Eric Trump, the second-eldest son of former President Donald Trump, is being roundly mocked on Twitter after linking his father’s criminal indictment to pharmacies’ shoplifting protections in an interview on Fox News.
“This is a city – I spend a lot of time in New York – that is falling apart,” Mr Trump said. “I went into literally CVS the other day, and you can’t buy Tylenol because it’s locked behind these glass counters because there’s so much theft, there’s so much looting and homelessness and crime, but yet their attention is going after Donald Trump.”
Mr Trump’s apparent belief that New York prosecutors like Alvin Bragg should be concentrating their attention on making sure pharmacies like CVS feel free to display their Tylenol in the open air struck some as laughable.
“So he doesn’t like seeing the anything through locked glass? Well, he’s in for a surprise in the very near future,” Kathy Gori tweeted.
“Target only allows you to purchase 5 packs of Yugioh cards at once, but this is what district attorney Alvin Bragg is focused on?” Marty Shannon tweeted.
Others mocked Mr Trump’s confusing use of “literally” in his anecdote.
Donald Trump and a number of his family members, including Eric Trump’s sibilings Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, have reacted with a mixture of fury and dismay to news of the former president’s indictment for his alleged involvement in a hush-money payment scheme.
Mr Trump is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday 4 April, at which time the reportedly 30-plus charges he is facing will be unsealed. Mr Trump is the first former American president ever to be indicted on criminal charges, and the indictment comes as Mr Trump is seeking to reclaim the White House in 2024.
It is as of yet unclear how the indictment might impact Mr Trump’s chances of political success next year. The New York Times reported Friday that a lawyer for the former president said he is not prepared to take a plea deal and is prepared to go to trial in the case.
