Eric Trump warns of UK revolt over war on farmers – ‘fight like hell’ | Politics | News

Donald Trump’s second son Eric has delivered a firm warning to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party as he tells UK farmers to “fight like hell”.

Speaking to GB News, Donald Trump’s third child warned Labour of a “revolt” over their “war on farmers” who he says have been “totally mistreated” – and told them they have a friend in America.

But he said he believes the UK and the US could have a free trade deal as long as it was mutually beneficial because his father loves the UK.

He told the TV channel: “Many of the things that you’re seeing over here are things that we saw five, ten years ago. You’re seeing some of the issues that the UK is running into. You see the war on farmers right now. It’s very sad to see, but we saw this in the United States in a very big way. You saw the war on oil and gas; we saw that in the United States, and people frankly revolted when their oil and gas prices went through the roof, when they can no longer afford to heat their homes, when they can no longer afford to drive their cars.

“When, you know, gas prices went up four times compared to my father’s first term in office, and people revolted and I suspect the same sentiments are going to happen on this side of the pond and in the UK.”

Discussing the recent farmers’ protests in the UK, he drew comparisons between the United Kingdom and the United States.

“We love the farmers over here, I can say that unequivocally,” he said. “It’s sad what’s happened over here. And it was really sad, actually, what was happening in the United States and it seems like there’s a lot of commonality.

“The differences now, I think the farmers really have a voice and I hope the farmers here find the same voice that the farmers in the US found. And by the way, I can say that of a lot of industries over here who have been totally mistreated; the greatest oil and gas in the world is in Aberdeen. Arguably the greatest in the world and the way they’ve been treated is horrible. All while buying oil from Russia, buying oil from Iran: it makes no sense to me.

“America was under that same path as well. And again, the people of our country rejected it categorically and our path has changed. It’s done a 180 two weeks ago.

“You’ve got the greatest natural resources in the world in Aberdeen and unlimited oil and gas. And this great benefit to all of Europe and it’s a great benefit to a country who’ll otherwise become dependent on countries around the world, who do not have your best interest at heart or America’s best interest: really the best interest of the West at heart.”

In a message to UK farmers, he told them to “fight like hell”.

He added: “We love [farmers] and we’re sorry they were treated horribly [in the US] So oftentimes the farms are taken away. So oftentimes regulation kills their businesses, making it impossible for them to put food on the table. They were taxed to death. They were regulated to death. The cost of fuel killed them. Absolutely killed them. Um, inheritance tax, which my father actually eliminated for farmers in the United States.

“You know, so many farmers were land wealthy and cash poor and all of a sudden, you’d have the patriarch or the matriarch of the family die. The farm would be in their name, and all of a sudden they had to pay 50% inheritance tax on a massive piece of land.

“And what do you think happened? There was no longer a second generation or a third generation of farmers. That farm was sold, typically to a big company. And the true kind of very wholesome farmer who wanted to work the land, their land with their own hands, failed to exist and it went to some massive conglomerate.

“And that was not good for society. And so my father eliminated the inheritance tax as related to the transfer of agriculture. He helped them tremendously. He also helped with massive subsidies that were super important. He helped by deregulating the farms. I mean, they’re being buried in paperwork in the United States. He deregulated that.

“I see what’s happening to the farmers over here and it directly mirrors so much of the strife that so many of the farmers in the United States had for so long. A lot of governments have come out to almost be anti farmer and I haven’t quite figured out why. I mean it feels like there’s some of the greatest people you have in society right? I mean they’re people that wake up at the crack of dawn, one of the hardest jobs.

“These are tough, gritty, hardworking people who generally are incredibly patriotic and just want to work and be left alone. And my heart goes out to them because these are, these are real people who are doing the right thing. They’re not lazy. They’re not trying to live off a subsidy.

“So I guess my message to them would be, go out, fight, fight like hell. Make your voices heard and hopefully you achieve the same result that we achieved on the opposite side of the pond. But, you have a friend in us, and you have a friend in our family.”

Mr Trump is a trustee and executive vice president of his father’s business, the Trump Organization, running it alongside his older brother Donald Jr, and was a boardroom judge on his father’s television series The Apprentice.

He discussed whether the UK should align more closely with the EU or with the US and responded to comments made by senior Labour figures saying it would have been “a lot easier had they just stayed on the sideline”, while the people of the US voted.

And he claims he fully expected his dad to regain the White House.

