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The Dan Bongino Show
Donald Trump Jr. on JD Vance, Tim Walz, and Kai Trump | Episode 05 - 03/21/25
00:56:27
Donald Trump Jr. joins Vince in studio to discuss the happenings in and out of DC including JD Vance and his future in the party, the massive impact of his daughter Kai Trump with behind the scenes of her RNC speech, as well as the incredible momentum of the Trump presidency.
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- [00:01]
Vince
Welcome to Vince. Great to have you with us. It's been a big opening week. Tucker Carlson in the house, the Vice President of the United States stopping by, and my next guest, the son of the President of the United states, Donald Trump Jr. We'll get to that conversation in just a moment. Can't wait for that. But first, I've got something important to tell you. While we may have won this election, the fight to restore our great nation is only just beginning. Now is the time to take a stand and Patriot Mobile is leading the charge. As America's only Christian conservative wireless provider, Patriot Mobile offers a way to vote with your wallet without compromising on any quality or convenience. Patriot Mobile isn't just about providing exceptional cell phone service. It's a call to action to defend our rights and our freedoms. With Patriot Mobile, you will get outstanding nationwide coverage because they operate on all three of the major networks. So if you have cell phone service today, you can easily get cell phone service with Patreon Mobile with a coverage guarantee. But the difference is every dollar you spend supports a company that really does believe in the first and the Second Amendments, the sanctity of life, and our veterans and first responders. Switching is so completely easy. Keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade. Their 100% US based customer support team will help you find the perfect plan. Right now, go to patriotmobile.comvince or call 972 Patriot and get a free month of service with the promo code. Vince, switch to Patriot Mobile today and defend freedom with every call and text that you make. Visit patriotmobile.com vince or call 972 Patriot. All right, shall we? We shall.
- [01:39]
Donald Trump Jr.
Okay, good.
- [01:39]
Vince
Thank you, gentlemen. Joining me now, right here in this amazing Silverlock studio is the one and.
- [01:46]
Donald Trump Jr.
Only Donald Trump Jr. Good to see you, man.
- [01:48]
Vince
Nice to see you.
- [01:49]
Donald Trump Jr.
Good to be here. I mean, I feel honored to be in the lineup that you had going on this week. I mean, that's a pretty solid start.
- [01:54]
Vince
Well, I, I think people should know that all of the people I've interviewed this week happen to be close friends. Like everybody, every one of these guys.
- [02:00]
Donald Trump Jr.
Is a buddy and of mine as well, so.
- [02:02]
Vince
Of yours. Yes, that's what I mean. Yeah, that's great. In fact, let's start with J.D. vance because he, he made a big splash yesterday. He was here on our program. We had a great interview with him and then the, the media went absolutely wild. They were furious at him. Can we play the clip of him that everybody's talking about? This is him talking about Kamala Harris consuming vodka shots before every single meeting. Take a look at this. You talked earlier about the role of the vice president and how it's different with each presidency. How are you doing the job differently than Kamala did it? Well, if we're going to stick the landing on that, that's where he responds.
- [02:39]
Donald Trump Jr.
That was not that. That was not the response that got.
- [02:42]
Vince
The meeting earlier about the role of the vice president and how it's different with each presidency. How are you doing the job differently than Kamala did it?
- [02:53]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, I don't have four shots of.
- [02:55]
Vince
Vodka before every meeting. That's.
- [02:57]
Donald Trump Jr.
That's one way, I think, that Kamala.
- [02:59]
Vince
Really tried to bring her herself into the role is.
- [03:02]
Donald Trump Jr.
Is these word salads. And I think that I would need.
- [03:05]
Vince
The help of a lot of alcohol.
- [03:07]
Donald Trump Jr.
To answer a question.
- [03:08]
Vince
The way that Kamala Harris answered questions so good.
- [03:10]
Donald Trump Jr.
I mean, tough but fair.
- [03:12]
Vince
Tough but fair.
- [03:12]
Donald Trump Jr.
I mean, it's, it's, it's legit. I mean, I've never seen someone that could get to the ranks that Kamala Harris did, who could not complete a sentence. Yes. And you saw that it was just such an empty suit. It's like a caricature created entirely by the media and a democratic apparatus that this is going to be the leader of the free world. I'm like, and you saw it. You always knew it kind of intuitively, but during that presidential run, you saw it so early when it was like, okay, fine, what would you do differently? I wouldn't do anything differently. Fine, you got it wrong. Even the left was killing her for that. Like, just answer something. On the border, on Ukraine, on any one of the major issues that was destroying the nation. But when she was asked a second time and a third time and a fourth time and a fifth time and was.
- [04:01]
Vince
And friendly. Atlas.
- [04:03]
Donald Trump Jr.
Listen, if you go on the View and basically almost end your political campaign as a Democrat, like, if you can't get through the View, how are you going to get through? Like Putin Xi.
- [04:14]
Vince
It's the most basic question imaginable. Like, it's the kind of thing that you would think to yourself while you're brushing your teeth before the interview. Yeah, they're probably going to ask me, what would my presidency be? How would it be different? You know, that's the most basic possible question. And it was, what's her face? Sunny on the View. Sunny Hostin, who was like, how would your presidency be different? She's like, not at all. It'd be the same.
- [04:33]
Donald Trump Jr.
Exactly the same. Everything that we failed at, we're going to continue failing at. And I'm like, how do they not know to adjust? Like, hey, I get it. Everyone's had a bad answer, right? Everyone's put their foot in their mouth, whatever it was, or maybe got caught off guard. But you're running a presidential campaign big time adjust, big time overcome.
- [04:53]
Vince
Was it weird to you? It was almost a cruel joke that every single person at the top of that administration couldn't speak in English sentences. So Joe Biden, obviously, for mental reasons, couldn't do that. Kamala Harris, for different mental reasons, couldn't do that. And then Karine Jean Pierre, literally the White House spokeswoman, was incapable of speaking in English. What happened?
- [05:12]
Donald Trump Jr.
Listen, the reality, I mean, everyone in the administration, they valued whatever diversity checkboxes they could check much more than competence. Right. It was very simple. That's what it was like, oh, Karine Jean Pierre, she was the first foreign born lesbian black woman. It's like, well, if you check enough boxes, eventually you're gonna come up with a combination of possibilities that, like, well, there's not another person in the world that meets all those other requirements. And that's what it felt like to me because it was so obvious no one knew what they were talking about, but it didn't matter because that was what they cared about. And that's why you could see it was just abject failure.
- [05:52]
Vince
Yes.
- [05:53]
Donald Trump Jr.
And I guess to an extent, I always say we sort of needed those last four years for the rest of the country to wake up. As brutal as it was for me. Yes.
- [06:02]
Vince
You feel like that?
- [06:03]
Donald Trump Jr.
I do. And it sucked. Right. They went after our businesses, they went after this. I'm like the most subpoenaed man in the history of the world, both congressionally and otherwise. And the lawsuits and the lawfare and the this. But then you combine the American public finally seeing that with a failing economy, endless wars, all of this, and they're like, you know what, Maybe Trump isn't that bad. Like, they saw even the lawsuits were so ridiculous and so that people are like, yep, listen, if you wanna go after him for something, fine. But like, when no one believes any of it is real anymore, and they see it's only happening in areas where they could weaponize it. They see it's only happening in, you know, Atlanta and D.C. and New York City. It's like, oh, oh, this is probably all nonsense. And it took a while. It was like what I dealt with during the early days of Russia, Russia, Russia. And I did 50 hours of congressional testimony for treason, a crime Punishable by death. And I'm sitting there be like, well, I must have been around someone. Cause I wanted to believe. Like, well, no, but it's the FBI. It's the FBI.
