Donald Trump Jr wows the millennial crowds

His youthful fanbase sees him as the future and the word is that, if he wanted to, Trump’s eldest son could run for president.

Executive Vice President of The Trump organisation, Donald Trump Jr. Picture: AFP

With his slicked-back hair, Donald Trump Jr does not look like a teenage hero. But in the Palm Beach County Convention Centre’s vast exhibition hall it was standing-room only on Thursday afternoon, heaving with almost 5,000 students and schoolchildren as “Don Jr” delivered the keynote speech.

This was the annual gathering of Turning Point USA, a conservative, pro-Trump youth movement that has mushroomed into a major grassroots organisation.

Anyone who thinks that Trumpism begins and ends with the president need only attend this conference and listen to Trump’s 40-year-old son enrapture the young crowd to realise that this movement and this family are here to stay.

Trump is the spark and the symbol, but the attitudes and ideas he embodies are part of a revulsion towards liberal America, one that has struck a powerful chord among young people. They are in the minority — the majority of millennials voted against Trump in 2016 — but they are vocal and highly committed.

“Trump helped to birth this movement,” said Candace Owens, Turning Point’s communications director. “He’s the impetus, but it will outlast Trump and it’s bigger than him. We’re securing the future of our society.”

Owens is a controversial right-wing African-American activist best known for helping to persuade rapper Kanye West to endorse Trump publicly. She was one of a wide array of conservative luminaries who spoke at the conference.

They included commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, the controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson and a possible future Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Don Jr, however, was the biggest draw of all.

“Make no mistake, a lot of these young people are here to see Don Jr,” said Charlie Kirk, the 25-year-old activist who founded Turning Point USA.

“In a lot of ways, Don’s the grassroots voice of the president. He’s the future. He could run for president one day, if he wanted to.”

Before Don Jr took the stage, his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a glamorous former prosecutor and Fox News presenter, came on stage to hype up the troops.

“I’m not a doctor, but Don likes it when I play nurse,” she told the young crowd, causing a shocked murmur.

The president is having a turbulent time, with the stock market plummeting, former associates — Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort — convicted of criminality and his charitable foundation shut down because of multiple allegations of financial chicanery.

Yet his son projected nothing but optimism on stage in a punchy, unscripted address that bore no small resemblance to his father’s idiosyncratic delivery. “Are you tired of all the winning yet?” he asked. “Hell no!” came the response. “Build the wall!”

The Turning Point conference looked like a cross between a Trump political rally and an Ariana Grande concert. T-shirt cannons sprayed out prizes to rapturous students, who ranged in age from about 14 to 25. Camila Cabello and Justin Bieber blared from the speakers and promotional booths gave out free offers boosting causes such as the National Rifle Association and drilling in the Arctic.

Many of the attendees viewed themselves as countercultural rebels against liberal orthodoxy, rather than conservative conformists.

Nigel Farage, the founder and former leader of Ukip who also spoke at the conference, received almost as much adulation as Don Jr. “I’ve spoken to a lot of conservative youth movements in my time,” he told The Sunday Times.

“To be honest, they’re often a bit odd. But this is different. This has got energy.”

The organisers were keen to point out the relative diversity of the crowd, with moderate numbers of Hispanics, African-Americans and Jewish attendees.

“People always tell me I’m supposed to identify with certain ideas based on what I look like,” said Garrison Douglas, 23, an African-American student from Georgia. “But I value thinking for myself.”

In liberal circles the joke is often made that Don Jr resembles Fredo Corleone, the middle son in The Godfather, who stumbles around in a doomed effort to impress his father. Critics point to his involvement in the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian officials offering dirt on Hillary Clinton and the possibility that he will be indicted.

In the deep heart of the conservative movement, however, Don Jr is more like Michael Corleone: the son who stepped up to become the family standard bearer.

In the past year he has also become a powerful political force in his own right and a kingmaker in the Republican Party. His backing for a Republican candidate is now one of the most sought-after endorsements in conservative politics.

He regularly receives inquiries about whether he might like to run for governor of New York, where he lives, or Montana, where he goes hunting and fishing. Friends say he does not have a huge amount of interest in governing, at least for now, but enjoys whipping up support on the campaign trail and entertaining his youthful fanbase on social media.

“Don connects viscerally to audiences in a way comparable only to his father and Sarah Palin at her peak,” said Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist who advises him. “He doesn’t bind himself to political correctness. He’s willing to take a couple of shots and land a blow. These things appeal to the younger generation.”

The Sunday Times