventy bullets flying through the air—and they don’t want to do anything about it. It’s heartbreaking.”
Trump argued that Chicago’s police force is capable of restoring order if city leaders would “take the handcuffs off” and let officers do their jobs. He pointed to his father’s handling of violent crime in Washington, D.C., claiming the Trump administration’s federal crackdown led to dramatic reductions in murders there.
“The cops in Chicago are amazing men and women,” he said. “If they were allowed to do their job, they could fix the city in no time. But every day, they’re stripped of immunity, prosecuted for split-second decisions, and told to stand down. There’s no incentive to act.”
The younger Trump also took aim at Illinois’ bail reform laws and what he described as a lack of accountability for repeat offenders. “Judges let violent criminals out three seconds later,” he said, recounting an incident in New York where a protester allegedly punched a police officer twice within minutes of being released. “This is what these silly policies are getting us.”
Beyond public safety, Trump discussed his family’s ongoing legal and political battles, detailed in his new book Under Siege: My Family’s Fight to Save Our Nation, which he said recently topped Amazon’s charts. He described years of “lawfare” aimed at bankrupting and silencing the Trump Organization and his father’s supporters.
“They did everything to destroy us—tried to de-bank us, de-platform us, and impeach my father twice,” Trump said. “We’ve beaten every one of those cases. We beat Letitia James in New York. We’ve never been stronger as a family or as a company.”
He also touched on his growing role outside politics, overseeing the family’s global business portfolio and diving deep into cryptocurrency ventures. His company, American Bitcoin, recently went public on the NASDAQ. “Bitcoin is digital gold,” Trump said. “It’s the future of finance—faster, cheaper, more transparent. The system we have now is archaic. Blockchain will change everything.”
When asked whether he foresees a political “reckoning” against those who targeted his father, Trump emphasized that he does not want more political prosecutions—but he does want accountability.
“My father could have gone after Hillary Clinton, but he thought it would be wrong,” Trump said. “Meanwhile, they raided our homes, leaked our tax returns, and tried to pull him off the ballot. I don’t want lawfare—I want justice. I want to know who broke the law and why they’re not being held responsible.”
Trump concluded on a personal note, saying his role is to “be his father’s best friend and biggest advocate.”
“We love Chicago,” he said. “We’ve invested hundreds of millions in that city. But if its leaders don’t start fighting for safety and sanity, it’s going to lose everything that once made it great.”