- [07:12]
Vince
So there was a part of you that. There was a part of me that there was a credible, like, explanation for this.
- [07:17]
Donald Trump Jr.
I wanted to believe that, like, everything I believed about America actually existed. And it turns out, like, I thought I was fighting to preserve the America I believed existed. Turns out I was actually fighting to help create an America that has been missing for a long time. But like I said, even me in that spot, under fire, they're trying to throw you in jail and worse, right? It's like, well, there has to be something to it. And it took me a while to be like, no, there doesn't have to be anything to it. It's all bs.
- [07:45]
Vince
You know our buddy Dan Bongino, now deputy Director of the FBI, thank God he would always use this expression, is it bad enough yet? That was the phrase that he would use over these past few years. And it turns out by the 2024 election, America had concluded. Yes.
- [07:59]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yes, it was.
- [08:00]
Vince
It's bad enough.
- [08:00]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yes, it was.
- [08:01]
Vince
It's bad enough. Let me go back to JD Vance for a moment because I want to. I want to figure out how he became Vice President of the United States. That's key. It's not a secret that you were pushing for him, that you wanted him to be the guy. He's fantastic. There were a lot of doubters out there about him, and not just among the kind of the inner circle world of Republican politics, but in the general public. People were not as familiar with JD Vance as they probably should have been or hadn't yet become acquainted with him. Tell me about that fight. What was that like, pushing to get JD Vance to be the guy?
- [08:32]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, it started pretty early. I had actually read his book when it first came out, when we were mid teens, mid 20 teens, whatever it was, I was like, wow, this is a guy that could. The story, the backstory, coming out of Appalachia and the poverty and breaking that cycle and becoming a business guy. And then that was way before even politics. And then it was like, oh, wow, he's a Trump hater. For a while. And it was sort of interesting. I knew some friends that knew him. Be like, you gotta get together with this guy. Like, you guys would be best friends. And so we started doing that early 2020, 2021, whatever it was, I started talking. I'm like. And he had come to the sort of the conclusion that actually Trump was right and I was the guy that was being manipulated. He came there on his own. Right. There's guys that, in politics that sort of. Okay, I'll say what I need to say right now to get into a position. There's other guys that actually change their entire worldview. Yes. On their own, organically. Listen, I think Marco Rubio at State has done that, you know, 10 years ago, you know, what he believed would have been very more neocon. Like, he's there on his own, and he's doing a great job.
- [09:35]
Vince
Marco, in his case, he was kind of famously a part of what they called the Gang of Eight amnesty bill with Lindsey Graham. And his views have definitely changed a lot.
- [09:43]
Donald Trump Jr.
And on their own, and I think he's doing an incredible job at State. But so I got to sort of know JD real well, and I saw that sort of Ohio Senate primary, and, like, you know, I don't think it's a secret to say that Republicans in the Senate, you know, with the exception of a very small handful, generally, like, our weakest crew. Right. There's just not many guys you'd want in a foxhole, in a political fight. It's sort of.
- [10:08]
Vince
They like being comfortable.
- [10:09]
Donald Trump Jr.
They like being comfortable. And it's really easy to be a Republican in Washington, D.C. that will come as a surprise to people if you just give in when it matters. Like, you can be, like, 90% conservative. Right. As long as you fold on the big fights, which the Republicans in the Senate very reliably do for the Democrats. And so it's an easy existence. So I saw sort of a talent. I saw, you know, a. A depth. But, like, he can take complex issues and talk about them, whether it's foreign policy or otherwise, and, like, simplify them to where regular people can understand it. He can be really wonky, too, if he wants to, but he actually knows how to translate that down to people who aren't policy wonks or whatever it may be. And so I was like, this guy's just really impressive. Love the backstory. I think it's important for people to be able to, you know, see, like, you can still live that American dream. It still exists. So how does. He did that?
- [11:01]
Vince
So how does the lobbying effort, obviously, like you would think, I mean, it's got to be a big deal for your son. In your case, you approached your father and you're like, Look, I think JD's really good. I think you should seriously consider him. What does that look like?
- [11:14]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, so, you know, I went to him during that Ohio Senate race primary where JD was like number three or four in a primary. And you know, oftentimes you don't want to get involved in a primary because who knows, you certainly don't want to back the number four guy usually, even if he's great, because like, if you lose that, you know, you sort of expend a lot of political capital and that's. Yeah, you know, I try to be as pure as I possibly can, but there's realities that you have to deal with in Washington. But I was like, listen, like, this guy's gonna be a rock star. We just gotta let him, you know, get there. Tucker actually got pretty involved. You know, I remember he did it.
- [11:46]
Vince
Kind of famously on his national television show. He had, he featured JD A lot and believed him. He openly endorsed and a lot of.
- [11:52]
Donald Trump Jr.
Other guys were trying to block him out. So we got that over the line. You know, he performed incredibly in those debates. He was the only guy that wasn't like sort of, you know, more Neo Connie and all of that, you know, understood like, no one wants the endless wars, despite what Washington D.C. would want. So did that becomes a senator, campaigned heavily for him during that general. And then he was just like a breakout star in the Senate. Right. He could articulate the issues. He wasn't afraid to get aggressive. That just was such a lacking thing in there. And so when the VP stuff started happening, it was like, this is a no brainer because for me, I think most people who know me and have watched me for the last nine years, I'm actually a believer in this stuff. I actually care. Right.
- [12:36]
Vince
That's true.
- [12:36]
Donald Trump Jr.
I was conservative since I was a kid, even if I grew up in New York City. So for me it's not about, well, we just gotta get four years of Trump at all costs. It was about, no, we need four years of Trump and a Runway. And that's the other thing that the four years gave us. This last four years, we found people who would fight, you know, if we, and I believe we won 2020. I don't, I don't think anyone watching doesn't believe that. But we didn't assume office. But what that four years also did was allowed us to find a crew of fighters, people who can do this. That's why this cabinet had. We just kept going from 2020 to 2024, like it would have been the same weak kind of cabinet. Weaker cabinet maybe. There's a couple guys that were great, but not many the can kickers. We're just Gonna wait it out.
- [13:21]
Vince
Right.
- [13:22]
Donald Trump Jr.
See what happens. We're gonna slow roll it. We're not gonna follow the will of the president. The unelected bureaucracy is gonna make all those decisions. We'll tell him what he wants to hear, but not get anything done. So what the Democrats did, and I said it a couple weeks ago, it was probably the stupidest move ever, playing those games in 2020 for them, because A, it exposed just how weak they are. B, it exposed things like how bad the teachers unions are, because we saw it with the lockdowns and the nonsense and every. Like, it forced people to wake up. And we also, finally, for the first time in history, we have a bench.
- [13:56]
Vince
Yeah. Because everyone got battle experience.
- [13:58]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah. Everyone was battle hard, and you could see who was a fighter. Yeah.
- [14:01]
Vince
You're looking at everyone who's been victimized by the left and by the. By the deep state. Like, whether it's Tulsi Gabbard, who's been tracked as a terrorist, or RFK who's been censored by the big tech companies at the behest of the White House. You start going down the list and you realize, whoa, each of these guys has been subjected to their own trials at the hands of the American left. And so they're in better position now.
