Donald Trump Jr. said he didn’t know if his father was alive for 90 minutes after Donald Trump Sr. was shot at a campaign rally on Saturday, during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Trump Jr. revealed the turmoil and chaos that existed within the Trump family amid the horrific events the world has experienced.
“He’s doing fine,” Trump Jr. told Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle about his father’s health. “It was a difficult, dark time. It was a really crazy time. I got a call that said, ‘Your dad’s been shot,’ and then? What happened? It took me 90 minutes to find out he was alive. I didn’t know. I couldn’t get through on the phone.”
Trump Jr. said his daughter, Kai Trump, was with him when he learned of the assassination attempt on the former president. Kai spoke at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, in one of the highlights of the convention’s first three days.
“People say, ‘That was a great political move,'” Trump Jr. said of Kai’s energetic speaking schedule. “I say, ‘That was not a political move.’ She plays golf. She spends more time with my dad than probably anyone else in her family, and they have a great relationship. And she called me on Monday morning. She said, ‘I need to talk, can I talk to you?’ So I called him and I said, ‘What do you think?'”
Trump Jr. said his father, an arguably master of speaking in front of large audiences, responded in typically Trumpian fashion.
“He was like, ‘Well, it’s a big venue, but she’s a winner. Let her do it.’ And she did it with flying colors.”
Trump Jr. told Boyle that his father personally changed his convention speech in the wake of the assassination attempt.
“Actually, I haven’t seen it yet,” Trump Jr. admitted. “I spent about four hours with him on Friday, the day before he got shot. I read his speech, and it was, for him and for me, a normal, sort of ‘fire’ speech.”
He continued, “I know it’s completely different, but I’ve been so busy with everything – the media coverage and my own comments and my daughter trying to help me figure out what to do – that I haven’t even had a chance to watch it yet. So tonight when he’s on live TV, I’ll be watching it for the first time with the rest of the world, and it’s completely different. I think it’s more of a message of unity.”
Trump Jr. said the assassination attempt changed not only his father, but the Trump family and even the country.
“A lot has changed in the last few days, hasn’t it?” he said. “When you get shot in the face, a lot of things change.”
He told Breitbart News he was eager to hear his father speak and to join the Republican Party’s drive for unity in the wake of the shooting.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said of the speech, “but really, the unity that I’ve seen in this chamber, walking up to grown men and seeing them with tears in their eyes, this is a special time.”
Bradley Jay is Capitol Hill correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter. translator.
