Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977), often nicknamedDon Jr., is an American businessman, political activist, author, and former reality television presenter. He is the eldest child ofDonald Trump, the 45th and 47thpresident of the United States, and his first wife,Ivana Trump.
Trump serves as atrustee and executive vice president ofthe Trump Organization, running the company alongside his younger brotherEric.[2] During theirfather's first presidency, the brothers continued to engage in deals and investments in foreign countries and collect payments at their U.S. properties from foreign governments, despite pledging not to do so.[3] He also served as a boardroom judge on thereality TV show featuring his father,The Apprentice. In addition, he authoredTriggered in 2019 andLiberal Privilege in 2020.
His parents divorced when he was 12 years old due to his father having anextramarital affair.[15] Trump Jr. was estranged from his father for one year after the divorce, furious at his actions which broke up the family.[16]
On January 11, 2017, Trump's father announced that he and his brother Eric would oversee a trust that included the Trump Organization's assets while his father was president, to avert aconflict of interest.[22]
Amid theTrump–Ukraine scandal – where Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigateJoe Biden and his sonHunter Biden – Trump Jr. strongly criticized Hunter Biden, accusing him of nepotism and leveraging his father as a means to get financial benefits. Trump Jr. said, "When you're the father and your son's entire career is dependent on that, they own you." Trump Jr. was widely ridiculed for these remarks byTrevor Noah and others. Trump Jr. is a high-level executive in his father's business and continued to operate and promote the family's businesses across the world during Trump's presidency.[23][24][25][26] TheAssociated Press wrote of Trump Jr.'s, remarks that he was "showing no self-awareness that he, too, has at least in part been successful because of a famous father".[27] According toThe Washington Post fact-checker, Trump Jr.'s assertion that he and his family members had gotten out of foreign business deals after Trump became president is false.[3]The Washington Post reported that after Trump became president, "Trump's sons have been busy selling assets to foreign individuals, expanding or adding onto their existing deals and investments in foreign countries, and collecting payments in U.S. properties from foreign governments."[3]
In February 2018, advertisements in Indian newspapers promoted a deal whereby anyone who purchasedTrump Organization apartments inGurgaon before February 20 would be invited to have a "conversation and dinner" with Trump Jr. The ads were criticized by corruption watchdogs as unethical.[28][29]
A ruling which was handed down on February 16, 2024 barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York, including the Trump Organization, for two years.[30]
In November 2024, Trump announced that he would be joining1789 Capital as a partner.[31][32] In 2025, he announced that the firm would invest in theEnhanced Games, a proposed sports event that will allowperformance enhancing drugs.[33] He joined the advisory board of drone company Unusual Machines in November 2024.[34]
In December 2024, it was announced that Trump was joining the board of directors ofPublicSquare.[35]
Podcast
In 2023, Trump launched a podcast,Triggered with Don Jr, on the platformRumble.[36][37]
Trump Jr. influenced his father's choice ofSecretary of the InteriorRyan Zinke during the presidential transition.[43][44] Since his father's victory in the 2016 election, Trump Jr. has developed whatThe Washington Post calls a "public persona as a right-wing provocateur and ardent defender ofTrumpism".[45]The Atlantic reported in 2019 that Trump had described Trump Jr. in 2017 as "not the sharpest knife in the drawer".[46] Trump Jr. earned the nickname "Fredo" among some Trump campaign staffers, a reference toa character inThe Godfather.[47][48]
Approximately a year later, Trump Jr. initially told the media thatadoption of Russian children was the main subject of the meeting.[50] On July 8, 2017, Trump Jr. tweeted his email exchange withGoldstone.[51] It revealed that Trump Jr. had agreed to attend the meeting with the understanding he would receive information damaging toHillary Clinton.[52] Goldstone also wrote in one of Trump Jr.'s publicly disclosed emails that the Russian government was involved.[52]Robert Mueller, thespecial counsel of theDepartment of Justice in charge of Russia-related investigations, investigated the emails and the meeting.[53] Although the White House lauded Trump Jr. for his transparency, he released the e-mails only afterThe New York Times had informed him that they had them and were going to publish a story about them.[54]
In June 2019, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral of Trump Jr. to federal prosecutors on suspicions that he misled the committee with his testimony.[55]
In November 2017, news broke thatJulian Assange had used theWikiLeaks Twitter account to correspond with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential election. Trump Jr. had already provided this correspondence to congressional investigators who were looking intoRussian interference in the 2016 election.[58][59][60]
The correspondence showed that WikiLeaks actively solicited the cooperation of Trump Jr., who was a campaign surrogate and advisor in the campaign of his father.[61][62] WikiLeaks urged the Trump campaign to reject the results of the 2016 presidential election at a time when it appeared the Trump campaign would lose. WikiLeaks asked Trump Jr. to share a made-up[63] claim byTrue Pundit that Hillary Clinton had wanted to attack Assange with drones. WikiLeaks also shared a link to a website that would help people search through thehacked e-mails of Clinton campaign managerJohn Podesta, which WikiLeaks had recently made public. Trump Jr. shared both.[58][59]
Trump Jr. speaks at the 2019 Teen Student Action Summit hosted byTurning Point USA, 2019.