- [14:23]
Donald Trump Jr.
They're ready to fight 100%. And you sort of broaden that coalition. So I was sort of behind the RFK endorsement. I sort of made that happen through a good friend of mine that was best friends with his son. It was like another one of those, like, you two would be best friends if you hung out. And so we did. And it was like, you saw the Democrats were trying to turn Bobby into, like, you know, the ultra conservative. And that's the choice against MAGA versus MAGA to try to split that vote. And so I was like, hey, Bobby, you're not gonna win. We know that, but you could cause significant damage here. I actually believe in so much of what he's saying out there. I think you are a subject matter expert on the health stuff. I think it's so critical. I have five young kids. I see the garbage that's out there. I see what they try to cover up. Let's figure out how to work together. And he was like, okay. And we sort of negotiated that one sort of back. It was me, my buddy Bobby, his campaign manager, and Susie Wiles, and that was it. We kept everyone else out of Now. We did the same thing with Tulsi, actually, because my friend who introduced us was also a kind of former Democrat that saw what happened during lockdowns and became like, you know, was totally, you know, red pilled and has been on board. So we brought this sort of interesting coalition back together. But to get back to J.D. yes, you know, that was complicated because the reality in politics and you know, all of politics, but money controls so much. Yeah.
- [15:40]
Vince
Yes.
- [15:41]
Donald Trump Jr.
So every billionaire donor that's out there, that's writing 5, 10, 15, 20, $25 million checks and up, sometimes they want their puppet in there. They want to be able to try to control the future. They want to be able to do this. And so for me, it was basically the biggest voices in that room for JD Would have been me initially. And all in Tucker, Charlie, Kirk, some of the, just the grassroots guys that are on the ground that know what's going on. It was us versus the entire billionaire class who each had their own, whatever it may be. There wasn't necessarily a consolidation around one particular guy. Got to a couple and it was just like, I get it, I know you need the money, but you also need to win and you also need to create that bench. Because it's not just about you winning, it's about making sure. And I don't wanna even say the Republican Party, cuz I don't think it's the Republican Party anymore. It's an America first party that this has a Runway beyond the four years of Trump. You could be the sledgehammer for four years, but you need someone who can run with that afterwards.
- [16:43]
Vince
So what you're describing goes against the caricature of your father, which is that he's merely in it for himself and his own advancement. So if he's thinking the long game, he's actually thinking about the big picture.
- [16:53]
Donald Trump Jr.
Oh, 100%. Listen, so if you're Trump and it's only about you, you'd find some average conservative guy that the billionaires would be able to get behind that would never outshine or never outperform you. It's what Kamala Harris did with Tim Walsh. Right. Well, we can't find someone who has political talent, even if I disagree, you know, with their views. Like there are people in the Democrat party that have political talent. She couldn't have someone as the number two that had political talent.
- [17:18]
Vince
Right.
- [17:18]
Donald Trump Jr.
She had to find someone that was worse than her to not outshine her. And like that's, I mean, that's gotta be challenging even in the Democrat Party to find someone worse.
- [17:27]
Vince
But it's a sign of insecurity.
- [17:29]
Donald Trump Jr.
Correct? So Trump gets this guy that's this rock star who. And you saw it. You put him on the Sunday shows. Just destroys all these people. You put them on in the debate. And at the end of the debate, Tim Wallace is sitting there like, I agree with everything JD Said. I'm like, I think he's voting for Trump. I was like, I think he's voting for Trump by the end of that thing. That's true. And so JD Was so funny yesterday.
- [17:50]
Vince
He says, I was never physically intimidated by Tim Walsh. I asked him. I was like. Because Tim Waltz is out there saying that. He's like, I can kick everybody's ass.
- [17:57]
Donald Trump Jr.
But that was the whole joke of the whole campaign. They tried to. Tim Waltz is the left's idea of masculine. Yeah. It's like, but. Cause they don't know what masculine actually is. So they're like, well, this guy one time held a shotgun, so he's ma. And, like, you could watch. I'm sitting there, like, as someone who does a lot of this stuff, I'm, like, watching him trying to load. I know, you know, a Beretta A400. I'm like, listen, you give me any shotgun in the world and a blindfold and three sails, and I'll load it in about four seconds. Doesn't matter if it's a pump, if it's an auto loader, like a brake action, like, I will know just by feeling. And when they're like, this guy's a serious hunter, and he's sitting there struggling, trying to load, like, you know, his gun is really. And he's like, you know, the whole quote was like, maga's intimidated by masculinity. I'm like, have you ever watched this guy get on a stage? I'm like, it's like the opening scene of the Nutcracker. You know what I mean? Like, it's like. I was like, I don't know. I've never seen a wrist so limp. Not that there's anything wrong with that, But I'm like, that was the left's idea of masculine. And so they're trying to push this on people who are actually masculine, or at least not totally effeminate. And, like, people are like, yeah, no, I'm not buying it. And he's still running with it. You saw it this week. He's like, I could beat the hell out of every MAGA Republican. I'm like, just stop. By the way, the number one sign of not being all that masculine is, like, talking about how masculine you actually are. Right? It's, like, funny and so we're jumping around a little bit, but it was, you know, but you could see that even. Even Fox News, they were trying to crush J.D. like, every. Like, they were forcing a narrative, like, trying to crush this guy because we want, you know, our puppet in there. All these guys were going against it. And I think the one thing my father probably figured out would be, like, I'm just the guy on the ground. I'm the. The guy that doesn't just show up for the selfie to be in the back of his speech. I don't go to his speeches. Right. I go to the speeches where he can't be.
- [19:44]
Vince
Right.
- [19:45]
Donald Trump Jr.
Because that's actually accretive. Yeah, right. Like, if there's one trump in the room, it's plenty. Yeah, right. You don't need. You don't need two trumps in a room. I don't add much value. Some of the stuff you do for history because it's cool. But, like, too many people in that world just. I just want to be where he is because I can be in the selfie and I can use it to promote whatever.
- [19:59]
Vince
Yes.
- [19:59]
Donald Trump Jr.
Like, no, no. I'm going to go to, like, the middle of Iowa and speak to, you know, 300 people in a room that, you know, the nominee can't go do, you know, to add value. So I just had a feeling of what's going on on the ground. I have a feeling where people are. I just so, you know, he started, you know, trusting me with that one. And I knew it was always, even the Sunday shows, he started crushing. Like I said, he's putting, you know, Martha Raddatz in a place. Martha, do you hear yourself speaking? Yes. Trenda Laragua only took over a couple of buildings in Colorado. I mean, it's, you know, it's wild how. How deranged they are. And he could. He could do it. But, like, I get high strung, I get aggressive. Like, he'll. He'll tell these people and he's. Slap them around like a little child, but just calm and collected and cool. And, like, everyone saw it. And I knew I was finally vindicated because there were a lot of people in the press. All those but hurt billionaires, you know, they were MF ing me behind my back. And, you know, and some of them even came up to me afterwards, like, I hated you more than any person in politics for about a month and a half after the convention. But you were actually right. I was like, you should not have told me that because I don't forget these things. I know, but it's fine.
- [21:07]
Vince
I've noticed a lot of people saying that, like, I was completely wrong about J.D.
- [21:10]
Donald Trump Jr.
