DONALD TRUMP JR. TRUMPETS VANCOUVER TOWER, DAD’S POLITICS
U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RACE: Billionaire magnate’s eldest son scoffs at ‘faux outrage’ as he visits namesake hotel
While “The Donald” moved ever closer to being “The Nominee,” another Donald was landing in Vancouver.
Donald Trump Jr. left the campaign trail and travelled here just as his father became the presumptive U.S. Republican Party presidential nominee after a victory in the Indiana primary forced Ted Cruz and John Kasich to suspend their campaigns.
“This was a trip I planned two weeks ago and now — ahhhhh — what happened made it a little harder to get away,” said Trump Jr.
The magnate’s eldest son was in town on Thursday to visit, vet and, of course, “Trump” the shiny new Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Vancouver, which is to be up and running by the end of August.
In true Trump fashion, the son echoed the father’s voice when it came to assessing the quick, successful sale of the residential part of the project, which put $363 million into Holborn Development coffers.
“I’m not surprised because I have seen us do this time and time again,” said Trump as he sat in a downtown boardroom, wearing a blue blazer, checked monogrammed dress shirt, jeans and dusty black running shoes.
The sales come on the heels of — you guessed it — a very successful build.
“Under budget and ahead of schedule — it’s the only way we do things,” said Trump.
The hotel will be run by the Trump Organization, and will hire 300 employees from a pool of a purported 10,000 resumes.
“When you have the accolades we’ve been able to aggregate as a hotel company, I think (potential employees) see that as a good catapult for their careers,” said Trump.
As for the controversy a few months back when Mayor Gregor Robertson sent a letter and a petition with 50,000 signatures asking Holborn Development to dump the Trump name over Donald Sr.’s remarks about Mexicans, women and Muslims, Trump said: “That’s just the nature of politics.”
“These days, when you get into politics, there is a lot of faux outrage that is created. By definition, if you are picking one side, you are ostracizing the other 50 per cent, certainly in U.S. politics.”
Trump said his father is speaking for Americans who want an accountable immigration policy and an end to debt and influence by special interest groups.
“Politicians usually don’t have the guts to have an original thought or to actually challenge the system and I think my father has changed that,” said Trump. “He has given a voice to a lot of people who haven’t had a voice, who haven’t had the benefits of his soap box, which is rather large. That’s why he has won more votes on the GOP side in the history of any politician in a GOP primary.”
So who is voting for his dad? It’s been said that, and footage from the rallies back it up, the Trump voter is an angry white guy. So what are they so angry about?
“I think it is a convenient sound bite,” said Trump. “I think (the left) try to make everything about race today. You can’t say anything without being called a racist.
“You have to be able to have dialogue, you have to be able to talk about it. We should be enforcing immigration laws, actually understand who is coming into our country. I can’t come into Canada without going through a process. ‘Oh, that’s racist.’ No, it’s not. You have to talk about it.”
The younger Trump, a father of five kids under the age of nine, isn’t rushing back to the campaign trail to stump for dad. He is going to enjoy a little B.C. downtime first.
“I’m going to do some stuff with friends around B.C.,” he said. “I have spent a lot of time here and the Yukon. I’m a big outdoorsman, big fisherman ... I’ve spent a lot of time camping in Canada.”
He’s also an outdoorsman who has spent time hunting in Africa. Social media users may have come across photos of him holding a severed elephant’s tail and posing with his brother and a dead cheetah.
But he’s a Trump, and it’s clear one of the family mottoes is to make no apologies.
“I’m an outdoorsman. I’m a hunter. What started up as an uproar is, we went over to Zimbabwe and we weren’t poaching. We were doing everything legally. We are big hunters and we’re big conservationists. All the public land we have in America all started because of hunters, so that is an important thing.”
Trump believes his dad is right for the White House because he is a political outsider.
“He could sit back and play golf for the rest of his life, but he loves our country. He sees how poorly it’s been managed. The notion that someone has actually signed the front of a paycheque should not be a novelty in politics. That should be the norm.”