Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, on Monday dropped the latest hint that his dad could be set to return to the presidential campaign trail as he slammed the FBI raid at the former president's Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.
During an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," Trump accused Democrats of orchestrating the raid that took place earlier in the day because they "don't want" his dad running for president again in 2024, but admitted, for the first time, that he hopes the former president "goes out and beats" them again.
"All they want to do is they want to get Donald Trump. They raise money on it, they send fundraising emails about it, they brag on camera about it. They go after him, they subpoena him," Trump said. "Every single day we get another subpoena, and they do it for one reason: Because they don’t want Donald Trump to run and win again in 2024."
"That's what this is about today," he added.
Multiple sources told Fox News that the FBI's raid was related to the materials the former president allegedly brought to his private residence after his presidency concluded. That matter was referred to the Justice Department by the National Archives and Records Administration, which said it found classified material in 15 boxes at the residence.
Trump went on to refer to the treatment of his dad and his family as "political persecution," and claimed the order to conduct the raid came from no other place but the White House and the Biden administration.
"Honestly, I hope – and I’m saying this for the first time – I hope he goes out and beats these guys again because honestly, this country can’t survive this nonsense. It can’t," he later added.
"This is not who we are. This is who Venezuela is… This is banana republic antics. Having a home of the 45th President of the United States raided by FBI agents, safes broken open, this is not who we are as a democracy. Imagine if that happened to Barack Obama. The world would be in an uproar," he said.
Fox News' Bradford Betz, Jon Street, David Spunt and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