Vance.
- [21:10]
Vince
I had no idea.
- [21:11]
Donald Trump Jr.
That's, like, the number one thing I hear right now. And so I knew I was good because half the time, you know, hey, playing to the whole crowd. But, like, sometimes it's an audience of one. And that audience of one is a very powerful band. And it was after the debate, the vice presidential debate, I go do the spin room and I did like, two hours of straight media, just like, you know, from American to, like, BBC. And, like, just. And my phone keeps ringing in my pocket and I'm like, okay, just mute, mute, mute. Because I figured, oh, it's just a bunch of people, like, Great. You know, J.D. did great. I was like. It was actually no people. It was 15, like, missed calls from my dad at 2 in the morning. And I'm like, I'm going to call him back. And I do. He picks up on the first ring at 2:00 in the morning. He's kind of a machine, you know, Don, don't. I did that one for you, Don. But that was a 10. There's not a lot of tens. That was a 10. And so it was finally like, okay, I don't care if I'm vindicated in the minds of the billionaire class. It means nothing to me. Like, I fight for. If I didn't, if I cared about that, I would have stayed as a real estate developer in New York. Like, I actually, you know, sort of. I'm basically a redneck on the weekends when I'm not, you know, in a suit or whatever, doing those things. That's what I like to do. Those are the people I hang out with. And so, you know, that was a. The ultimate vindication was him finally being like, hey, man, this is a risk. It's a little bit of an unknown entity. He was senator for two years, and while he clearly overperformed in everything, that was the ultimate cause, I didn't care what anyone else thought. It was like, he got it.
- [22:44]
Vince
That's very gratifying.
- [22:44]
Donald Trump Jr.
And he understands talent better than anyone.
- [22:46]
Vince
Yeah, that's gratifying. As a son. And your father's like, you know what?
- [22:49]
Donald Trump Jr.
You did really good. This is really good.
- [22:51]
Vince
And, like, thinking about that, actually, I'm reminded of, like, kind of one of the stories of the campaign was the influence that your family had over your dad. The one that kept popping up is that your brother Baron, like, had advised him to do all of these podcasts to basically go outside of the traditional media. Get out. Get out of there. Go to places where massive numbers of especially young people are watching and speak directly to them in these really long form interviews. That was a huge success.
- [23:19]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah. You know, I'm not sure how involved Baron was with that. I think he definitely spoke to my dad about it. I was doing the same thing. Right. Well, it's sort of my world also. Right. I know most of those guys are, you know, and I was like, hey, you got to do this. And the thing about the long form stuff is if you're Kamala Harris, maybe you could. Maybe she couldn't even get, you know, here's the four soundbites I get in a five minute interview on msdnc. Right. Usually you can crank those. The long form, eventually you gotta let your guard down. Eventually you actually have something to say. And so I was like, I know he does. Like, the Rogan thing was incredible. And I was talking with Dana about making that happen for a while. Dana White just be like, we gotta get him on there, because he'll do so well. Cause people are like, well, Trump doesn't know anything. When they started talking about the history of the Civil War, people were like, wait a minute. Trump actually has some serious depth in these talks.
- [24:09]
Vince
He likes about McKinley's presidency and some.
- [24:12]
Donald Trump Jr.
Really random stuff, but, you know, historically important and critical to, like, where we are today. But like, you're like, wait a minute. Trump does have depth. He may not show it all the time. Sometimes you gotta get the sound bite out. Sometimes, you know, you can't. You can't get to all of the detail. But I think it was so important he could do one after the other. And he'd made the effort to go out there and it wasn't. There were no terms or conditions put in there. Yes. You know, and everyone saw that. And, you know, I don't know. Again, I don't know if it was a mistake or the smartest thing in the world for Kamala Harris to not have done those things.
- [24:44]
Vince
It's probably better that she.
- [24:45]
Donald Trump Jr.
Because like. Yeah, is it worse that she didn't do it or is it worse that she would have done it and failed miserably?
- [24:49]
Vince
She would have failed. And that's because the left doesn't really subject itself to that kind of battle. They try to avoid it at all costs. They censor people in order to prevent debate.
- [24:58]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah, they've never had to have that battle because they had the media that would do it for them. They had big tech that would do that for Them. I mean, you know, anything that was sort of, you know, outside of the rules would just be censored and shut down. It didn't matter. Right. The Hunter Biden laptop was always real. Everyone knew about it. The New York Post reported on it. I wrote a book about some of these things in 2020. It just never got out into the ether. It was not allowed because it was contrary to where they wanted it to go. So they've never actually had to fight an intellectual battle. And when they do these days, they've gotten so accustomed to either having that support or just going right to like, it's racist, it's misogynist. It's like the easy button of today's left. Like, yes, anything doesn't go with the talking points is racist. That just doesn't work anymore because people are. They're sort of over it.
- [25:43]
Vince
Yeah, no, they definitely are. I want to talk to you about somebody else in the family. Your daughter Kai.
- [25:48]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yes.
- [25:49]
Vince
So Kai Trump gets introduced to the whole planet when she goes and speaks to the Republican National Convention last year. That, of course, happened right after your father was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. Tell me, kind of what, what's that? What is that like inside the family to make this decision that your now 17 year old daughter is going to stand on a national stage and introduce her grandfather?
- [26:15]
Donald Trump Jr.
Honestly, it wasn't a family decision. It was 100% her. Like, right, right after that, everyone's like, that was a brilliant move by Don Jr. To try to humanize his father with his daughter. Like, you know, I was like, I would never, like, I'd never subject like my child to that, you know, push it on them for like political gain. Like, I know how wrong that can go if it goes bad.
- [26:35]
Vince
Sure, yes.
- [26:35]
Donald Trump Jr.
Uh, but like, she was. So how it all started was I got the rare call as a dad of a 17 year old to be like, hey, dad, I want to hang out and go fishing today. Like, that doesn't happen very often, right? It's like 17 year old. It's like if, if I get a call or even a response on a text message once every other, once every 10 texts, I like, I'm lucky.
- [26:52]
Vince
And so did that happen before the assassination?
- [26:55]
Donald Trump Jr.
Oh, yeah, that was before. So we were, that's. We were. She was like, earlier that morning, I was like, okay, I'm dropping everything because this is a once in a year type call. Yes, I'm dropping everything. I'm taking her fishing. You know, we went offshore. We live right on the water in Florida. So we went Offshore. We're having a great day. And I get the call like, your dad's been shot. I'm like. And, you know, like, there's no degrees of good. Some calls are good or bad. Like, there's no degrees of good in this. It's just, well, how bad? Well, we don't know. And I'm telling her, like, we gotta go. She's like, what do you mean? We have to. I'm like, we gotta go. And I told her. And I guess the one thing that perhaps wasn't a total failure, that they were. They were smart enough to shut down, you know, communication. So we didn't know for 90 minutes.
- [27:37]
Vince
So did you. In this. In this 90 minute window, did you see the videos that we were all saying?
- [27:41]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, I was running a boat, you know, about 50 miles an hour.
- [27:44]
Vince
Yes.
- [27:44]
Donald Trump Jr.
You know, I said the, you know, probably the record through Jupiter Inlet and back to my house and think I may have blown through some. No wake zones and that. I think cops would have understood that if I got pulled over. So I was willing to take the chance, you know, get back to the house. And then I started seeing those videos. But again, you don't know. Like, you know I'm a hunter, right?
