Ahead of his visit to Birmingham next week, Donald Trump, Jr. agreed to an exclusive interview with Yellowhammer News.
The Q&A was conducted on Wednesday — the date his father qualified in Alabama’s 2020 Republican primary for reelection.
Yellowhammer News: I’m sure you’ve seen the news that Jeff Sessions is considering running for the U.S. Senate again, after a tumultuous tenure as attorney general. What do you think about that?
Donald Trump, Jr.: For now, all I have to say about the Alabama Senate race is that first and foremost we need someone who can win the election next November. We also need someone who is a fighter and unafraid to stand with the President and go toe-to-toe with the Democrats — and even weak-willed Republicans when necessary. We’re in a fight for the future of the country we all love, against a radical Left that wants to open up our borders to anyone who wanders into the country and plunge us into socialism. The people of Alabama will know the right person for the job when they see him or her.
YHN: Your new book is “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.” Why’d you go with that as the title?
Trump: The Left is using all kinds of dirty tricks to smear conservatives and push us out of the public square — online “shadow banning,” ridiculous accusations of “hate speech,” then they try to “cancel” anyone who disagrees with them. My book exposes all of that, and more. I’ve said it many times and it’s an unfortunate truth, but many Democrats in Washington hate the President more than they love our country. When you see the attacks on conservatives, online and even physically, you realize that the hatred is not only targeted at my dad, it’s targeted at all of us — at anyone who disagrees with the radical Left and dares to speak up. I hope conservatives read this book and get energized by the realization that there are more of us than there are of them. The media wants to intimidate you and make you cower in a corner. We’re not going to do that.
YHN: The Democrats’ impeachment probe is now dominating the news, with accusations of a Ukrainian “quid pro quo” at the center of it all. What do you make of the Ukraine issue and the impeachment push more broadly?
Trump: Remember Russia? We spent two years having every nook and cranny of our lives looked into because Democrats and the entire media industrial complex wanted the entire world to believe we were in cahoots with Putin. Well, then the Mueller report was a dud and suddenly they don’t want to talk about that anymore. So what’s next? Oh, well let’s spin the globe–Ukraine it is! It never ends.
On Inauguration Day 2016, the Washington Post had a headline: “The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun.” They’ve been wanting this for years. Meanwhile the President has done what he said he was going to do: booming economy, historically low unemployment, rising wages, no more foreign wars, demolished ISIS, started building the wall. He may be the first politician in history who outraged people by actually delivering on his promises. So what do they do? Oh, well, there’s no way we can beat this guy at the ballot box–he’s winning too much–so let’s try to get rid of him somehow. It won’t work and Donald Trump will be re-elected in a landslide.
YHN: Polling routinely shows Alabama as one of the most pro-Trump states in the country, and you all have spent a lot of time in the state over the last several years. Do any particular memories here stick out?
Trump: It’s impossible for anyone in our family to think about Alabama without remembering that historic rally in 2015 when even CNN had to admit that over 30,000 people turned out at Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile. Yellowhammer called it “Trumpapalooza,” which we all loved. When Trump Force One did a flyover before the rally, everyone could see the ocean of people below. Then my dad hit the stage with “Sweet Home Alabama” playing over the stadium sound system. The atmosphere that night was amazing. In hindsight, the media should have realized in that moment that something special was happening, but they were in such denial, even until deep into the evening on Election Night a year-and-a-half later. But that night in Alabama is a great memory for everyone involved with the campaign.
YHN: You’re holding a Birmingham book signing event at the Books-A-Million in Brookwood Village on Thursday, Nov. 7 (tickets available here). What can people expect?
Trump: You can expect to be around a bunch of like-minded patriots having a good time and talking about the importance of fighting back and standing up for what we believe in. There’s nothing quite like a Trump rally, and this event will definitely have that kind of spirit and energy. I want to meet as many of our Alabama friends as I possibly can, and of course everyone who gets a ticket will also get a copy of the book. So I hope to see everyone there next Thursday!
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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