These days, president Donald Trump and his namesake, Donald Trump Jr., are like two peas in a pod. They’re both egotistical assholes that lack the common sense God gave a goose. Daddy dearest seems to be quite proud and very protective of his oldest child — even if it is only because POTUS tends to use Junior as a scapegoat for most of his shenanigans.
But according to a recent profile on the oldest Trump spawn, published by GQ magazine, Donald Trump wasn’t always so keen on giving his firstborn his name — in case Jr. turned out to be “a loser.”
Julia Ioffe wrote in the GQ article, “According to his first wife, Ivana, Donald Trump was never keen on bequeathing his name to anybody. It was Ivana who wanted to call their newborn Donald Junior. ‘You can’t do that!’ Trump is quoted as saying in Ivana’s memoir, Raising Trump. ‘What if he’s a loser?'”
Ioffe goes on to describe a turbulent childhood for Donald Jr. in which he struggled to win his father’s approval as he lived in the shadows of Trump. At the young age of 12, Jr. was subjected to all the gory details of his parents’ rocky public divorce and was even used as a negotiating tool by his father between him and Ivana, which ultimately led to Jr. not speaking to his dad for over a year.
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Junior reportedly fled his home life often for the peace and solace he found in visits to his mother’s father in the former Czechoslovakia, where he discovered his knack and passion for hunting and fishing. He even spent a year after college living off the land in Aspen, Colorado after college before he joined his father’s administration.
Don’s mother Ivana wrote in her “Raising Trump” novel, “Poor Don. He really got the brunt of everything. No wonder Don likes to go in the woods and escape from everything.”
While Don Jr. certainly did turn out to be quite the loser, it seems his father is okay with it, so long as he can throw him under the bus whenever he finds it necessary.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
