(PresidentialInsider.com)- Donald Trump Jr. is settling into a new role within the orbit of former President Donald Trump.
Sources say that Trump Jr. has been elevated as the new unofficial top adviser to his father. He is serving in this role as the former president weighs whether he wants to run for president again in 2024, or exert his influence over the Republican Party in other ways from the outside.
The younger Trump is now stepping into a role that’s very similar to that of Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law. Kushner served as a trusted top adviser to Trump while he was in the White House.
Now, Trump Jr. is doing similar things from Florida. Sources told CNN he’s meeting with the former president’s team to ensure his future political aspirations are running according to plan. One of the top tasks the team is taking on is picking and choosing which conservative candidates to endorse, or campaign against, in the 2022 midterm elections.
But, Trump Jr.’s influence is going beyond just keeping the political train on its tracks. The former president’s eldest son never worked for his father officially in the White House, but now he’s apparently helping to mold the political instincts of his father.
Many have said that Trump Jr. is unquestionably the most conservative of all the family members. He also has apparently taken a kinder approach to team members than Kushner did. Kushner, for now, has taken some time off from politics.
Trump Jr.’s influence over his father first began back in February. He helped his father craft the first major speech he gave after leaving the White House, at the Conservative Political Action Conference that was held in Orlando, Florida.
Part of that speech was seemingly more conservative than the former president had shown while he was in the White House. It went off on transgender athletes being able to compete in school sports. That was a topic he had before then ignored altogether as the issue was working itself out in various states throughout the country.
Some of the former president’s aides later said that Trump Jr. was the one who encouraged his dad to comment on the transgender issue. He told his father that it would be a hot-button issue that the conservatives who were attending CPAC would feast on.
As a person who is close to Trump Jr. told CNN:
“He was always fighting for the cause big-picture wise, but now Don is taking more of a leading role in shaping the political direction of Trump’s post-presidency.”
Beyond serving his father directly, Trump Jr. is also serving as sort of a gatekeeper for candidates who his father might support. He has been “intimately involved” in the process of vetting potential candidates who are seeking the endorsement of the former president.
If Trump Jr. has seen a candidate who he thinks is unworthy of that support, he has stepped in to either stop that from happening or has at least pumped the brakes on it.
Going forward, it looks like the Trump family’s eldest son is the one who is going to be exerting much more influence than he did while his dad was in the White House.
