Trump Jr. defiant about probe
WASHINGTON — If Donald Trump Jr. is worried, he sure doesn’t show it.
His father, the president, is reported to be fretting about his eldest son’s entanglement in the Russia investigation. And Don Jr.’s role in the special counsel’s probe continues to throw off headlines. But the 40-year-old son is hardly ducking his head.
He’s beloved on the right as the swaggering embodiment of the Make America Great Again agenda. And he’s embracing his role as a popular emissary for his father, crisscrossing the country on campaign trips, penning op-eds in support of favored candidates and showcasing his new relationship with former Fox News host Kim Guilfoyle.
Unbowed and unapologetic, the son’s approach appears to mirror the father’s combative defiance toward special counsel’s Robert Mueller’s investigation. The enthusiastic reception he receives in many Republican strongholds is more evidence that Trump voters are rallying around the president’s criticism of the probe — perhaps even fired up by the fight.
Trump Jr. has downplayed any talk of his own legal exposure stemming from his involvement in a 2016 Trump Tower meeting that’s a focus of Mueller’s investigation into possible links between the president’s election campaign and Russia. The president recently unleashed a series of angry tweets on the subject, and in one he acknowledged that his son set up the meeting to seek damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
In another political era, that’s the sort of uncomfortable fact that could make someone a pariah on the campaign trail. Today, Trump Jr. is a sought-after surrogate.
He’s stumped in West Virginia, Montana, Florida and Kansas in recent months. In the coming weeks, he’s expected to campaign in Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota.
“He’s one of the top draws, if not the top draw for people not named President Trump,” says Jason Miller, a top aide to the 2016 Trump campaign.
His appeal was clear in Great Falls, Montana, recently where he was cheered as he discussed his love of hunting in the state and laid into Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
“Just because Donald Trump isn’t on the ticket in 2018 doesn’t mean that everything he has accomplished is not on the ticket,” Trump Jr. said, adding: “I’m going to be coming a lot out here in this fall, helping all of these guys.”