Donald Trump Jr.’s Journey to Republican Stardom

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For much of his life, Donald Trump Jr. has been disregarded by his father. He played only a bit part in the 2016 campaign and when the team departed for Washington, he was left to oversee a largely unimportant part of the Trump Organization. But after The New York Times revealed that he had played an integral role in organizing the Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians promising information on Hillary Clinton, the younger Mr. Trump struck back hard at his father’s detractors and the media, finding a voice and an audience. Aggressive, politically incorrect and with an instinctual understanding of the president’s appeal, he has become a conservative darling and his father’s most sought-after surrogate. Today, we look at his rise to prominence. Guest: Jason Zengerle, a writer at large for The New York Times Magazine. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Read Jason Zengerle’s account of how Donald Trump Jr.’s became his father’s most valuable political weapon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is A Daily.
0:08.0	We're here tonight to talk about the Great American story.
0:12.0	One of the most memorable speeches of the Republican National Convention this week was from the President's eldest son.
0:19.0	Joe Biden and the radical left are now coming for our freedom of speech.
0:23.0	A blistering attack on Joe Biden and the American left.
0:27.0	They want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the silent majority.
0:34.0	It will be the silenced majority.
0:36.0	That predicted a national descent into anarchy, violence and oppression.
0:42.0	People of faith are under attack. You're not allowed to go to church.
0:46.0	But mass chaos in the streets gets a pass.
0:49.0	If voters do not re-elect his father.
0:52.0	Imagine the life you want to have. One with a great job, a beautiful home, a perfect family.
0:59.0	You can have it.
1:00.0	Today, my colleague Jason Zengrily, on Don Jr.'s long journey from family outcast to right-wing star.
1:10.0	And now to his father's political heir.
1:14.0	That is the life. That is the country. That is the world that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are after.
1:21.0	And yes, you can have it.
1:30.0	It's Friday, August 28th.
1:39.0	Jason, it feels like Donald Trump Jr. has had many different lives.
1:42.0	And the most recent of those is what we saw at the Republican Convention this week.
1:47.0	But where does that story start?
1:49.0	It literally starts in the hospital room when he's born on New Year's Eve in 1977.
	...

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