In September 2017, Trump Jr. asked to have hisSecret Service detail removed, telling friends he wanted more privacy, the second presidential child to do so.[a] The request was criticized by former Secret Service agents.[69] Trump Jr.'s protection was restored later that month.[70]
In October 2020, it was reported that Pennsylvania Republicans were suggesting Trump Jr. run for the vacant Senate seat in Pennsylvania in2022 after two-term incumbentPat Toomey announced he would not be seeking re-election.[71] In the same month, Trump Jr. held a crowded indoor rally where attendees did not wear masks, contradicting public health guidelines.[72]
Trump Jr. with Speaker of the HouseKevin McCarthy in 2023
In an October 29 interview withFox News'sLaura Ingraham, Trump Jr. asserted that the coronavirus death rate has dropped to "almost nothing", adding "(b)ecause we've gotten control of this thing. We understand how it works – they have the therapeutics to be able to deal with this. If you look at that, look at my Instagram, it's gone down to almost nothing."[73] On that day, the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. was 1,063.[74]
Before his father's loss in the 2020 election, Trump was the subject of speculation for a2024 run for president.[75][76] In October 2020, he posted a photo to his Instagram account of a "Don Jr. 2024" flag.[77][78]
Michael Cohen reimbursement payments
On May 28, 2024, an email was shown during defense closing arguments in Trump Sr.'sNew York criminal trial which revealed that longtime Trump Organization comptroller Jeffrey McConnery, who was previously acknowledged to have organized Trump Sr.'s reimbursement payments toMichael Cohen following the hush money payments Cohen made toStormy Daniels, sought approval from both Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.[79] Trump Jr. signed some of the reimbursement checks to Cohen as well.[79][80]
During his father's presidential campaign, Trump Jr. caused controversy in 2016 when he posted an image that compared Syrian refugees toSkittles, saying "If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."[42][81][82] The makers of Skittles condemned the tweet, saying "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it's an appropriate analogy."[82][42] TheCato Institute claimed that year that the chances "an American would be killed in a terrorist attack committed by a refugee was one in 3.64 billion" per year.[83][84]
On March 1, 2016, an interview withwhite supremacistJames Edwards and Trump Jr. was aired. The campaign initially denied the interview had taken place; later Trump Jr. claimed it was unintentional.[85] As a consequence of the interview, mainstream media outlets have accused Trump Jr. of being either a believer in thewhite genocide conspiracy theory,[86] or pretending to be an advocate for political gain.[87]
In September 2016, Trump Jr. citedHolocaust imagery to criticize what he perceived as the mainstream media's uncritical coverage of Hillary Clinton during her campaign, by "letting her slide on every discrepancy", while also accusing Democrats involved in the 2016 campaign of lying. Trump Jr. said if the Republicans were committing the same offences mainstream outlets would be "warming up the gas chamber right now".[88][89] Also that month, Trump Jr. shared an image onInstagram depicting a cross between his father andPepe the Frog. When asked onGood Morning America about Pepe the Frog and its associations withwhite supremacy, Trump Jr. said he had never heard of Pepe the Frog and thought it was just a "frog with a wig".[90][91]
In April 2017, Trump Jr. lauded conspiracy theoristMike Cernovich, who has promoted the debunkedwhite genocide andPizzagate conspiracy theories,[92] saying, "In a long gone time of unbiased journalism he'd win thePulitzer".[93][94]
In May 2018, Trump Jr. retweeted a false andantisemitic conspiracy theory thatGeorge Soros, the Jewish Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, was a "nazi[sic] who turned in his fellow Jews to be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth".[104][13][105] The tweets originated fromRoseanne Barr, whose TV showRoseanne was canceled the same day after she had posted a series of racist and antisemitic tweets.[104] A spokesperson for Soros responded to the tweets, "George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary as a 13-year-old child by going into hiding and assuming a false identity with the help of his father, who managed to save his own family and help many other Jews survive the Holocaust".[105]
