Donald Trump Jr.

Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American businessman, former television presenter, political activist, and author.

He is the eldest child of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump.

Trump serves as a trustee and executive vice president of The Trump Organization, running the company alongside his younger brother Eric.

During their father's presidency, the brothers continued to do deals and investments in foreign countries, as well as collect payments in their U.S. properties from foreign governments, despite a pledge that they would not do so.

He served as a boardroom judge on the reality TV show featuring his father, The Apprentice.

Trump was born on December 31, 1977, in Manhattan, New York City, to Ivana and Donald Trump.

He has two younger siblings, Ivanka and Eric.

He also has two half siblings, Tiffany, from his father's marriage to Marla Maples, and Barron, from his father's current marriage to Melania Trump.

Through his father, Trump is a grandson of Fred Trump and great-grandson of Elizabeth Christ Trump, who founded what became the Trump Organization.

As a boy, Trump found a role model in his maternal grandfather, Miloš Zelníček, who had a home near Prague, where he spent summers camping, fishing, hunting and learning the Czech language.

His parents divorced when he was 12 years old due to his father having an extramarital affair.

Trump Jr. was estranged from his father for one year after the divorce, furious at his actions which broke up the family.

Trump was educated at Buckley School and The Hill School, a college preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, followed by the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) Wharton School, where he graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Economics.

After graduating from Penn in 2000, Trump moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he hunted, fished, skied, lived in a truck, and worked as a bartender for a year, before returning to join the Trump Organization in New York.

Trump has supervised building projects, which included 40 Wall Street, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and Trump Park Avenue, In 2006 he helped launch Trump Mortgage, which collapsed less than a year later.

He appeared as a guest adviser and judge on many episodes of his father's reality television show The Apprentice, from season 5 in 2006 to his father's last season in 2015.

In 2010, he became a spokesperson and "executive director of global branding" for Cambridge Who's Who, a vanity publisher against whom hundreds of complaints had already been filed with the Better Business Bureau.

Trump was active in his father's 2016 presidential campaign.

He cooperated with Russia in their interference in the 2016 United States elections and had a meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about the campaign of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Trump Jr. was a central member of his father's campaign, characterized by The New York Times as a "close political adviser".

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 a conflict of interest.

Amid the Trump–Ukraine scandal – where Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter 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 by Trevor 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.

The Associated 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".

According to The 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.

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."

Trump campaigned for several Republicans during the 2018 midterm elections.

He has promoted several conspiracy theories.

In February 2018, advertisements in Indian newspapers promoted a deal whereby anyone who purchased Trump Organization apartments in Gurgaon before February 20 would be invited to have a "conversation and dinner" with Trump Jr. The ads were criticized by corruption watchdogs as unethical.

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.

In 2023, Trump launched a podcast, Triggered with Don Jr, on the platform Rumble.

He authored Triggered in 2019 and Liberal Privilege in 2020.

Trump was also active in his father's 2020 presidential campaign, often being on the campaign trail and being featured in the news for making unfounded claims.

During the election he called for "total war" as the results were counted and promoted the stolen election conspiracy theory.

Following his father's defeat, he engaged in attempts to overturn the results.

He spoke at the rally that led to the storming of the Capitol, where he threatened Trump's opponents that "we're coming for you."

In January 2021, Attorney General for the District of Columbia Karl Racine said that he is looking at whether to charge Donald Trump Jr. with inciting the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in the criminal investigation into the attack.

CNN reported in April 2022 that two days after the election, Trump Jr. sent a text message to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows outlining paths to subvert the Electoral College process and ensure his father a second term.