Donald Trump and his family have been keeping a low profile since leaving the White House. As of now, no official decision by Trump has been made about running for president in 2024. But already, his son, Donald Trump Jr., has decided what will happen at least with him.
Speaking on Fox News at a Conservative Political Conference in Texas, Trump Jr. said that he hasn’t “personally thought about” running for president in 2024. But at the same time, he reveals poll numbers which he describes as having him “pretty high up the list”.
Just like his siblings, Donald Trump Jr. joined his father’s organization in New York after graduating from college. However, his childhood was quite different from the rest.
Donald Jr. and his siblings, Ivanka and Eric, hung out plenty, but when his parents divorced, it took a hard toll on him. In fact, his relationship with his father went straight down the drain, and it took a while before they reunited.
Donald Trump Jr. – eldest son of Donald Trump
Donald Trump Jr. has been a part of the Trump organization for more than two decades, and he played an important part in his father’s presidency, defending him more fiercely than anyone else.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, Donald Trump Jr. was seen many times during official appearances. Even though he didn’t have an official job within his father’s administration, he was very active in Trump’s first presidential campaign as well as the transition.
Maybe the most famous appearance he did was – as reported by the New York Times – taking a meeting with a Russian lawyer who later offered information on Hillary Clinton.
Since Donald Trump left office in January, things have been quite quiet around the Trump family. A couple of days ago, Melania Trump was seen in New York for the first time since leaving the White House, and several of Trump’s children have been keeping a pretty low profile.
Donald Trump Jr. on the other hand has had his hands full. According to CNN, Donald Trump promoted his son Donald Trump Jr. to an “unofficial new role inside his orbit,” as he decides to run for a presidential bid in 2024.
Donald Trump Jr about Presidency
Now, Trump Jr. has become one of his father’s chief political advisers.
As of now, no official decision by Trump has been made. But maybe it’s his son, Trump Jr. who will be running instead?
Well, according to Trump Jr., that might not happen at least not in 2024.
Speaking on Fox News at a Conservative Political Conference in Texas, Trump Jr. said that he hasn’t “personally thought about” running for President in 2024.
However, citing unnamed polls, he’s saying that they “[have] me pretty high up the list if not at the top of it.”
“Who knows,” he added, as quoted by People. “The reality with that job is you also have to want to do the day job, right? It’s not just about the campaigning.”
“I love being in that fight, I love fighting for the things that are out there, that I believe in as a conservative. I will do that irrespective. To want to actually get in that mix, is a whole different story.”
Among other outbursts these last six months, Trump Jr. called out Dr. Anthony Fauci – the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, during the “America UnCancelled” event last week, saying he’s “better at pitching baseballs than science.”
Donald Trump & Donald Trump Jr – relationship
The comment from Trump’s son comes after Dr. Fauci was mocked all over the country after throwing the ceremonial first pitch for the Washington Nationals last summer.
“The press said Fauci is something other than a bureaucrat in a lab coat. Yeah,” Trump Jr. said, as quoted by Newsweek. “Fauci is better at pitching baseballs than he is at science, okay? Also true. I want to see them fact check that one, they have no chance.”
Even though it seems like things are great between Donald Trump and his son, things have not always been this way.
Once, Trump Jr. blamed his father for his parents divorce, saying he didn’t love him. And at one point, they didn’t even speak.
Sure, Donald Trump Jr. was born into a home of great wealth: Donald Trump at this point was emerging as one of the big real estate moguls on Manhattan.
His father Fred Trump focused on the real estate in the outer boroughs of New York City, while Donald got the big island, full of huge buildings and skyscrapers.
Donald Trump Jr. – early life
Even though there was a huge financial risk in entering the real estate and construction market in Manhattan, Fred took the chance.
“I gave Donald free rein,” Fred Trump said, as quoted by the New York Post. “He has great vision, and everything he touches seems to turn to gold.”
Donald Trump himself was happy about his father’s decision.
“It was good for me,” he said. ”You know, being the son of somebody, it could have been competition to me. This way, I got Manhattan all to myself!”
Donald Trump was extremely busy during this time. As a result, he spent a lot of time with his mother Ivana, but even she was very busy. Therefore, Trump Jr. spent much of his time with his maternal grandparents in Czechoslovakia during the summers.
He loved to go fishing, boating, and hunting alongside his grandfather, and since then “Donny” has learned to speak fluent Czech.
When Donald Trump Jr. was about 12 years old, his parents got a divorce. Ivana ended up getting a $25 million payout, $10 million of which was in cash, and she also got custody of the three children. However, Donald remained a part of their lives.
