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Eric Trump managed to work in his height as he bashed trans athletes during his speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
Insisting his dad is fighting for the “soul of America,” the son of former President Donald Trump ticked off a laundry list of grievances with the Biden administration in his speech, which touched on energy, the economy, infrastructure, the southern border, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Middle East, the fentanyl crisis, and crime.
He then attacked “male athletes, guys my height – six foot five,” whom he said “are swimming in women’s sports” and “destroying the dreams of young girls who have trained every minute of their lives.”
Trans athletes have become a political cudgel for Republicans, who have passed a litany of anti-trans legislation on the federal and state levels. In April, House Republicans passed a measure to limit transgender students from playing on women’s sports teams. The bill is similar to more than 20 laws passed on the state level, Politico noted at the time. But the legislation had no chance in the Democratic-controlled senate.
Eric Trump spent much of his speech boasting about his father’s record on Thursday night.
“My father stands before you with the most votes of any Republican candidate in the history of our nation,” he said, almost shouting. “He has defied the predictions of every political pundit, he fills stadiums across our country. He energizes Americans to the issues facing this nation and does so with unvarnished honesty.”
He added: “He is not a threat to democracy. He is a threat to those who despise our republic, many of whom are bought and sold, bribed and coerced — people who have never signed the front of a check and who have been dependent on the government their entire adult lives.”
The second-oldest son of the ex-commander-in-chief insisted the US is at a “crossroads” as it was “in 2016.”
“Energy prices are soaring, interest rates are crippling, everything is unaffordable,” he argued. “The US dollar has been diminished.”
Eric Trump spoke shortly before his father on Thursday night. In his speech, the former president recounted the assassination attempt on Saturday when a gunman took aim at him in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was struck in the ear and tackled by the Secret Service with blood splattered across his face.
“You will never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell,” Trump said.
“There was blood pouring everywhere and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he added.
Two people, including the gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, were killed and two spectators were seriously injured. A former fire chief, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was shot and killed as he shielded his family from the gunfire. Trump paid tribute to Compereatore in his Thursday night keynote speech.
Addressing his father, Eric Trump said, “The whole world saw your strength as you stood up, you wiped the blood off your face and you put your fist in the air in a moment that will be remembered as one of the most courageous acts in the history of American politics.”