“I was expecting [the win]. But I was too superstitious to say it,” he said. “We work so hard as a family. My father worked so tirelessly. I was out there every single day, my wife was out there every single day. She was running the RNC [Republican National Committee]. I was in every state around the country. Don was out there.

“I mean, it was really kind of a big family effort but my father did the impossible, and this wasn’t a small one. This was a gigantic win, not in terms of just the Electoral college. He had 312 electoral votes, which is one of the highest ever but also won the popular vote in the United States by close to five million votes. And it was a tremendous victory.

“And it’s total vindication for so much of the nonsense that they put us through for, for so many years.

“People were sick and tired of the nonsense. People are sick and tired of the liberal policies. They were sick and tired of seeing what was happening to our country, to our patriotism, to our economy. They were sick and tired of seeing the wars break out all over the world. They were sick and tired of seeing us spend hundreds of billions of dollars in every war in foreign lands and not actually invest in our own people. They were sick and tired of high taxes.

“In fact, you’re dealing with many of the same things over here. But there was a massive referendum in the United States where people said we’ve had enough, and we want sanity back. And it was a beautiful thing to see, and I think you’re going to see the same thing follow in a lot of elections around the world.”

He added: “There are people taking their shots at us. We see that every single day. We saw that last week. As a matter of fact, I think it’s foolish. I think it’s counterproductive in so many ways. But believe me, it doesn’t keep me up at night. There are plenty of other things in the world that keep me up at night but that’s not one of them.

“We want the greatest economy. We want safe borders. We want a safe world. We want America to be the greatest superpower. We want capable leadership. We want somebody fighting for the United States of America, being a cheerleader for the United States of America; all of the things that we haven’t had under Joe Biden, and all of the things that we wouldn’t have had under Kamala Harris.

“People want somebody who’s going to fix their economy, allow them to live what we call over there, the American dream, right. It’s so coveted around the world. And listen, the American dream was being lost in America. And frankly, that dream, that same dream, that same concept is being lost in so many countries around the world.

“You feel it over here. So much of Europe, so much of the world, feels it. Look at all these war torn zones all over senseless conflicts. They don’t need it, right? People’s houses are gone. Their apartment buildings are bombed, their children are killed. You know, beautiful young boys who are 22, 23 years old, they’re fighting in dirty trenches. They come around a little corner and they get shot in the head for, for what reason?

“Thousands a day in Ukraine, young Russian and young Ukrainian men. And you go on YouTube every single night and the first thing that pops up is some video of some drone blowing some poor kids to smithereens, and you’re paying for it, and we’re paying for it. And it’s crazy and it’s sad and it’s senseless and I think people want the games to stop. And Donald Trump will stop those games.

“Trump will stop the wars. He’ll stop the nonsense. He’ll stop the violence. I think he’ll get the hostages back in record time. I think, again, some of the hostages are back before he even enters office.

“You have Hamas that’s now standing down. You have Iran that’s taking a very different posture than they were before. He’s not even president, he’s president elect and you already see transformational change around the world. And that’s not just good for the United States of America, that’s good for world order. That’s good for all Western civilization. I mean, that’s a net benefit and I’m proud of him.

“As a son, I’m really proud of what he’s accomplished and trust me, it would have been a hell of a lot easier for this guy to pack it in. Say, ‘You know what? This isn’t worth it. I’ve got the most beautiful golf courses in the world. I’ll just go play Aberdeen every single day.’

“And instead, the guy goes out every single day, 20 hours a day, cries and grinds and grinds, and they put him in freezing cold courtrooms. And yet he grinds and goes to fundraisers late at night and makes it work and press conference after press conference. And, and you see the fruits of that labour now in terms of the world. And I think the whole world is viewing life through a very different lens.

“I think a big weight has been lifted off of so many people’s backs. I think it’s given hope to so many people, and not just in the United States, all around the world. I really think it’s restored hope and faith. The same thing can happen in other countries around this world. I think he deserves credit for all of it.”

Discussing comments made by Sadiq Khan and other Labour MPs, he railed against it as “unhelpful” and blasted he “doesn’t care about the Mayor of London”.

Eric Trump said: “I don’t think it helps. I think it’s tone deaf that there are certain leaders of certain countries who, two days before a US election comes out and calls it incorrectly for the opposite party. That in the biggest blowout election in arguably American history, do I think that helps foreign relations? No, I don’t think that helps foreign relations.

