Long a divisive figure, Don Jr. says Trump is a changed man after attempted assassination

MILWAUKEE - Former President Donald Trump is a changed man after a would-be assassin tried to kill him and the new tone of unity he is projecting won't fade away, his eldest son said Tuesday in discussing his divisive father's change of heart on the second day of the Republican National Convention.

Speaking at an Axios event, Donald Trump Jr. said the attempt on his father's life during a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania is the type of event that permanently changes someone.

"You know, I think it lasts," Donald Trump Jr. said in response to a question of how long the "new Trump" would continue. "There are events that change you for a couple minutes and there’s events that change you permanently. Now again it’s Trump so you’re still going to be reactionary."

Trump Jr's take on his dad's makeover runs counter to the former president's reputation. The 78-year old, who hopes to win back the White House, is a highly polarizing figure who is known for a cutthroat, divisive brand of politics. He has long reveled in mocking and belittling his opponents on the left and right, and engaging in no holds barred political combat.

Trump's presidency was marred by constant chaos and controversy and concluded with a deadly pandemic. The U.S. House also impeached Trump twice, the last time for his role in a deadly insurrection aimed at overturning the results of an election he lost. Trump also has made history as the first former president ever to face criminal charges and to be convicted of a felony. 

The former president and current GOP presidential nominee will always punch back against critics, his son said, adding that he will "always be a fighter, that's never gonna change, but he's gonna do, I think, his best to moderate that where it needs to be."

"He's going to be tough when he has to be. We’ve seen that, he’s never gonna change. But I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently," Trump Jr. said.

Trump has talked about rewriting his convention speech to strike a new tone of unity after the shooting.

Trump Jr. worked with his father on the original speech, going over it with him for hours on Friday.

"It was, it was hot," Trump Jr. said of the original speech. "And by the way, I think it probably should have been at that time. But again, a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.”

Yet even as he talked about striking a new tone, Trump Jr. took repeated jabs at President Joe Biden throughout the event Tuesday, including bragging that his father draws more people to his rallies.

“Obviously, he’s a guy that attracts a lot of people," Trump Jr. said in discussing his father's security needs. "There are big crowds. It’s a little different than a Biden rally.”

The audience laughed.

“I mean, fact check – true," Trump Jr. responded.

Trump's unity message was undercut by his pick of Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, former New Jersey governor and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie wrote in a column published Tuesday in the New York Times. Trump can "point the party and its leadership in a new direction in the wake of the assassination attempt against him," Christie wrote, but "Early indications are less than promising."

"Mr. Vance’s first reaction to the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump was to turn directly to the current, flawed playbook: demonize the other side and lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats, as if they had pulled the trigger themselves," Christie wrote, referring to a post Vance made on social media.

Trump's tone attacking "radical left Democrats" in a social media post Tuesday reacting to reporting that Biden is considering reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court could also raise questions about whether he really has changed.

"The reason that these Communists are so despondent is that their unLawful Witch Hunts are failing everywhere," Trump wrote.

'I just want to be the veto'

A relentless campaigner and someone who has strong political opinions, there has been speculation about how much power Trump Jr. would exercise in a second Trump administration if his father wins. He said he was heavily involved in the selection of Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance as his father's running mate, advocating against some of the other candidates.

Trump Jr. said he doesn't expect to pick members of a potential second Trump administration, but he will act as a gatekeeper to keep people he doesn't like from getting White House jobs, saying "I just want to be the veto."

“I don’t want to pick a single person for a position of power," he said. "All I want to do is block the guys that would be a disaster. I want to block the liars, I want to block the guys that are, you know, pretending they’re with you."

"I just want to block the bad actors. I just want to be a blocker," he added. "That’s it... I want a veto power to cut out each and every one of those people."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn't among those Trump Jr. would exercise veto power over. The independent presidential candidate met with Trump after the assassination attempt. Asked whether his father might get Kennedy's endorsement, Trump Jr. said “we’ll have to see… I’d love to see that."

"The history of his family, obviously, as it relates to assassinations I think... maybe that’s one of those moments that brings people together," Trump Jr. said of the candidate, whose is the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

"Maybe there’s a great place for him somewhere in an administration… he comes from obviously a very left background and that’s fine, that doesn’t mean there’s not an incredible role that I think he could execute or prosecute quite well in Washington D.C.," Trump Jr. added.