In September 2018, whenHurricane Florence was affecting the United States, Trump Jr. tweeted a picture of CNN journalistAnderson Cooper waist-deep in floodwaters when another man in the same picture was standing knee-deep a distance away. In the same tweet, Trump Jr. included a link to aBreitbart News article claiming that CNN's ratings had dropped by 41%, and proposed a conspiracy theory that CNN was "lying to try to make [his father, President Trump] look bad". In actuality, the picture of Cooper was about 10 years old, taken during 2008'sHurricane Ike before Trump became president, and Cooper was videoed talking about how the floodwaters were receding.[107][108]
In May 2020, Trump Jr. falsely accusedJoe Biden of being apedophile.[109][110] After Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025, Trump Jr. launched a conspiracy theory questioning howJill Biden, who received a doctoral degree, missed the signs and whether it wascovered up. Trump Jr.'s response was seen as an outlier compared to other politicians including his father's, and was a subject of criticism. However, he had alsoliked a post wishing Biden a speedy recovery, "politics aside."[111][112]
In August 2020, Trump Jr. shared aBreitbart News article about more than 800 dead people voting in Michigan which was framed to suggest that the ballots were not legitimately cast and thus showed evidence of extensive voter fraud; however, the voters in question died after submitting the ballots, and the ballots were rejected by Michigan authorities who knew the voters had died before the election date.[113] In September 2020, he again pushed false claims about voter fraud by asserting, "The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father". He added: "Their plan is to add millions of fraudulent ballots that can cancel your vote and overturn the election" and asked "able-bodied" people to join an election security "army" for his father. Facebook and Twitter affixed labels to the video which pointed to accurate information about voting.[114]
In November 2020, afterPfizer announced that it had developed aCOVID-19 vaccine with 90% effectiveness, Trump Jr. suggested that the vaccine had been held back in order to hurt his father's chances of winning the election.[115][116] Pfizer CEOAlbert Bourla dismissed the suggestion, saying that the company had always planned to rely on the "speed of science".[117]
Trump Jr. was given a 12-hour restriction by Twitter in July 2020 after he promoted misinformation aboutCOVID-19 by retweeting a video showingHouston doctorStella Immanuel promotinghydroxychloroquine as a cure, despite conflicting studies, and by claiming that masks were unnecessary. Twitter later said that it restricted his ability to tweet or retweet for 12 hours for violating itsCOVID-19 misinformation policy.[120][121][122][123]
On October 29, 2020, Trump Jr. criticized the media's focus on new infections rather than on deaths, saying on Fox News, "why aren't they talking about deaths? Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing. Because we've gotten control of this, and we understand how it works." On the day Trump Jr. made that comment,the United States registered roughly 1,000 COVID-19 deaths.[124][125]
Other
Trump Jr. in 2018
In November 2019, Trump Jr. tweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower who brought to light theTrump-Ukraine scandal.[126][127] Whistleblower conventions are intended to protect the identity of individuals who expose wrongdoing in government.Agence France-Presse attempted to independently verify the identity that Trump Jr. tweeted but was unable to do so.[128]
In June 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, Trump Jr. accused liberals of hypocrisy, for imposing restrictive measures and social distancing guidelines on businesses while holding the "Action for Black Trans Lives" protest for the rights of African Americantransgender people.[129]
Trump Jr. has accusedbig tech companies of being biased against conservatives and has claimed that adeep state sought to undermine Trump during his presidency.[5]
CNN reported in April 2022 that two days after the election, Trump Jr. sent a text message toWhite House Chief of StaffMark Meadows outlining paths to subvert the Electoral College process and ensure his father a second term.[131] He wrote, "It's very simple. We have multiple paths. We control them all. We have operational control. Total leverage. Moral high ground. POTUS must start second term now." He continued, "Republicans control 28 states Democrats 22 states. Once again Trump wins," adding, "We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021." Biden had not yet been declared the winner at the time of the text.[11][132]