“I think Donald Trump could be the greatest president in the history of the United States to the United Kingdom. You know, you might want to pick up the phone and just say congratulations. I don’t know why that’s below some of these people. It’s just once in a while, just being nice and kind and decent can get you a lot. [Trump and Starmer] had a beautiful, they had a nice conversation.

“I don’t know if [Sadiq Khan and Donald Trump] have spoken but I do see the rhetoric and again, doesn’t keep me up at night. But oftentimes I reflect on the fact that I think is just foolish. Foolish when you have somebody who would otherwise be the greatest advocate for maybe the two greatest allies that the world could ever have, which is in the United States and the UK.

“We have been bound at the hip. We have been bound culturally for so long. We have the same interests globally and sometimes it’s infuriating when you have leaders that maybe want to get a couple additional clicks on Twitter or Facebook. I don’t even think it does that for them, to tell you the truth, but they run out and they say bombastic things. They usually call it wrong, by the way. I don’t think that does help relations between two countries.

“It would have been a lot easier had they just stayed on the sideline, let the people of a country, of an independent nation vote, and then embrace whoever the ultimate leader was that was chosen by the people of that nation. Honestly, I don’t give a damn about the Mayor of London. These are not the things that keep me up at night. I can tell you he does not either.

“I can promise you, I don’t go to bed at night thinking about what one of 200 world leaders thinks at any given moment. He doesn’t give a damn. He understands it’s just a game. When you start letting those things bother you, I’m telling you, it’s just going to weigh you down.

“My advice would be to maybe be a little kind and maybe treat a few other countries and other world leaders with a little respect. Typically honey attracts more than vinegar and I think people could probably live by those words. Be nice, be kind. We have got the greatest relationship of two superpowers, arguably ever. We have a union that’s never been divided. Don’t try for your own politically motivated purposes.”

And he hinted at tariffs on the European Union.

“I think it’s America’s role to guide everybody through that kind of new dawning of reality and I’m not just talking about the UK,” he said. “I’m not just talking about Europe. Certainly those will follow quickly. But I can tell you there’s a lot of Middle Eastern countries, a lot of countries in the Gulf that are desperate for America to continue to guide the world.

“Because when you have a weak power structure in America, you have a weak world. It’s just the reality of how it works. Iran wasn’t firing hundreds of missiles when you had a strong president. In fact, Iran was bankrupt. All of a sudden you have a power vacuum, you have a weak president in the United States. And they become rich, they become emboldened, and the world goes to hell.

“I think [import tariffs] are ultimately his call to make. And I think the tariffs are normally in response to something. My father’s not a guy who just wants to tariff people just for fun. I mean, China has been sending their crap to America for years and we try and send a truck to China. They’ll let us sit on a ship for six months and then they’ll send it back. Then when we decide to put tariffs on them, they’ll say, oh, well, that’s not free trade. It’s like, well you wouldn’t take our truck, but yet you want to dump all your crap into the United States of America, put all our workers out of jobs? No, that’s not going to happen.

“If the European Union was to tariff us as they have before then sure, he would absolutely tariff them. So I think it really is going to ultimately depend on the actions of various countries. And if true free and fair trade can be established, I think there’s no one who would love it more than my father. If that can’t be established, I think he would use tariffs.

“I think my father generally likes free trade, but free trade has not been free. And so people like to hide behind the guise of the world’s free trade, but it’s just the guise of cheap workers. And so as a country, we’ve been ripped off by everyone. We’ve been ripped off by China, we’ve been ripped off by Vietnam, we’ve been ripped off by the European Union. We’ve been ripped off by NATO. We’re the only country that was fulfilling our total 4.4% of GDP to NATO. You had all these other big countries around the world, including Germany at the time, that’s contributing 1% to NATO and getting gas from Russia at the same time. Go figure.

“They’re making a country wealthy while not contributing their fair share. Well, we’re contributing our 4% of a much larger GDP to these causes. And I’m telling you, that’s not going to happen after Donald Trump. The days of America being stupid are over. It won’t happen. I think my father would love nothing better to have a great relationship with the UK. He adores this country hence the reason he’s put hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into building the greatest property on earth. There’s no place in the world he’d rather have a right relationship with. But he still has to protect the financial interests of the United States of America.

“So I think he would love to see a great trade deal. I think he’d like to see a trade deal that reciprocated for both parties. I can tell you, if anybody thinks they’re going to pull the wool over his eyes and have some kind of one-sided trade arrangement where they’re getting all the benefit and the United States is getting none? I can tell you that that won’t work, and it’s not going to work for anybody.”