- [28:00]
Vince
Yes.
- [28:01]
Donald Trump Jr.
I've. I've shot a deer that's dead. It just doesn't know it yet. It can run for a couple hundred yards, and then. So you don't know. You come back to find. But you're bleeding out slowly or whatever it may be. So I didn't know. It took about 90 minutes. By that time, most of my family is at my house, and my kids, my ex, the kids, everyone's there. My brother's on the phone. We're on speakerphone, trying to get through. Ivanka's on the other line, and we're. What is going on? We don't know. Finally, call comes in from my dad's people or whatever it is, and we're like. And his voice was the first voice we heard. I was like, oh, God. Okay. Thank. Fine. That's like the initial adrenaline dump, but you're still pretty wired up.
- [28:49]
Vince
What did he say?
- [28:50]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, I'm usually the guy that. I'm the icebreaker because I'll say the stuff that most people will. And I was like, for. I just said first. The first thing I said once I knew he was okay was like, by the way, that was the most badass thing I've ever seen. Because, like, you know, everyone thinks they're a tough guy, especially these days on the Internet. Right.
- [29:07]
Vince
Yeah.
- [29:08]
Donald Trump Jr.
Behind a keyboard in mommy's basement. Like, everyone's a tough guy, right? It's shot in the face, and you come back ready to fight. That's cool. That's badass. That's. That's the actual test. Most people, you know, that get tested, you know, 90% of them are going to fail in that situation. Very few are going to, you know, rise to the occasion.
- [29:26]
Vince
Yes.
- [29:27]
Donald Trump Jr.
You know, understand what was happening ironically, at the RNC that following week. You know, two guys came up to me, like, hey, man, I were in separately. I was in the stands at Butler, and, like, people were going to die because there was going to be a stampede because no one knew what was going on. And he goes, when your dad stood up, everyone was like. They calmed down. And it was like they then left quietly and peacefully, but, like, they were like, they felt it shaking. Like, two separate people told me that. I was like, I never thought about that. He was like, oh, he saved lives that day by doing what he did instead of just staying undercover and rushing away where people would have been panicked. But so we finally do this. I told him that was the most badass thing ever. There's some conversation, but it's still, like, a really heavy moment. So I was like, I got to break the ice on this one and just be like, listen, with all of this, I got to ask, most importantly, how is the hair? Just dyeing the hair. Hair's fine. It's a little bloody. Done. The hair's fine. And everyone sort of had a laugh. And it was maybe that, like, that release we all needed, you know, to have that done. But it was. You know, that night was sort of interesting. Cause you're sort of. The adrenaline is going. And when that adrenaline dump hit, it was like, you know, it crushes you. So, you know, I woke up the next morning to Kai calling me, and she's like. And that was the week of the rnc. She goes, I'm speaking at the rnc. I'm like, oh, like, really? Like, I was not aware of that. I've been working on this for a while. I guess I'll go bump some senator or governor. Like, are you serious? Like, you've never given a speech in your life. Your first speech is gonna be in front of, like, 40,000, whatever it is, live audience and tens of millions on tv. She's like, I don't care. And it's not because she's political, but she has spent more time with my dad than probably I have. Right. She's his golfing Buddy, she's great at it. They play every weekend. I will catch her. We'll be hanging out on a weekend or whatever it is. And she'll be talking to someone about little pop culture things. I'm like, hey, guy, we gotta go do something. You gotta quit talking to your friends. And she's like, I'm not talking to my friends. I'm like, well, you're talking about whatever it may be, Taylor Swift or who, probably not Taylor Swift, but something like that. And she's like, I'm talking to Grandpa. I'm like, wait, really? Like grandpa's having like this kind of pop culture teen. Like, I thought it was like another high school kid or whatever it is, and it's grandpa for 30 minutes. It's sort of funny. So they have this great relationship. So, you know, that's how it started. And she was very adamant about it because again, I would never put her in that fire. So I call my dad and I'm like, hey, listen, Kai just called me. She wants to speak at the rnc. And he just goes, whoa. Because he understands what happens if she, if it fails, right? Sure. Like they'll destroy her. You know, we don't get the Hunter Biden treatment. Leave the 50 year old son alone. He's just a child. He's a child. Leave him alone. You know, we don't get that treatment, we don't get the benefit of the doubt. And he just goes, that's a big one. Okay, you know what, that kid's a winner. Let her do it. Like, she'll be fine.
- [32:28]
Vince
Let's pick up on this. I want to pick up on the other side of this and more on your daughter Kai speaking at the Republican national convention. Donald Trump Jr. In the house. This is awesome.
- [32:35]
Donald Trump Jr.
What's going on, guys?
- [32:36]
Vince
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- [34:48]
Donald Trump Jr.
Glad to do it. Thank you, guys.
- [34:49]
Vince
Thank you for that. And they love your description of Tim Walls performing in the Nutcracker with jazz hands.
- [34:57]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah. So spirit fingers. I'm just like, like, I again. Yeah, it was always amazing to me. So I loved watching it happen because, like, you know, obviously on my rumble show or whatever, I'd highlight these things, but, like, people were like, yeah, we know it's ridiculous. Like, and I was like, it wasn't even one of those things, like, you have to point out to people. Yes. Like you, you know. Oh, now that you've said it, now I see what you're saying. You didn't need to say anything. Just please, just give him the mic, let him come out, you know, jazz up the music and, like, he's going to do it to himself. It was great.
- [35:26]
Vince
So good. All right, so the microphone, of course, goes to your daughter Kai. Yeah, so you said. You just described how you called your dad and said, hey, Kai would like to speak. He considered it for a moment and said, great, she's a star.
- [35:38]
Donald Trump Jr.
It's going to be great.
- [35:40]
Vince
So she does.
- [35:41]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah.
- [35:42]
Vince
How many audiences has she addressed prior to that?
- [35:45]
Donald Trump Jr.
It was literally like her first speech. I think as a kid she did one or two little rallies. Meaning like the first, like in 2015, 2016, when she was what, like 8.
- [35:54]
Vince
Or 9 years old.
- [35:54]
Donald Trump Jr.
Like, give me the mic. Literally out of like the back of a pickup truck at like a tailgate party. I think she spoke at like the Florida State, the Florida game one time, I guess, Florida, Georgia. And you know, she said merry Christmas at some rally in Grand Rapids, I think it was, or Cedar Falls when we were doing, you know, in that. And like, otherwise nothing. She was just a kid with Merry Christmas. I was like, you did great. That's not. But by the way, for some people, that's still hard to do right in front of a crowd of thousands of people. But so she does this thing and she's very confident going in and then we get to the actual event. When you do a warm up when it's empty, it's easier when you walk. And she was like, suicide. She's like, oh, boy. I was like, just relax. Talk a thousand times slower than you think you need to do and you're going to do great. And we went out there and, you know, I guess, you know, of the Trump jeans I got, you know, luckily, the total lack of stage fright, like, I want the mic, not. I don't want to give it back. I want a larger crowd, not a smaller crowd. That's right. It's frankly easier for me. But that was the most nervous I've ever been on a stage. And like, I. I wasn't even the guy at the mic. I'm just standing five feet behind her because I again, I know, I know what happens if there's even a. If there's a hiccup.
- [37:09]
Vince
Yeah.
- [37:10]
Donald Trump Jr.