Together with his father and other speakers, on January 6, 2021, Trump Jr. spoke to an audience and, speaking about reluctant GOP lawmakers saying, "If you're gonna be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you".[133] President Trump furtherincited the crowd which then marched to theUS Capitol building, where theyforced entry, broke windows andvandalized the building. One woman was killed, and a police officer and three other people died during or shortly after the incursion.[134]
Television host and former congressmanJoe Scarborough called for the arrest of Trump Jr., along with his father and Rudolph Giuliani, forinsurrection against the United States.[135] Following his father's permanent ban fromTwitter on January 8, 2021, Donald Trump Jr. claimed thatfree speech "no longer exists in America".[136]
On March 5, 2021, RepresentativeEric Swalwell filed a civil lawsuit against Trump Jr. and three others (his father, RepresentativeMo Brooks, andRudy Giuliani), seeking damages for their alleged role in inciting the riot.[137]
In December 2021, text messages released by Meadows revealed that Trump Jr. begged Meadows to persuade his father to stop the attack.[138][139]
On January 14, 2021, it became known that Trump Jr. is a person of interest in thecriminal investigation intomisuse of his father's inaugural funds in Washington D.C., and thatprosecutors intend to interview him over his role in "grossly overpaying" for use of event space at theTrump Hotel in Washington for the 2017 inauguration.[141] In May 2022, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine reached a $750,000 settlement with the inaugural committee without requiring an admission of wrongdoing.[142]
Books
Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us
In 2019, Trump Jr. released the book,Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us. The book is critical ofpolitical correctness, and argues that the American left has avictimhood complex.[143]The Washington Post commented: "yet, in his telling, the real victim is often him, his father or another Trump family member".[143] In the book, Trump Jr. pushes conspiracy theories about how theintelligence community has attempted to harm President Trump, comparing President Trump's experiences with theFBI harassment campaign against civil rights leaderMartin Luther King Jr.[144] Trump Jr. wrote of a visit toArlington National Cemetery (a military cemetery), commenting that he got emotional looking at the graves and that it reminded him of "all the sacrifices" the Trump family had made, including "voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were 'profiting off of the office'."[143][144] Fact-checkers have reported that Trump still owns the family business, and that the Trump family have continued to engage in international business deals since Trump became president.[143] In a review forThe Washington Post,Carlos Lozada said that it "fails as memoir and as polemic: its analysis is facile, its hypocrisy relentless, its self-awareness marginal (the writing is wretched, even by the standards of political vanity projects)".[145]
The book was aNew York Times best-seller. The book was purchased in bulk by at least nine Republican organizations, candidates or advocacy groups, including N.R.C.C. and theRNC which bought $75,000 and $100,000 worth of the books, respectively.Turning Point USA and the National Republican Senatorial Committee purchased approximately 2,000 and 2,500 books, respectively.[146]
Liberal Privilege: Joe Biden and the Democrats' Defense of the Indefensible
In 2020, Trump Jr. self-published the bookLiberal Privilege: Joe Biden and the Democrats' Defense of the Indefensible. Trump Jr. reportedly hired three researchers to collect information aboutJoe Biden and spent three months writing the book.[147] Trump Jr. explained toThe New York Times his reasons: "While I had no plans for a book this year, I was stuck indoors like the rest of the nation during the pandemic", he said, adding that he "decided to highlight Biden's half century of being a swamp monster, since the media wouldn't do it". The same article stated that he decided to self-publish because he could count on the publicity of "his own platform – and the promise of bulk purchases from the RNC".[147]
