Donald Trump Jr. did not know if his father was alive for 90 minutes after Donald Trump Sr. was shot Saturday at a campaign rally, he told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Trump Jr. revealed the chaos and confusion inside the Trump family as they experienced the horrific events with the rest of the world.
“He’s doing great,” Trump Jr. told Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle of his father’s health. “Rough, somber moment. It was really crazy times. I got a call, ‘Your fathers been shot’ – and? What do you mean? It took me 90 minutes to find out he was alive. I didn’t know. I couldn’t get through.”
Trump Jr. said his daughter, Kai Trump, was with him when they learned of the assassination attempt on the former president. Kai addressed the Republican National Convention Wednesday night in one of the brightest highlights of the first three nights of the convention.
“People are like, ‘That was a great political move,'” Trump Jr. said of scheduling the electric Kai to speak. “I go, ‘That wasn’t a political move’. She’s the golfer. She spends more time with my dad than probably anybody in the family, and they have a great relationship, and she called me on Monday morning. She’s like, ‘I have to speak; please can I?’ And, so, I called him, and I was like, ‘What do you think?'”
Trump Jr. said his dad, certainly an expert on speaking to huge crowds, responded in typical Trump style.
“He’s like, ‘Well that’s a big venue, but that kid’s a winner; let her do it.’ And she absolutely crushed it.”
Trump Jr. told Boyle his father personally altered his convention speech in the aftermath of the attempt on his life.
“You know, I haven’t even seen it,” Trump Jr. admitted. “I spent like four hours with him on Friday, the day before he was shot. I went through his speech; it was more like his and mine kind of normal, like, ‘fire’ speech.”
He continued, “I know it’s entirely different, but, with the craziness of everything — all of the media, all of my own speech, trying to help my daughter figure out what she was gonna do — I haven’t even had a chance to see it. So, I’m gonna see it for the first time with the rest of the world when he goes live tonight, but it is very different. I think it’s much more a unifying message.”
Trump Jr. conveyed that his father — as well as the Trump family and even the nation — was changed by the assassination attempt.
“A lot’s changed in the last couple of days, right?” he said. “A lot changes once you get shot in the face.”
He told Breitbart News he was anxious to hear his father’s speech and to be a part of the ongoing unification of the Republican Party in the aftermath of the shooting.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said of the speech. “But, really, the unity that I’ve seen here on this floor: Walking up to grown men, you see them sort of well up in tears; it’s a special time right now.”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
