Don Jr. Has Thoughts on What It's Like to Be Owned by Your Father

It’s pretty shady when your international business success is all about your father’s name, said Donald Trump Jr. on Fox News Wednesday night, where he was being interviewed solely to defend the interests of his father, who shares his name and is the literal president of the United States.

“When you’re the father and your son’s entire career is dependent on that, they own you,” Trump Jr. told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a widely panned interview.

Trump Jr. was criticizing Hunter Biden for his history of business dealings in Ukraine, which have been seized upon recently by conservatives as achieved through nepotism since his father, Joe Biden, was vice president at the time of his hiring.

The younger Biden has admitted that he might not have been afforded a paid role on the board of a natural gas company, Burisma, if he didn’t share a last name with a famous U.S. politician. He said taking the role was perhaps in “poor judgement,” but not improper. Nonetheless, President Trump has hammered Hunter Biden with corruption allegations and has even pressed Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the family, a move that is now at the center of an impeachment inquiry.

Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. say their success differs from Hunter’s because they adjusted their business dealings — they’re both executives for the Trump Organization — after their father was elected president in 2016. They also note that they were involved in overseas deals before their father became a politician. Trump Jr. acknowledged Wednesday that it’d be “foolish” to say “I am not part of who I am because of my father.”

“The difference between us and Hunter is when my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business, right?” Eric Trump said in an interview on Fox News Tuesday. “When his father became vice president of the United States, he got into international business.”

However, it’s unclear whether they’ve cut ties with foreign deals entirely, as they’ve claimed, and they’ve also been widely accused of profiting off their father’s presidency. Hunter Biden, meanwhile, said he’ll stop working with foreign companies if his dad ultimately becomes president. He stopped working with Burisma in April.

Cover: Donald Trump Jr. greets supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump before he speaks at a Make America Great Again rally on April 27, 2019 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)