Why Two Of Donald Trump’s Kids Didn’t Vote For Him In The 2016 Primaries

Eric Trump acknowledged being new to the voting process when he first intended to cast a ballot for his father, Donald Trump. “It was our first kind of foray into politics,” Eric told Anderson Cooper in a CNN town hall the week before the 2016 primaries, per The Wrap. Both Eric and his sister, Ivanka Trump, also missed a deadline the previous autumn to switch party enrollment (the current rules of the NYC Board of Elections specify that anyone wishing to change party affiliations must do it before February 14 in order to vote in a primary). However, both of them learned a lot from it. 

Fortunately for Donald, he didn’t need his children’s votes to win the Republican nomination or even the White House that year, and he harbored no hard feelings about the gaffe. Donald didn’t tap Eric for an advisory position in his administration, but this was no doubt because Eric was holding down the family fort at the Trump Organization as its executive vice president, a post he still holds. 

Now that Donald is making his third bid for office, Eric is offering his unwavering support at every opportunity. He has also spoken out publicly and on social media against his father’s four indictments, telling The Telegraph, in September 2023: “What has happened in the last five months will make him president of the United States again.”