One of the 2020 Republican National Convention speeches that has received the most praise in the right-wing media — and the most condemnation from liberals, progressives and Never Trump conservatives — is the one from Donald Trump, Jr., the president’s son and a key player in his reelection campaign. Although Trump, Jr. played a minor role in his father’s 2016 campaign, he has since risen to prominence in the Republican Party. And a New York Times podcast posted this week examines Trump, Jr.’s rise in the GOP.
“For much of his life,” the Times reports, “Donald Trump, Jr. has been disregarded by his father. He played only a bit part in the 2016 campaign, and when the team departed for Washington, he was left to oversee a largely unimportant part of the Trump Organization.”
But after Donald Trump, Sr. was sworn in as president and the Russia investigation grabbed so many media headlines, his son became increasingly prominent in Trumpworld and the GOP.
The Times explains, “After the New York Times revealed that he had played an integral role in organizing the (2016) Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians promising information on (2016 Democratic presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton, the younger Mr. Trump struck back hard at his father’s detractors and the media, finding a voice and an audience.”
Trump, Jr., not unlike his father, has become a highly polarizing figure. While right-wing media outlets have been praising his 2020 RNC speech as a conservative manifesto, many liberals, Democrats, centrists and Never Trump conservatives have been slamming it as full of lies and distortions.
“Aggressive, politically incorrect and with an instinctual understanding of the president’s appeal,” the Times says, "(Trump, Jr.) has become a conservative darling and his father’s most sought-after surrogate.”