--- title: Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to College Hazing description: Donald Trump's son defended his father's plan to bring back waterboarding, comparing the practice to fraternity activities on campuses canonical: https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-09T13:03:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:18.792Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties og:description: "No different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day" og:url: https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4479e000b7f7fc/69887cc02dce010cc79e7b9f/eric-trump-donald-trump-waterboarding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Eric Trump Makes Phone Calls With Volunteers At Trump NH Campaign Office og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties twitter:description: "No different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4479e000b7f7fc/69887cc02dce010cc79e7b9f/eric-trump-donald-trump-waterboarding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties > 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. ## Video: Watch Donald Trump Dodge a Bald Eagle [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Donald Trump Dodge a Bald Eagle](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5CcEYNNO.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2015-12-08. Last August, as Person of the Year runner-up Donald Trump was establishing himself as a real contender, the candidate agreed to pose with a bald eagle for a TIME cover story._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 9, 2016 1:03 PM UTC  Eric Trump visits with volunteers for his father on Feb. 8, in Newmarket, N.H. Eric Trump visits with volunteers for his father on Feb. 8, in Newmarket, N.H.Joe Raedle/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 9, 2016 1:03 PM UTC Donald Trump’s son defended his father’s plan to [bring back waterboarding](http://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/) on Monday, [comparing the practice](http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trumps-son-says-waterboarding-no-different-than-what-happens-in-frat-houses-every-day/) to fraternity activities on college campuses. “You see these terrorists that are flying planes into buildings, right?” Eric Trump said Monday night on Fox News. “You see our cities getting shot up in California. You see Paris getting shot up. And then somebody complains when, you know, a terrorist gets waterboarded, which quite frankly is no different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day.” “You know, the man would keep this country safe. There’s no question about it,” he said. Waterboarding became a topic of discussion during the [Republican debate on Saturday](http://time.com/4211030/republican-debate-four-minutes/). Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the practice “enhanced interrogation” but not torture, and he said he would not “bring it back in any sort of widespread use.” Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he wouldn’t want to change current laws banning the use of waterboarding. Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would bring back the practice. “In the Middle East, we have people chopping the heads off Christians, we have people chopping the heads off many other people,” he said on Saturday. “Not since medieval times have people seen what’s going on. I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties","datePublished":"2016-02-09T13:03:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:18.792Z","description":"\"No different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day\"","url":"https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4479e000b7f7fc/69887cc02dce010cc79e7b9f/eric-trump-donald-trump-waterboarding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4479e000b7f7fc/69887cc02dce010cc79e7b9f/eric-trump-donald-trump-waterboarding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Eric Trump Makes Phone Calls With Volunteers At Trump NH Campaign Office","caption":"Eric Trump Makes Phone Calls With Volunteers At Trump NH Campaign Office","creditText":"Joe Raedle/Getty Images","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/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/","name":"Donald Trump's Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Donald Trump Dodge a Bald Eagle","description":"Last August, as Person of the Year runner-up Donald Trump was establishing himself as a real contender, the candidate agreed to pose with a bald eagle for a TIME cover story.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5CcEYNNO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-08T21:32:54.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5CcEYNNO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/","duration":"PT1M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```