“Donald might not have been the greatest husband to me, but he was a good father to the kids,” she wrote in her memoir.
Even thought Donald Trump was very much involved in Donald Trump Jr.’s and his siblings’ lives, Ivana stated that she was the one responsible for the kids having a great childhood. According to her, she raised them with the right values and morals.
Donald Trump Jr. – parents’ divorce
In addition, Ivana says that she made all the decisions about their education, travels, allowances, and child care.
“I believe the credit for raising such great kids belongs to me. I was in charge of raising our children before our divorce, and I had sole custody of them after the split,” she wrote in her memoir.
The divorce was very public, and Donald Trump Jr. was in the middle of it. Trump had an affair with model Marla Maples – the future second-wife of Donald Trump. Speaking to New York Magazine in 2004, Trump Jr. that he blamed the divorce on his father at the time. He didn’t speak to Donald Trump for over a year.
However, when thinking back on it, Donald Trump Jr. said that he may have been “manipulated” into thinking it was his father’s fault by his mother.
“Listen, it’s tough to be a 12-year-old. You’re not quite a man, but you think you are. You think you know everything,” Trump Jr. said. “Being driven into school every day and you see the front page and it’s divorce! ‘THE BEST SEX I EVER HAD!‘ And you don’t even know what that means.”
Alongside his siblings Ivanka and Eric, Trump Jr. was sent to the boarding school the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. According to Vanity Fair, this was to remove them from “New York society scene.”
“How can you say you love us?”
But before they left, Donald Trump Jr. had some carefully selected words for his father, blaming him for the ugly divorce.
“How can you say you love us?” the 12-year-old Trump Jr. told his father, according to a 1990 Vanity Fair article. “You don’t love us, you don’t even love yourself. You just love your money.”
Donald Trump Jr. got time for himself and spent much time in the nature. All the things surrounding his parents and the divorce went away, and most importantly, he then decided that he was not going to measure himself against his father.
“I think people are often surprised, but I never defined myself as, ‘I’m the business guy who has to supersede what my father has done,’ ” he told the New York Times. “He’s a totally unique individual. Somehow having to top his accomplishments is never the way I perceived things.”
Following boarding school, Trump Jr. attended Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, just like his father. But after graduation, he didn’t do what his younger brother Eric did. Instead of joining his father’s organization, Trump Jr. decided to move to Aspen, Colorado, where he lived out of the back of a truck and doing small bartending gigs to support himself.
Work in Trump Organization
He lived off the land, hunting, fishing, and camping. And according to Vanity Fair, he stopped talking to his father during his Colorado journey.
“I know that the benefits I got from being in the woods, from being in a duck blind, from being in a tree stand at 5 o’clock in the morning, kept me out of so much other trouble I would have gotten into in my life,” Trump Jr. said in a speech at a 2016 fundraiser, as quoted by People.
At one point however, Trump Jr. decided he had had enough. In September of 2001, he moved back to New York City to join the family business full-time.
“I had a great time,” he told New York Mag, “but your brain starts to atrophy.”
Donald Trump Jr. quickly climbed the ranks inside the Trump Organization, being named the executive vice president. His first big project was the Trump Park Avenue, but once again, he clashed with his father. Donald Trump wanted golf doorknobs, however his son wanted something else, as reported by The Washington Post.
Following the completed project, Trump Jr. actually joked with his father, asking him to put “Trump Junior” on the facade. However, Trump senior refused.
Donald Trump Jr – family
Their relationship continued to be rather bad, however. Once, Trump publicly criticized his son at the time, saying on CNN’s Larry King Live: “You have a name that is hot as a pistol, you have to be very careful with things like this.”
In 2004, Donald Trump Jr. met his future wife, formed model Vanessa Haydon, at a fashion show. However, it wasn’t a smooth meeting.
Speaking to the International Herald Tribune, as quoted by NY Times, Vanessa says Donald Trump introduced the party twice in just five minutes. And when they met a month later, she said that he was the one with “the retarded dad.”
Vanessa and Donald Trump Jr. fell in love. They tied knot at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005 in front of 370 guests, and afterwards, the couple headed to Fiji and Mexico for their honeymoon.
In 2007, Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa welcomed their first daughter, Kai Madison Trump and since, Vanessa also gave birth to Donald Trump III (2009), Tristan (2011) , Spencer (2012), and Chloe (2014).
However, their love story came to an end in 2018, when Vanessa filed for divorce.
“After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways,” the couple said in a joint statement. “We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families, we have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.”
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