You know, you saw it the next day. I knew it hit home the next day. When the lovely ladies of the View are like, that was terrible. Exploitation of a minor. They should be ashamed of themselves. I'm like, you guys exploit, like, what this daughter's. She's pushing the patriarchy or like, whatever the sound bites are.
- [37:24]
Vince
In fairness, ABC is exploiting an entire table of mentally ill people view.
- [37:28]
Donald Trump Jr.
That's very fair. Yeah. So like I said, I would, I would never do that. Like, I would never do that to my kids. Like, I care too much about my kids. Unlike the left, who's more than happy to let their kids mutilate themselves. Yeah, that's not for me. But that was sort of nervous. It was interesting because then I had to speak afterwards, and it was such a proud moment for me. I had a hard time focusing on getting back to what I needed to do and then deliver more of a Don speech. Our speech wasn't even political. It was just like. But it drove these people nuts that maybe there's a chance that Donald Trump is actually human. I mean, doesn't matter that there's countless stories of people that he's helped throughout his life. They're just never gonna get so I coverage.
- [38:08]
Vince
So I know that you and of course, your father very accustomed to negative press. So it probably rolls off you for the most part, you probably don't care that much. But it's got to be different to see press, like, scrutiny of your kid. So your daughter is not even 18 yet. She's 17 right now, and already, like, in the last day. I know she's. She's a great golfer, and everyone's keeping track of her latest golf tournament and writing all these negative headlines about her. Oh, she's not. First of all, she's way better than everybody writing stories about her. And second, it's got to be tough as a dad to see intense sort of negative scrutiny placed on your kid.
- [38:40]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah. And some of it's. You know, what's interesting now is, I mean, you know, a year ago, the number one comment I'd get from people is like, I love your Instagram feed. Cause you just don't care. And it's all memes and, like, occasional family stuff or whatever it may be. Now it's like, hey, you know, like, liberals come up to me and are like, you know, my daughter really loves Kai. And I'm just like, wow, didn't see that come. It's sort of interesting. She's done an incredible job breaking out the negative stuff. Is it. My superpower in politics or business is like, I legitimately don't care what other people say. It allows me to do what I do right. It's why I don't ever pull back. It's why I'm uncomfortable being aggressive. Because if you don't like it, I don't give a shit. Like, it doesn't matter to me. Like, I'm going to do it anyway. And, like, it's harder when it's. When it's your kid, I bet. But you know, generally speaking, I think, you know, it's been pretty good. Again, I, I don't get the trip. She had actually a pretty good piece today in the Washington Post. I haven't even had a chance to read it. But like, friends who have, they're like, wow, I saw it, I read it. That's the permission slip for them to attack me harder because they're like, look, we're being fair. We were nice to a 17 year old girl so we could destroy Don next week.
- [39:47]
Vince
I read it this morning and it is, it's very glowing and it talks about how she's like kind of the, she's like the humanizing force for the Trump White House. And in a way it's kind of a backhanded compliment to her. It's like everyone else is like completely unhuman, but she's very human. But this is what we call in journalism a beat sweetener. It's like you write a really nice piece just to like, oh, maybe we'll get the Trump family to like us again. And then boom, they try to put.
- [40:08]
Donald Trump Jr.
You know, listen, at this point with the Washington Post, I imagine that's a lost cause for me. If they're, if they're decent to a 17 year old, I'm all for it. Hopefully, hopefully that's the start. I mean, yeah, my understanding and I haven't even had a chance to read it yet but you know, it sort of talked more on a political thing and that's her like she's trying to not get anything. Like it's not political at all. I think that's what makes it, it doesn't to be. She's like, it's not my world, I don't want to do that. So, you know, they're trying to make it more like, well, this is a political for. It's like she has nothing. She, she's talking to young kids and like I think, you know, a kid that's, you know, just, you know, clean cut and works hard and is a straight A student and is a good athlete, you know, like, maybe that's a better role model. And some of the stuff that's being pushed on us, like, you know, you're not good unless you have nose rings and rainbow colored freak hair and like mutilate your body.
- [40:55]
Vince
Exactly.
- [40:56]
Donald Trump Jr.
You're confused and you hate your country and your parents. Like that's the ideal child. It was sort of like, oh wow, like it's refreshing that like maybe you can have a normal role Model for a change.
- [41:05]
Vince
So one of the cool things that they did focus on in that Washington Post piece is just what she's doing with social media and bringing people inside of this world that nobody else has access to. Not even like, you know, those top Trump, Trump donors or anybody else. This is the granddaughter to the president. So she goes to a bunch of cool events and she captures them and in the process she gets to meet a lot of cool people, including Elon Musk. And Kai, I think in the last 24 hours has posted a video. Can we play this? This is a video from, from Kai Trump, Donald Trump Jr's daughter. Apparently she has just received a Tesla from. From Elon Musk. Watch this.
- [41:40]
Donald Trump Jr.
Oh, boy. Yeah, that was fast.
- [41:45]
Vince
I don't know.
- [41:47]
Donald Trump Jr.
So Elon got this one for me because they didn't make it at the time. All my grandpa like got me one. He got me like the soup dump version. So it's 06 and 2.6 seconds, which is insane. Well, is this 2.6 seconds?
- [41:59]
Vince
2.6.
- [41:59]
Donald Trump Jr.
Oh, yeah. Then you'd give me the 06 for sure. So like my dad is, I think his car is like 3.2 seconds or whatever. Oh, well, I, I drive a big truck, but it's a faster. I drive a trx. I love it. Like, it's a great car. And I was like, okay, I got to see, you know, what, what it'll do relative to the cyber truck. Yeah, the cyber truck is like super ridiculous. Like I've never like off the line. It's faster than most sports cars. You know, they're both, you know, 7,000 pound trucks. So they're both super fast. 700 horsepower. Yes.
- [42:27]
Vince
How do you feel about your daughter having a faster car than you right now?
- [42:29]
Donald Trump Jr.
Well, I just. Listen, I think we got to like break that down even like further. Like how do I feel about my 17 year old daughter driving period? Like, it's like I'm still a dad. I'm just like, I don't like this. You don't need a super, but it's a big heavy car, so I like that, you know, so, yeah, so it's good. I think that that one came about. I think it was funny. Kai was playing with my dad, you know, and Elon called about something and he was just like, you know, Elon, you know, my granddaughter needs a new car. What do you recommend? And like he's like this, My dad got her a cybertruck. I was like, just here, take that. It was, it was pretty, pretty funny. She calls Me, I'm like. Like, my dad never did that to me. Like, if I wanted a truck, it was like, you know, it was like, get a job. I'll use you something crappy, and if you want to upgrade it, you're going to have to work for it. I'm like, wait, you're just giving her cyber trucks? I mean, it hurts. Truck is nicer than me. I'm like, 47.
- [43:17]
Vince
Yes. Are you concerned that your dad likes her better than you?
- [43:22]
Donald Trump Jr.
It's not even a concern because, like, there's no reason to be concerned about something that's very obvious, you know, I think. Yeah. I always joke. I like Kai and it's because of golf, you know? Like, I don't even play golf, so I'm like the black sheep in the Trump family. I barely play golf. I was good, but I never loved it, so I just sort of. I have my other hobbies that keeps me busy. So I am the black sheep. I'm out of the will by not playing golf. She is. She's probably the recipient in my stead, so.
