--- title: Eric Trump: Syria Airstrikes Debunk Claims of Russia Ties description: Eric Trump said his father's decision to strike Syria is proof he has no connections to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. canonical: https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-11T18:15:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:20:34.876Z article:section: Politics og:title: Eric Trump: Syria Airstrikes Prove No Collusion Between Russia and His Father og:description: “If there was anything that Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie,” Eric Trump told The Telegraph. og:url: https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3904446f549199ca/6988acf6e20a871d93a93154/eric-trump-bullet.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: 2016 Republican National Convention - Day 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eric Trump: Syria Airstrikes Prove No Collusion Between Russia and His Father twitter:description: “If there was anything that Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie,” Eric Trump told The Telegraph. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3904446f549199ca/6988acf6e20a871d93a93154/eric-trump-bullet.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Syria Strike Proves There's No Collusion Between Trump and Russia, Eric Trump Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 11, 2017 6:15 PM UTC  Eric Trump speaks on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Eric Trump speaks on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.Tasos Katopodis—WireImage  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 11, 2017 6:15 PM UTC Eric Trump said in a new interview that his father’s decision to conduct [unilateral missile strikes against Syria](http://time.com/4730231/us-missile-airstrike-attack-syria-donald-trump-bashar-assad/) is proof he has no connections to [Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4734440/vladimir-putin-rex-tillerson-russia-us/) and the Russian government. “If there was anything that [Syria](http://time.com/4734439/syria-chemical-attack-sarin-gas-turkey/) did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie,” Eric Trump, who took over [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4710614/donald-trump-fbi-surveillance-house-intelligence-committee/)‘s real estate business after he became President, said in an interview with the British newspaper [_The Telegraph._](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/10/donald-trumps-action-syria-proves-not-league-putin-says-son/) The United States launched [missile strikes against Syria](http://time.com/4732428/trump-syria-no-strategy/) last week following a [deadly chemical weapons attack ](http://time.com/4730805/syria-airstrikes-map/)in the country that killed dozens of civilians, including children. Russia is backing Bashar Assad and the Syrian government in the country’s six-year civil war. The U.S. is holding Assad accountable for the chemical attack, and has concluded Russia knew about the attack in advance, [the Associated Press reports. ](http://time.com/4733504/syria-airstrikes-russia/?xid=homepage) “If they disrespect us and if they cross us, fine. There will be no one harder — he has got more backbone than anybody,” Eric Trump said of his father. “He is not a guy who gets intimidated. I can tell you he is tough and he won’t be pushed around. The cards will shake out the way they do but he’s tough.” MORE: [The G-7 Wants Russia to Pressure Syria, But It Won’t Sanction Moscow ](http://time.com/4734365/g7-russia-syria/?xid=homepage) Questions of ties with Russia have dogged Trump and his associates since the 2016 presidential campaign. FBI Director James Comey has confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into possible ties between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, and the House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting their own investigations into the matter. The [Trump Administration](http://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/) has repeatedly denied any connections to Russia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/"},"headline":"The Syria Strike Proves There's No Collusion Between Trump and Russia, Eric Trump Says","datePublished":"2017-04-11T18:15:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:20:34.876Z","description":"“If there was anything that Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie”","url":"https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3904446f549199ca/6988acf6e20a871d93a93154/eric-trump-bullet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3904446f549199ca/6988acf6e20a871d93a93154/eric-trump-bullet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 Republican National Convention - Day 3","caption":"Eric Trump speaks on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.","creditText":"Tasos Katopodis—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4734889/eric-trump-syria-airstrikes-russia-assad-putin/","name":"The Syria Strike Proves There's No Collusion Between Trump and Russia, Eric Trump Says"}}]}] ```