Heir and keeper of the family flame, Donald Junior makes his mark
DONALD TRUMP JR’s stump speech in Orlando appeared in trouble just minutes after he took to the stage during a bus tour with a cage fighter that was dubbed “Fighters Against Socialism”.
The president’s eldest son had barely got going when the heavens opened, soaking his checkered shirt and jeans.
As crowd members scrambled for yellow ponchos, it looked like he may have to stop. But then someone passed an umbrella and the trademark Trump ad libs kicked in. “We keep going, guys!” Mr Trump Jr hollered, to cheers. “This isn’t a Biden rally, we’re not going to do it from a basement!”
If the counterpunch had the ring of his father, so too did the rush of supporters for selfies and signatures 30 minutes later, when the tub-thumping ended and the sun was back out.
One woman, her white hat now bearing a name scrawled in black ink, was asked if she could ever imagine voting for the younger Trump for president.
“Absolutely,” she said, without skipping a beat. The idea that a Trump sibling could one day follow their father into running for the White House may appear preposterous. None has ever been elected to public office or even tried. But then, nor had their father.
And in today’s fractured American political scene, they have something just as valuable as experience to a not insignificant portion of the electorate – the Trump surname.
If Mr Trump loses the election next month, an almighty Republican civil war will break into the open, pitting the president’s impassioned base against moderates seeking to draw a line.
If he wins, in Washington DC, a city always looking to the next battle, the starting gun will be fired on the succession games. Specifically, who will be the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee. Could one Trump follow another? Many in the Orlando crowd thought so.
“It could be him or it could be his sister,” said Joe, oe, a 68-year-old recently laid off from his crowd control job at nearby Walt Disney World. They live and breathe the he average person. Donald Trump treats people like people”.
Scott Bilodeau, deau, a 50-year-old photocopier technician hnician and Republican wearing a US S baseball cap, agreed. “He tells it like it is,” he said of Mr Trump Jr.
“He doesn’t n’t mind running out a profanity or two. o. Who cares? Normal people speak like ke that. He’s not looking for people who o would be horrified if you drop an f-bomb.” omb.”
The emergence ergence of Mr Trump Jr as keeper of the Trump political flame could not have been predicted a decade ago. Aged 42 now, in his youth there were signs of discomfort about the fame his father built as property mogul and New York personality.
At the University niversity of Pennsylvania, Mr Trump Jr’s s nickname among fraternity brothers was “Ron Rump”, according to The New York ork Times, which quoted one saying it gave ave him “anonymity”.
Asked by y a journalist in 2010 if there was pressure ure being a Trump son, he said yes. “There There probably shouldn’t be. But there ere is for me, because you want to please someone like that, and nd he’s a perfectionist,” Mr Trump Jr said. “There’s ere’s always that shadow ow that follows you u around, like, how w is this guy, the son of someone so good at what he e does, going to act?” ct?”
It was a question Mr Trump rump Sr appeared ared aware of, too. His first wife, Ivana, wrote rote how her husband reacted ted to her suguggestion of calling their eir son Donald ld J r. “You u can’t!” Mr Trump Sr is reported to o have said. . “What if f he ’s a loser?”
Yet Mr Trump Jr was taken into his f a ther her ’s business world, appearing g on The Apprentice.
He became me an avid hunter, which benefited nefited his father.
“Don, great, now you can do someth something that actually helps me”, one Trumpworld figure recalls the father saying say when Mr Trump Jr went hunting w with the Iowa governor as a publicity stunt st ahead of the 2016 Republican primary prim vote there.
Mr Trump Jr helped run the family business, the Trump Organisation, with brother Eric when their father became president. They did not follow Ivanka, their sister, into the White House. But, drawn to politics, Mr Trump Jr soon became a hit on the Republican donor circuit. During the 2018 midterm elections he spent months touring as he appeared alongside congressional candidates, drawing out supporters and dollars. This year it is the same, but intensified. Last week, Mr Trump Jr held around 25 events in more than half a dozen states. And he will keep doing do the same until election day on Nov 3. His girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a lawyer and TV personality, has also been active on the campaign trail. There have been controversies. An avid social media user like his father, Mr Trump Jr has spark sparked criticism He once tweeted an image of Pepe the Frog, an internet meme embraced by white nationalists. He claimed he was unaware of the link.
Sam Nunberg, who advised Mr Trump Sr on politics between 2011 and 2015, is not surprised about Mr Trump Jr’s move to campaigning. “He is the most politically attuned of the children to the type of voter, movement and campaign his father was going to run and be successful at,” Mr Nunberg said.
“He comes off as a regular-type guy who still works hard and wasn’t raised with a golden spoon. He appears very relatable. He is the biggest political asset out of all the president’s children.”
A senior Trump campaign operative agreed: “He’s a lot like his dad.” If he runs for office, statewide posts could be sought first – such as the governorship of Florida. Trump voters waved away criticism that, like the Clintons and the Bushes, this would be setting up another insider political dynasty.
Or perhaps he will never run. One figure close to Mr Trump Jr has dampened speculation. “You can be plenty involved in politics without being a politician yourself,” the source said.
His support among the base was apparent on another stop this week in Las Vegas. A similarly sized crowd to Orlando had gathered at an engineering firm as the sun set before a backdrop of the Nevada mountains. Mr Trump Jr was close to an hour late, but the crowd stayed. Again, cage fighters were part of the warm-up act – “Warriors for
‘He comes off as a regular type of guy. He is the biggest political asset of all the president’s children’
Trump”. And again, the audience was whooping along once the speech began.
For more than half an hour, he spoke at pinball speed without a teleprompter. His speeches have similarities with his father – Mr Trump Jr moves his hands like he is playing an accordion when in mid-flow and is at ease on stage.
There are differences, too: more swear words and jokes. Humour is deployed almost every minute and is often cutting, aimed at opponents or – just as often – the media. Near the end of the event, he praised the president’s decision to run for the top job. “My father’s doing this for you guys,” he said. “He didn’t need this job. I can assure you he had a pretty awesome life.”
As the music kicked in and the crowd again rushed forward for selfies, The Sunday Telegraph got close enough to shout two questions. Was he enjoying the campaign trail? “Always.”
And do you think you will ever run for office? “‘I’m only focused on this right now,” came the response.
It was not a no.