- [43:45]
Vince
So you said I was. I wanted to ask about this. How did you get into hunting? Is your dad a hunter at all?
- [43:49]
Donald Trump Jr.
No.
- [43:50]
Vince
Has he ever gone with you?
- [43:51]
Donald Trump Jr.
No. No. You know, can't teach an old dog new tricks. My dad loves golf. That's all. That's what he's passionate about. I was pretty good. Like, he always gets mad at me because he was like, you know, I'll pick up a club after not picking up a club for two years and always had a really good swing. And he's like, you'd be a plus two if you played. You know? But when I'm out there, I'm like. I look at the water and I'm like, man, I wonder if there's fish in there. I could go fishing. Or, like, you know, you wander off. Yeah. It just. It was never a passion of mine. So it's like you to probably do it a lot to play with him. And then I remember with my ex, one night I came home and I was like, man, I didn't do anything all weekend. I got a busy week. She's like, you play golf like, three times? Like, what? Like, what do you mean? I'm like, oh. Like, I thought of it more as work instead of fun. And so, like, I'm happy to, like, most of my kids play. Like, I love it for them. Yeah. It was just never for me. And you got to kind of do what you want. I got into it, sort of got into the outdoors. My grandfather was a blue collar, you know, electrician from communist Czechoslovakia. I spoke the language fluently. I started going over there very young. My mom, I think, and him, maybe my dad a little bit, were like, okay, you're living on the 70th floor of Trump Tower. You have to experience the other side of life. So I spent a month, plus every summer in what was then communist Czechoslovakia in the early 80s. I had friends, spoke the language, got me into the outdoors. There's the woods. I'll see you at dark. And so it was like America, if you step back in time 70 years, where. So I got some of that experience as a child, fell in love with it. I went to boarding school in eighth grade. Just wanted to get out of New York City. It was my parents going through a rough divorce and, like, all that. I was like, you know what? I just want to be here. Went to boarding school in central Pennsylvania. And, you know, a couple guys there saw that I love the outdoor stuff, took me under their wing. Got me, you know, shooting gun. I mean, I shot air guns and stuff like that earlier and. But like fly fishing and air guns. Yes. And I just fell in love. And the second I could go.
- [45:35]
Vince
Because your life is so busy and the environments you're describing are meditative.
- [45:38]
Donald Trump Jr.
Like, you can just like, that's my escape. They're like, what do you like? I can't. I am totally add everything, but, like, you know, I can go in the mountains without a phone for 10 days, come back out, and it's like, you know. Now within about four hours of catching up on emails, I'm usually back to the stress level I was before. But that, that's sort of my release. And so I just. I just love being out there. That's whether it's fishing, hunting, just shooting.
- [45:57]
Vince
But your dad never had an interest. He was never into that.
- [46:00]
Donald Trump Jr.
I've seen him shoot like once or twice, but that's about it now. It was. You're not going to change him. You know what I mean? It's a. My dad's the guy that like. And it's why he's probably successful at so many things. Like, he's the guy that can't even understand why, like, you may not like the same music that he does. He's like, no, but this is the best. Like, he's.
- [46:16]
Vince
He's very proud of his playlist.
- [46:18]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah, no, he's, you know, DJ Trump is, you know, DJ Trump is a thing that's. That's Mar A Lago. He'll sit there and do it all night. And I'm like, okay, I gotta go, because it's playing so loud. I can't hear. I'm not having. It's like, you hate music. I'm like, I don't hate music. I just like if I can't have a conversation. Cause you're like, we're playing so loud. I don't feel the need to sit here that long.
- [46:35]
Vince
I think back to. It was the 2016 election, and we were on the road. It was the New Hampshire primary, and if you recall that night, it was very snowy. The debate.
- [46:45]
Donald Trump Jr.
I remember that one.
- [46:45]
Vince
There was a. The debate occurred. Marco Rubio was having a lot of trouble on stage. We don't talk about that now, because Rubio is wonderful, but Rubio was having trouble on stage. And so that night, we went to the only steakhouse. It was me and a couple Daily Call reporters and Tucker Carlson. We all went to a. The only steakhouse that was open that night. And we're sitting there enjoying our meal, and the Secret Service comes walking in a few minutes later. It's a almost empty restaurant. And sure enough, right after they come in and scan the restaurant, your entire family walks in and everybody walks in to have dinner. And. And President Trump stops by the table. Not yet president. And my buddy Alex Pappas says to him, asks a reporter, he goes, I can ask you about your playlist is. You've got, like, you know, like, the Rolling Stones. You got like Elton John.
- [47:29]
Donald Trump Jr.
Go right to Pavarotti. You've got.
- [47:31]
Vince
You've got like all these, like, like, like, basically foreign performers. Like, what about, like, a lot more American performers? He asked, and. And your dad just stopped him. He said, no, no, no, no, no. My playlist is amazing. Don't you love it? And he just. He just didn't even care what the question was. He was like, I'm telling you, I have a great playlist. It's the best. Which was a hoot. I just loved it.
- [47:52]
Donald Trump Jr.
I remember that. That was a. That was an interesting one. Yeah, that was a crazy time. I mean, the 16. The 16 elections sort of, for me is sort of the most nostalgic. Like, it was the most fun, wasn't it? Because. Well, because there was no expectation of us actually winning. Right? It was like, like, I'm going to fight as hard as I possibly can. Like, you know, it was like, even no matter what, like, you watch CNN, it's like, you have no chance. You have zero percent chances. Like, if we got 1% of. If we outperform by 1%. That's a win based on what we were saying in public.
- [48:23]
Vince
Everybody acts confident. But I will say I talked to people, like, really good Trump people that morning of the election day, and they were like, we'll see.
- [48:31]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah, we'll see.
- [48:32]
Vince
We'll see. What?
- [48:32]
Donald Trump Jr.
I was like, we're gonna overperform. Like, we're gonna do so much better than anyone thought. But, like, come on, how do you beat that? Yeah, you know, when they started with Russia, collusion, I'm like, collusion. Like, we, we couldn't collude to order a cheeseburger. Like, we didn't know anything what was going. Like, we would. Like, no one knew what they were doing. It was like we had a good message. My father, ironically, is a billionaire from New York, knows real people because, you know, he spent all his time on construction sites. Perhaps it's why Eric and I, we grew up on construction sites too. It's probably why I talk the way I do. But we weren't sheltered from real people. Like, so many people in Washington, D.C. are. Even people that are in Congress that are supposed to live amongst their constituents, they have no idea about these people. So I understood and appreciated the irony that this brash billionaire from New York was the guy that could actually resonate with blue collar workers, because he'd actually spent time with them a lot. But you didn't think you were gonna win. You didn't have the staffing, you didn't have. So it was like, I don't know, like, give me a mic somewhere and I'll. I'll be fine. Like, so it was, it was fun, it was cool. It was easy. From that perspective, once you have an infrastructure and then you're expected. This, it's like, wow, this kind of sucks.
- [49:37]
Vince
You know, one of the. My favorite memories from election night 2016, I was there at the Midtown Hilton where you held the victory party. And we. It was early in the morning, we get that announcement that he won the presidency, and then he comes out and the way that that room is structured, there was a big, almost like a catwalk that you walk across, then you walk down some stairs, and then you come onto the main stage. And on that catwalk was the entire Trump family. Everybody that you know from the presidential campaign. President Trump was in the front. And I guess I think this was his choice. He was playing the theme music from Air Force One, which is like, it's like, it's a very kind of, like, emotional, like, American theme that people just think of it was so resonant. And all of you walked down on that stage together. And I just remember being in utter shock at what I was viewing. In a good way.
