My sister Ivanka influenced my father to launch Syria strikes: Eric Trump

Eric Trump said he was certain his elder sister Ivanka (above) influenced their father to take military action against Syria in response to the chemical attack last week that killed at least 87 people. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON - The son of President Donald Trump said he was certain his elder sister Ivanka influenced their father to take military action against Syria in response to the chemical attack last week that killed at least 87 people, including more than 30 children.

"Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I'm sure she said: 'Listen, this is horrible stuff,'" Eric Trump said in an interview with Telegraph published on Tuesday (April 11).

"My father will act in times like that. And by the way, he was anti doing anything with Syria two years ago. Then a leader gasses their own people, women and children.

"At some point America is the global leader and the world's superpower has to come forward and act and they did with a lot of support of our allies and I think that's a great thing," said the 33-year-old third child of the president.

Ivanka Trump, 35, had said on Twitter that she was "heartbroken and outraged by the images coming out of Syria following the atrocious chemical attack" in the rebel-held Idlib province on April 4.

Eric Trump, who has taken over the running of his father's property empire with elder brother Donald Jnr, also told the Telegraph that his sister has a positive influence over their father because she is never afraid to say 'no'.

"Ivanka is by his side in Washington. She is not involved in everything. I think she comes and goes with issues she deeply cares about but when you get to a certain level of power a lot of times, and you see this in business too, a lot of times people will say yes just because you happen to be the boss," he said during the interview.

"I think the beautiful thing about family is you play on a little bit of a different dynamic and once in a while you can pull them aside and say: 'No disrespect but you might want to think about this or maybe you crossed the line here.'

President Trump ordered air strikes against Syrian airfield Shayrat on April 6 in response to the chemical attack by President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The US military blasted 59 Tomahawk missiles at the air base near Homs, which the Pentagon said Assad's jets had used to launch the deadly chemical attack.

Ivanka Trump is an unpaid adviser to her father, while her husband Jared Kushner, 36, works as a senior aide to the president.

She was present when Trump, then president-elect, received Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York in January. She also attended meetings with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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