No, Eric Trump didn’t claim this week that his 401(k) has increased by 35 percent since his father was elected president. No, he didn’t brag about this even as many American families can’t say the same.
But you’d think otherwise from reading the initial version of a Washington Post story published early Thursday morning.
The report’s original headline read, “Eric Trump’s 401k is up by 35 percent, but half of American families don’t even have one.”
This is how the original version of the story began [emphasis added]:
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel this week, Eric Trump pointed to the stellar performance of his 401(k) as evidence that his father’s economic policies were helping average Americans.
“I just opened up my 401(k), I haven’t looked at it in a year. It’s up by 35 percent. I didn’t think retirement was possible, and now it is,” Trump said.
Set aside the fact that for Trump, heir to a multibillion-dollar fortune and an already-wealthy businessman in his own right, the returns on a measly $18,500 in annual 401(k) contributions have little bearing on his ability to stop working. What does the stock market’s performance mean for the average worker, one for whom maxing out his 401(k) each year is but a distant dream?
The problem here is that Eric Trump didn’t actually say his 401(k) has increased. Rather, he said someone else told him that.
“Every single day I walked on the street and people come up to me,” Eric Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “They hugged me. ‘Tell your father we say thank you. You know what, I just opened up my 401(k), I haven’t looked at in a year. It is up by 35 percent. I mean, I didn’t think retirement was possible.’”
This obviously undercuts the original intent of the Post story, which was to ding a Trump for supposedly bragging about his plenty even as many American families continue to struggle. But the young Trump didn’t do this.
The Post has since amended the story, and the misquote has been corrected. The story includes an editor’s note that reads, “An earlier version of this incorrectly framed Eric Trump’s remarks on Hannity. He was characterizing what a person on the street said to him, not his own 401(k) account.”
The headline has also been changed so that it now reads, “Eric Trump says 401(k)s are doing great, but half of American families don’t have one.”
Part of the likely problem here is that Fox News’ rush transcript of Trump’s appearance was inaccurate, as the Washington Free Beacon’s Alex Griswold noted. The inaccurate quote that appeared in the transcript is what also appeared in the original version of the Post story.
And in case you’re wondering what a “rush transcript” is, it’s exactly what it sounds like, meaning it’s not going to be 100 percent accurate.
Reminder: If a transcript has the word “rush” anywhere on it, double-check! Also, if your mother says she loves you, check it out.