The book was indeed bought in bulk by the RNC.[148] On October 28, 2020, the RNC paid over $300,000 of donor money to Pursuit Venture LLC, a company owned by Trump Jr., for "donor mementos". It was the most money the RNC had ever paid for this purpose.[149] The hardcover retails for $29.99, which suggests roughly how many copies might have been purchased, and the RNC's intent was to give a copy to people who donated $50–$100.[150]
In 2003, Trump Jr. began dating modelVanessa Kay Haydon at his father's suggestion.[13] The couple married on November 12, 2005, at his father'sMar-a-Lago estate inPalm Beach, Florida; the service was officiated by Trump Jr.'s aunt, JudgeMaryanne Trump Barry.[151] Haydon's grandfather was Danish jazz musicianKai Ewans.[152][153][154][155] They have five children: daughterKai Madison (b. May 2007), son Donald John III (b. February 2009), son Tristan Milos (b. October 2011), son Spencer Frederick (b. October 2012), and daughter Chloe Sophia (b. June 2014).[156][157][158] The oldest daughter, Kai, is named after her maternal great-grandfather, Kai Ewans.[159][152] Kai Trump was introduced by her father and spoke at the2024 Republican National Convention on July 17.[160]
On March 15, 2018, it was announced that the couple had separated and Haydon had filed foruncontested divorce inManhattan Supreme Court.[161][162][163] However, later it was revealed that the divorce was contested.[164] The complaint was secret except for the title of the case.[165] On February 22, 2019, they announced that they settled their divorce at the end of 2018.[166]
In 2018, Trump Jr. started datingKimberly Guilfoyle.[46][167] Guilfoyle had been friends with the Trump family for years.[168] The two reportedly became engaged on December 31, 2020, Trump Jr.'s 43rd birthday. However, news of the engagement was not made public until January 2022.[169] Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle mutually ended their engagement sometime in 2024.[170]
In December 2021, Trump Jr. switched his official residency from New York to Florida.[171]
Hunting
Trump Jr. is an enthusiastichunter. Controversy erupted in 2012 when the pictures he had taken of his hunting trophies in 2010 were published, including byMia Farrow, who reposted them in 2015 and 2019. Trump Jr. responded by saying "I'm not going to run and hide because thepeta[sic] crazies don't like me". In one photo, Trump Jr. has his arms around a dead leopard; in another, he is holding a knife in one hand and a bloody elephant tail in the other.[172] Although the hunt was legal, anti-hunting activists criticized him. At least one sponsor dropped his father's television showThe Celebrity Apprentice.[173] OnEarth Day in 2017, Trump Jr. legally huntedprairie dogs in Montana with GOP Congressional candidateGreg Gianforte.[174]
Dagnes, Alison (2019). "Negative Objectives: The Right-Wing Media Circle and Everyone else". In Dagnes, Alison (ed.).Super Mad at Everything All the Time. Berlin, Germany: Springer International Publishing. p. 172.doi:10.1007/978-3-030-06131-9_5.ISBN9783030061319.S2CID156032120.
Lima, Christiano (April 4, 2018)."Trump Jr.: Dad's ambassador to the fringe".Politico. Arlington, Virginia:Capitol News Company.Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. RetrievedApril 9, 2018.It was far from the first time President Donald Trump's eldest son dabbled in online conspiracy theories, using his 2.7 million Twitter followers to promote questionable or outright false information that, in many cases, even his father had refrained from spreading.
^Safi, Michael (February 18, 2018)."Indian investors offered dinner with Donald Trump Jr".The Guardian.Archived from the original on February 18, 2018. RetrievedFebruary 19, 2018.Prospective investors in a Trump Tower project near Delhi are being offered a conversation and dinner with Donald Trump Jras part of a marketing campaign that has drawn criticism from corruption watchdogs.
^"Trump India 'dinner and chat' property offer criticised".BBC News. February 19, 2018.Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. RetrievedJune 22, 2018.The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) – a watchdog group – added the Indian promotion to a list of instances it believes show the Trump name being used for commercial gain.
^abWedenborg, Freja (March 30, 2016)."Vidtse du det? Her er Trumps danske forbindelse" [Did you know that? Here is Trump's Danish connection].Avisen.dk (in Danish).Archived from the original on December 30, 2016. RetrievedMarch 30, 2017.
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
