NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Recently aboard the president-elect’s plane, circling over some McDonald’s burgers and fries, Donald Trump Jr. that power foursome.
The central place occupied by Trump’s eldest son, as captured in a photo widely shared online, reflects how Trump Jr. has become a prominent player in his father’s political sphere and a potential heir to his Make America Great Again movement.
For the son of a newly elected president, Trump has already had an outsized impact on the next White House. He lobbied hard for the former president to choose his close friend, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, as his running mate.
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“I deployed 10,000% of my political capital,” Trump Jr. said of his efforts in an interview with Tucker Carlson on election night. “Maybe in 2076 I’ll get a favor from my father. I’ve used it all.’
As honorary chairman of the Republican presidential transition team, Trump Jr. is part of a core group of people who decide who will fill the top jobs in the next White House, and his stamp is clear.
Trump Jr. especially pushed for roles for former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has been chosen by the president-elect as director of national intelligence, and Kennedy, who is set to lead Health and Human Services.
Another close ally, Sergio Gor, will head the human resources office. He and Trump Jr. run a publishing company, Winning Team Publishing, which has published two of the former president’s books.
The younger Trump has said he has no plans to join his father’s administration, as his younger sister Ivanka Trump did during Trump’s first term. His brother Eric is also honorary chairman of the transition, but was not such a major political player. Eric’s wife Lara was more involved and served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Trump Jr. is expected to remain an outspoken supporter of his father and his agenda and has made clear he wants to be an influential outside voice, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to internal planning to be discussed.
The style of the president-elect – brash, indelicate and combative – is reflected in his son. Donald Trump Jr. often takes a more aggressive approach than his father, in his calls to disrupt government as usual, in the way he dives into the culture wars with gusto and in his enthusiasm for trolls.
“He’s probably the best embodiment of the Republican Party’s take-no-nonsense attitude,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican political strategist.
Trump Jr.’s demeanor and the way he communicates don’t make him sound like an ordinary political figure, Jennings said, and that’s part of the appeal.
“I think this is one thing about the Trumps that is probably broadly true, but certainly true for him as well: They just don’t participate in the normal political pablum that pre-Trump politicians were educated or educated about.”
The 46-year-old is fluent in the online world of conservative politics and attuned to cultural issues that resonate with the MAGA faithful.
The posts on Trump’s X account, where he has more than 13 million followers, are often peppered with exclamation marks and emojis. On Instagram, he is a prolific poster of conservative memes.
He alternates between interviews on established outlets like Fox News and a series of podcasts influential among young conservatives, and he hosts his own podcast twice a week, “Triggered With Don Jr.” During the campaign, he pushed for the former president to appear on podcasts as part of an effort to reach young men, including the popular Joe Rogan podcast.
Trump Jr.’s aggressive style mainly appeals to younger men.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why a lot of these young men like it, because they talk like that,” Jennings said.
Trump Jr. has said he has no plans to run for president himself, but he has worked to cultivate the next generation of his father’s movement and galvanize like-minded, communicative Republicans.
In addition to his political activities, the father of five is also an executive vice president at the Trump Organization’s main family business, has launched a new crypto platform and recently announced he will be joining a venture capital firm that invests in conservative-leaning companies .
Trump Jr. previously appeared. alongside his father on “The Apprentice,” the reality show that helped propel the billionaire’s first presidential campaign. When Donald Trump launched his bid for the White House in 2015 and faced skepticism from parts of the Republican Party, Trump Jr.’s outreach helped. his father to win more support, especially among conservatives who saw someone who embraced their views and as an avid hunter and fisherman. who is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Since then, he has become increasingly visible in Republican politics, campaigning not only for his father but also for like-minded candidates. He endorsed Vance in his 2022 Ohio Senate race, urging his father to do the same, and this year he threw his support heavily at successful Republican Senate candidates Jim Banks in Indiana, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Tim Sheehy in Montana .
Trump helped forge a relationship with Kennedy when the independent-turned-Democrat suspended his presidential campaign and tried to bring him into the MAGA fold and support his father. He floated the idea of Kennedy joining the administration early, saying in an interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that “I loved the idea” of Kennedy joining Trump’s White House.
“I like the idea of giving him a role in some sort of big three-letter entity or whatever it may be and having him blow it up,” Trump Jr. said, a reference to the many initials for government agencies.
The two hit it off, and Trump Jr., an avid outdoorsman, shared images on social media in October of a day spent with Kennedy enjoying his favorite hobby: falconry.
The choice of anti-vaccine activist Kennedy to lead the nation’s public health agencies is sure to come under heavy scrutiny during the Senate confirmation process, even with a Republican majority.
Trump Jr. acknowledged in a recent interview on Fox News that some of his father’s choices will face backlash.
“They will be real disruptors,” he said. “That’s what the American people want.”
