US President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday in a television interview appeared to come out as being part of the LGBTQI community. The “coming out” didn’t last long though – before the end of the day he backtracked and re-established his heterosexual credentials by pointing to his wife Lara. He added he was not bisexual either.

Eric Trump’s  apparent coming out was met with incredulity and some wry humour. One Twitter user posted “eric trump coming out is not the birthday gift this homosexual wanted.” Comedian and writer Sarah Cooper posted, “yeah sex is good but have you ever seen eric trump come out to millions of people on national television without even realizing it.”

Eric was being interviewed on Fox And Friends before his father’s Presidential debate with rival Joe Biden. Host Ainsley Earhardt asked Eric if his father’s campaign was counting on secret voters like a lesbian woman named Chrisa who was profiled in the New York Times as a Trump supporter.

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 “I’m telling you, I see it every day. The LGBT community, they are incredible. And, you should see how they come out in full force for my father every single day. I am part of that community and we love the man and thank you for protecting our neighbourhoods and thank you for protecting our cities,” Eric, who is the Executive Vice President of The Trump organisation,  responded.

Hours later he agreed with a Twitter follower who said that Eric was in fact “clearly quoting the LGBT people who talk to him about his dad”.

“To clarify, many of our close friends are part of the LGBT community, which was the intent of my statement,” Eric clarified to the New York Post. “The left has taken that vote for granted for a long time and support from the gay community for my father is incredible.”

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 Eric added that he was a “happily married man to my wife, Lara”, and also that he was not bisexual.

This is not the first time that the Trump campaign is claiming support from the LGBTQI community. Trump had in August tweeted “My great honor” in response to a video by the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organisation of LGBTQI conservatives and allies, saying he was the “most pro-gay President in American history.”

LGBTQI organisations in the US have refuted this claim. GLAAD has listed in its Trump Accountability Project over 175  attacks on the LGBTQI community by Trump and his administration in its policies, actions and statements.

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