Dayton Daily News

Just what we all need: Four more years of ‘The Trumps’

- Gail Collins Gail Collins writes for the New York Times.

Hey, what do you think the Trump kids are up to? Been a long time since we checked.

Not that they’re keeping low profiles. Eric, for instance, made news recently when he seemed to claim Democrats created the coronaviru­s to hobble the Trump campaign.

“They think they’re taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is being able to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every single time,” he said on

Fox News. “You watch — they’ll milk it every single day between now and Nov. 3, and guess what — after Nov. 3 coronaviru­s will magically go away.”

Eric’s defenders said he was simply claiming Democrats were using a national health crisis for political reasons. But the Second Son seemed to be talking about something more dire and well organized.

“Make no mistake ... this is a very cognizant strategy,” he told interviewe­r Jeanine Pirro. In fact, he said “cognizant strategy” twice.

Maybe that could become a campaign slogan: “Make America Cognizant Again.” About time.

The president and his three oldest kids shared some quality time in the headlines when a fraud suit against the four of them moved ahead one step in the courts. Aggrieved investors claim they were lured into what turned out to be a pyramid scheme that did little but pile up cash and pay Donald $450,000.

In the vast universe of litigation against various Trumps, this is pretty much par for the course. Just remember: A family that gets sued together stays glued together.

Average citizens are probably familiar with

Eric through TV comics’ jokes, in which he’s portrayed as a sort of dim bulb. Meanwhile Donald

Jr. — whose semiautoma­tic rifle has a cartoon of Hillary Clinton behind bars — has a more colorful image, thanks to all his social messaging, and a much bigger role in the re-election effort, where he’s a regular stand-in for his father at political events.

Last weekend Junior got a lot of attention when he suggested Biden molested children. All in fun.

This attracted the spotlight. Junior responded by simultaneo­usly declaring himself shocked that people couldn’t take a joke (it had a laugh emoji!) and posting pictures of Biden affectiona­tely greeting children at public events.

Trump has five children, and we are all in agreement that Barron, 14, is to be left alone. Tiffany, 26, is the love child whose birth broke up Trump’s marriage with Ivana. She just graduated from law school and so far, she’s avoided attention of any kind.

Back in 2016, when Trump got elected, he boasted about his kids to Fox News thusly: “I’m very proud, because Don and Eric and Ivanka and — you know, to a lesser extent ’cause she just got out of school, out of college — but, uh, Tiffany.”

But what about Ivanka? She’s been the cheerleade­r for social distancing, then took off on a drive to Dad’s golf course in New Jersey. But her unforgivab­le sin was bringing in Jared Kushner as a top Trump adviser. Fresh from his performanc­e in bringing peace to the Middle East, Jared is now flounderin­g around as a coordinato­r of the White House coronaviru­s response. His most memorable moment recently came when Time asked him if America could be confident the election would still take place in November.

“I’m not sure I can commit, but right now that’s the plan,” he responded.

Remember, if the president gets re-elected they’ll all be back for four more years.

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