- [50:25]
Donald Trump Jr.
Just like, me too.
- [50:26]
Vince
I turned to a buddy and I go, america just elected Donald Trump President of the United States. And he gave a thank you speech. He thanked every single person on that stage, except for Mike Pence.
- [50:36]
Donald Trump Jr.
Because I guess, turns out like, like Trump was all, Trump's always right about everything. It just sometimes takes a while to figure it out.
- [50:44]
Vince
Isn't that funny? Like, if I was right, he didn't thank on stage. Like, literally the only person he didn't thank was his running mate. Every single person he thanked, he literally was like, I think he was like thanking the janitors. He was thanking everybody. But Mike T, for some reason. Do you, do you remember that night?
- [50:57]
Donald Trump Jr.
I do, I, I, I do. Because I remember right before that, like, I was like videoing the Hillary call, which was pretty awesome. I don't even know if I've ever posted that. I probably should. Oh, you should.
- [51:10]
Vince
It's shelf life is good now.
- [51:11]
Donald Trump Jr.
Yeah, no, it's just like, because I was like, this is really happening. Because, you know, again, I felt we'd overperformed without question. You know, I was, I was the guy on the ground more than probably anyone in terms of like, getting into real America. That's sort of what I did. You know, I wasn't the guy that was going to manage data because I was like, you know, I'm good, I'm pretty good with a mic. I figured that out. Like, send me. Yeah. You know, running a campaign wouldn't have been my strong suit then. I was much more involved in those, you know, that apparatus this time because I'd figured it out after three terms. Now I actually have, you know, some credibility to stand back on. Like, I get how this works. Right. That time I didn't know anything. And so, yeah, that was, that was an amazing night. I mean, I don't think I ever went to sleep because it was just like, yeah, I tried at like six in the morning to go to bed for now, and I was like, like, what do we do now?
- [51:55]
Vince
Yes.
- [51:55]
Donald Trump Jr.
Right. Sometimes the dog catches the car. Right? It was like, yeah. And you know the difference. And, you know, same thing happened this time around. It was like 4:00 in the morning. It was like, you know, when we won in November, and it was like, this was different though. It's like, yeah, I got like two hours of sleep and I'm like, okay, now we're going to staff him with people. We're not just going to listen to Chris Christie or some other guy pushing their buddies that suck or you know, are barely conservative or rhino neocons or they have an R next to their name and maybe some cred, but they'll sell you down the river in two seconds to make sure that they can position themselves better for some lobbying contract or whatever it may be. Yeah. You know, this time it was like, okay, we're going to get to work and we're going to give him the best cabinet we can possibly give him.
- [52:33]
Vince
So let me end where we started. Basically where I was asking you about J.D. vance. I saw something recently that some reporter asked you if you are planning on running for President of the United States. And you basically said you told this reporter they were an idiot.
- [52:47]
Donald Trump Jr.
I actually told them they were retarded.
- [52:48]
Vince
Retarded.
- [52:49]
Donald Trump Jr.
They were like, are you going to use that as your quote? I'm like, yes, that is my official. You are a retarded moron. That was my official response. You can quote me. Well, because they try. I see what they do in. Right. That's why we did sort of the Bobby Kennedy thing. Yeah. Like, we did it quiet because if everyone found out and it started leaking, then they'll find a way to make sure it doesn't happen. Right. They'll find a way to break it up. If you give them the time to do that. You see them doing that now, you know Don Junior's running for President. Like, there's polls that had me tied with JD couple. Like, why would I, like, assuming I'm not also retarded. And what's nice is we're bringing back the word retarded. Right. Like gay and retarded are back in the vernacular. I'm just saying it's fine. It was probably every other word out of all of our high school lives. Yeah. You know, then it became a totally cancelable offense. Now like people are, you know, over the cancel nonsense. It actually has nothing to do with being gay or retarded. Like, as we know, never did. But that doesn't stop them. But you know, they're trying to create these schisms. Like, but I just replied back to you, like, and it's like the last quote at the bottom of the story. So they're like, oh, Don Junior's running. And like we can create a problem. Like my quote is the most aggressive like shut down quote ever. Like, and it might thesis in. The rest of the quote was basically like, listen, assuming I'm not an idiot. And I had the vision to, like, you know, help. Help curate a guy that's a great talent and push, use all of my political capital for maybe the next 50 years to make that happen. Like, why would I nurture that kind of talent instead of letting some, you know, puppet of the billionaire class go in there that if I really wanted to run, I'd probably destroy in a primary in 2028? Like, why would I create, like, a much harder competition? Wouldn't I be knifing? Yes. Like, if I. If I played the game like everyone else in dc, wouldn't I be knifing our best talent to clear an easier path for me if I actually wanted to do that? So, yeah, maybe one day. You never know. I'm never gonna rule anything out, but, like, you know, I wanna make sure we have a long bench of great talent.
- [54:44]
Vince
Yep.
- [54:44]
Donald Trump Jr.
It's not just about Trump. I think he's the catalyst we need. I think he's perhaps one of the only guys that can do what we need to do right now. Maybe the only guy, probably the only guy that can do what we need to do right now. Just take on everything and just not care. You know, I don't want to say burn it down, because then they'll say I'm encouraging violence even though they're burning down Tesla stations all over the world. But, like, he's the guy that can do that. But you need that bench of guys that can follow through and keep it going and not just revert back to the insanity of the past. And so I think. Listen, I think JD's done an incredible job, but like I said, this four years, we've actually started curating some real talent. And whether that's for 28 or for 32 or for, you know, 36, we have. We actually have a bunch of warriors now, and that's absolutely awesome.
- [55:29]
Vince
Okay.
- [55:29]
Donald Trump Jr.
All right.
- [55:30]
Vince
I know we're up against it, and Rumble's got a great lineup, so we're sending it each guy, including to Steven Crowder coming up next. But before we get there. Hey, fellas, can you zoom in on this real fast for me? This is the Donald Trump signed Flesh and Blood card. Flesh and Blood is the name of the card game. This is the first.
- [55:45]
Donald Trump Jr.
I don't even know what that is. Me neither.
- [55:47]
Vince
Guy is our executive producer, and he got President Trump to sign this, making this one of the most valuable cards he owns. He loves this game. He asked me, because he's not here today, to get you to sign this one deal. Would you mind?
- [55:58]
Donald Trump Jr.
Not at all.
- [55:58]
Vince
All right, here we go.
- [55:59]
Donald Trump Jr.
This is big. All right, I'm gonna move the mic a little bit here. Names of the two cards.
- [56:06]
Vince
Check the names. Okay. There we go. We got a Donald Trump Jr. Signature. The. The Donald Trump card is called gold, apparently. And this one. The Golden Sun.
- [56:19]
Donald Trump Jr.
Oh, wow. I like that.
- [56:20]
Vince
I like that, too.
- [56:21]
Donald Trump Jr.
I'll take it. All right.
- [56:22]
Vince
Hey, Donald Trump Jr. Thanks.
- [56:23]
Donald Trump Jr.
Love this.
- [56:23]
Vince
Thank you very much. Good to talk to you. Steven Crowder is up next right here on Rumble.