Ivanka Trump Influenced Her Father's Decision to Bomb Syria, President's Son Eric Says

Ivanka Trump may have influenced her father President Donald Trumps decision to launch a cruise missile strike on Syrian government forces in response to the gas attack that shocked the world, her brother Eric Trump has revealed.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, the president’s son said he believes Ivanka spoke out as the president formulated his response to President Bashar al-Assad’s suspected use of a chemical weapons on its citizens last week.

“Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I’m sure she said listen, this is horrible stuff.’ My father will act in times like that,” Eric Trump told the British newspaper.

Last Thursday’s salvo of 59 cruise missiles, fired from U.S. Navy warships, marked an abrupt about-face for the president, who had long opposed intervening against the Syrian president, who is a close ally of Russia.

“Heartbroken and outraged by the images coming out of Syria following the atrocious chemical attack yesterday,” Ivanka, 35, tweeted on April 5 in reaction to the tragedy that killed more than 80 people, including children.

Following the president’s announcement of the attack, Ivanka tweeted her approval.

“The times we are living in call for difficult decisions Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity,” she wrote.

Ivanka formally became a federal employee Assistant to the President two weeks ago after long being an informal adviser to her father. Last week, she talked to CBS’s Gayle King about her influence over her father and defended her decision not to publicly disagree with him.

“I think most of the impact I have, over time most people will not actually know about,” she said.

Eric, 33, also told The Telegraph that the attack showed that his father is not secretly conspiring with Russia and will not be “pushed around” by Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president condemned President Trump’s missile strikes on Syria as illegal, Reuters reports.

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“President Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up pretext,” Kremlin officials said in a statement.

“This step by Washington will inflict major damage on U.S.-Russia ties.”

Read Trump’s full remarks on the Syrian missile attack here.

This article was originally published on PEOPLE.com