CLEVELAND — Donald Trump Jr. electrified the GOP convention Tuesday night in a rousing speech that savaged Hillary Clinton while praising his dad as a loving father and successful businessman who would make a great president.
“You want to know what kind of president he’ll be? Let me tell you how he ran his businesses, and I know because I was there with him by his side on job sites, in conference rooms from the time I could walk,” Trump Jr. said in a strong, confident voice.
“He didn’t hide out behind some desk in an executive suite. He spent his career with regular Americans. He hung out with the guys on construction sites, pouring concrete and hanging Sheetrock. He listened to them and he valued their opinions as much and often more than the guys from Harvard and Wharton locked away in offices away from the real work.”
That experience, said Trump Jr., 38, gave him a better education about the ways of the world than he got in school.
“We didn’t learn from MBAs. We learned from people who had doctorates in common sense. It’s why we’re the only children of billionaires as comfortable in a D10 Caterpillar as we are in our own cars,” he said.
His 15-minute address won the loudest ovations of the night.
Trump Jr. staked out solidly conservative positions on public education, ditching ObamaCare, boosting energy independence and gun rights — but he also spent a large part of his talk slamming Clinton.
“If Hillary Clinton were elected, she’d be the first president who couldn’t pass a basic background check. Hillary Clinton is a risk Americans can’t afford to take,” he said to wild applause.
Clinton, he said, would issue executive orders to take away Americans’ guns — and mocked proponents of gun-control laws.
“Just look at how effective those laws have been in inner-city Chicago. Seventy people were murdered last month alone and where over 3,400 American lives were lost since this administration took office in 2009,” he said.
Donald Jr.’s prime-time remarks came soon after Trump Sr.’s 22-year-old daughter, Tiffany, revealed a personal side of her dad, including “sweet notes” he would write on her report cards and words of advice he would offer.
“My dad is a natural-born encourager,” she said. “I always look forward to introducing him to my friends.”
For the second night in a row, Trump Sr. appeared at the convention — but this time via satellite from New York City.
“Together, we have achieved historic results with the largest vote total in the history of the Republican Party. This is a movement but we have to go all the way,” he said.
He officially clinched the nomination during the state-delegation roll call when Donald Jr., standing with the New York delegation, announced his dad was over the top.
Trump Sr. finished with 1,725 delegates, with six other one-time contenders capturing 721 — the largest number at a GOP convention backing someone other than the nominee since 1976.
With Bob Fredericks in New York
