Former President Donald Trump said Monday he doesn’t want his children to serve in his administration again if he wins a second term in the White House.
“I said, ‘That’s enough for the family,’” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier. “It’s too painful for the family. My family has been through hell.”
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were senior advisers to Trump in the White House, frequently drawing criticism for their roles in government.
The interview was Trump’s first since he appeared in federal court in Miami last week and pleaded not guilty in the federal classified documents case. He faces seven federal criminal charges related to the more than 100 classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in August.
As Trump runs for a second term, some members of his family have appeared at his events, but others have been notably absent. Ivanka Trump said late last year that she was done with politics and wouldn’t be part of her father’s 2024 campaign. Trump’s wife, Melania, has rarely been seen at his events since his campaign launch.
Donald Trump Jr. has remained a steadfast and vocal ally of his father’s in conservative media, including on his own podcast. Eric Trump joined his father at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, last week when Trump gave his first speech after his federal indictment. Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. are named in the New York attorney general’s civil suit facing legal peril as part of the Trump family business.
“Eric, my son, is a fine boy. You know him very well. He’s a fine young man. A good student, good everything,” Trump said in the interview Monday, adding: “Nobody has been through what my family has been through. Ivanka had a really successful line of clothing. I mean, making a fortune. When I did this, she was really — she closed it up.”
Baier also pressed Trump about his remarks in 2016 that “I’m going to surround myself with only the best and most serious people.” He then listed a dozen of his former administration officials who are now either running against him or criticizing him.
“Why did you hire all of them in the first place?” Baier asked.
“Because I hired 10 to one that were fantastic, Trump said, later adding, “For every one you say, I have 10 that love us.”
Trump also continued to insist that he had every right to documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago that have gotten him in such hot water and that the reason he wasn’t ready to hand them over was that he wanted “to go through the boxes and get all [his] personal things out.”
