CLEVELAND – Local 4's Kimberly Gill sat down with Donald Trump Jr. at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to talk about what it was like to see his father become the party's nominee for president.
His father’s nomination is ‘surreal’
“Honestly, it was surreal. Basically, other than the birth of my children, there’s probably nothing quite as intense as that.”
Read more: GOP nominates Donald Trump for president
Campaign trail is a ‘different world’
“I don’t do this, I build buildings, hotels, develop golf courses. These are the sort of things that are our day job. To get thrust into that, and this whole different spectrum … I used to this business was brutal, but politics, they’re always trying to get you. So, for us, we’re pretty much straight-shooter, we’re straight talkers. We say what we’re thinking, for better or worse. It’s been a long road, a difficult one, but I couldn’t be more proud of my father, watching him do what he’s done.”
What he did before speaking before millions
“Definitely had to illicit some advice from some awesome guys … then you just have to get up and deliver. It was probably as much pressure as I’ve ever had in my life. Luckily, it came across. I’m getting some interesting text messages from some pretty powerful people I’ve met along the way asking when I’m running.”
On crafting his speech
“I have no problem saying that, hey, I’m going to get on that stage as a business guy and give a political speech, and it was a political speech, I talk about my father, the emotion in all that, a lot of it’s my own, but a lot of it you have to work with guys who have actually done this before … to talk about a subject that was that important to me, it was frankly too big a platform, too good an opportunity, because I feel so strongly about what my father’s doing. I feel so strongly about the wrong path the country is going down that I couldn’t not take the opportunity and do what I’ve seen so many times at the other convention speeches.”
Read more: Speechwriter defends Donald Trump Jr.'s words
On Melania Trump’s alleged speech plagiarism
“I think more importantly than anything, the words used there are all common used phrases. This wasn’t like trademark infringement on some type of nuclear engineering, give me a break … for her to get up on that stage and just deliver it so well, that should really be what overshadows everything.”
Read more: No one to be fired after Melania Trump speech plagiarism episode
Watch Part 2 of the interview here