Donald Trump’s Son Says Waterboarding Is More Like College Hazing Than Torture


Despite a plethora of unorthodox positions regarding issues and prospective policies, Donald Trump has managed to maintain an enthusiastic base of supporters, including his own children, some of whom have joined him on the campaign trail in recent weeks. Thus far, his son Eric Trump has proven to be the most attention-grabbing of the brood, recently raising eyebrows in with his assessment of the controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding.

As reported by the Daily Caller, Eric Trump spoke in support of his father’s positions during a Monday appearance on the Fox News Show On the Record, touching upon Donald Trump’s proposed solutions for fighting terrorism.

“Well, listen you see these terrorists that are flying planes into buildings, right? You see our cities getting shot up in California. You see Paris getting shot up. And then somebody complains when a terrorist gets waterboarded, which quite frankly is no different than what happens on college campuses and frat houses every day.”

eric trump, son of donald trump
Eric Trump visits with volunteers working to help elect his father Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Newmarket Trump campaign headquarters on February 8, 2016 in Newmarket, New Hampshire. [Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
Eric Trump’s comments come on the heels of recent statements made by the candidate himself in which he said he would “bring back waterboarding” and “a hell of a lot worse” under a Trump regime.

The younger Trump was skewered for his comments by the New York Daily News, which has something of a long-running feud with the GOP frontrunner. Writer Laura Bult asserted that Eric Trump’s son seems to be of the opinion that his dad will run the country like a “frat bro” if elected. She also juxtaposed the practice of waterboarding – which has been labeled as torture by many opponents of the interrogation technique – to a number of harrowing hazing rituals documented around America, including some which have resulted in deaths.

New York Magazine also weighed in on Eric Trump’s unusual take on waterboarding, slamming the real estate mogul’s progeny while suggesting that his sentiments suggest that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the proverbial tree.

“It’d be comforting to think that Eric Trump is deluded about what goes on at our institutions of higher learning. But it’s also possible that growing up in the Donald’s shadow made the Georgetown graduate uniquely aware of all the darkness in this world.”

donald trump ted cruz p-word
Earlier in the week, Donald Trump publicly referred to GOP rival Ted Cruz by using a slang term for female genitalia. [Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images]
Senator John McCain, who was captured during the Vietnam War and subjected to torture, has vehemently opposed the United State’s government’s use of waterboarding as a so-called “enhanced interrogation technique. He recently appeared on the Fox News show Outnumbered, taking issue with Donald Trump’s assertion that the practice is even the slightest bit useful, likening waterboarding as a “near death” experience which often elicits false information from the subject. According to Newsmax, McCain also noted that the technique is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and that the United States Senate has voted 93 to 3 to ban the practice.

For his part, Donald Trump – who infamously ridiculed John McCain for his capture – responded to the veteran’s criticisms not with another round of ad hominem attacks on McCain, but by comparing waterboarding to the actions of terrorists. Talking to CNN, he described waterboarding as “peanuts” compared to the decapitations that have become a hallmark of groups like ISIS. Donald Trump has yet to offer further details of what other methods of interrogation and physical pressure he would authorize against enemy combatants in the event that he is elected president.

[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

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