SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Donald Trump Jr. tells Dori locker room talk is ‘a fact of life’

Oct 21, 2016, 3:14 PM | Updated: Oct 22, 2016, 3:26 pm

Donald Trump...

Donald Trump Jr. got a Nintendo when other kids got Segas when he was growing up. (AP)

(AP)

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson has criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but he has frequently complimented his kids. When Dori interviewed Donald Trump Jr., he got some insight into what it was like growing up Trump.

Dori interviews Donald Trump

In short, they were spoiled.

“My parents always made us work,” Trump Jr. said. “To say we weren’t spoiled would be laughable. … we were spoiled, but we were spoiled in the right way. They really stressed education, we got to do cool things, we got to travel. So we had an amazing childhood. But they always made sure that we worked.”

“We weren’t ever really financially spoiled,” he added. “I got Nintendo when everyone else got Sega. It wasn’t like, ‘Make your bed and go get whatever you want.’ It was jobs that took time – you learned the pride of work, the dignity of work, and what that meant.”

But there were other aspects of the Trump campaign that Dori asked about, and Donald Trump Jr. responded.

The locker room talk

Obviously, he’s not happy about that. We all know guys that have had conversations with other guys that go a little bit in that direction. That’s a fact of life. I think he’s able to relate to ordinary Americans because in many cases he is still very much like that. He does do that. He hasn’t spent his whole life sitting there polishing every statement he has ever made, every conversation he has ever had. He doesn’t run a focus group so he can tell you what he is thinking.

He speaks from the heart. And that (video) is obviously one that we don’t want to … that was a mistake. He recognizes that. He realizes it. But he’s able to make mistakes because he hasn’t spent his whole life trying to be a politician.

Trump Jr. then pivoted to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and “career politicians,” arguing that they say one thing and do another.

That’s what the politicians have gotten away with. They spend their whole lives scrubbing their thoughts, and manicuring everything so they can tell you what you want to hear and in the end they don’t act on it.

Donald Trump Jr. and politics

When you see the stuff going on these days in the process, it makes it difficult for someone in the private sector who does very well. It would be an honor for me to do it — in a way. But I look at the way they try to take quotes of mine and demonized anything you do. And I think, especially, you get hit hard if you are a conservative. And I can be glib at times. But the way things are misconstrued, the way they are taken out of context. My father has had a life 40 years in the public eye, and all of a sudden, 20 days against, probably, the most corrupt politician in the history of American politics, all of a sudden all these magical things appear. Give me a break. That stuff wasn’t going to come out when he was doing ‘The Apprentice’ and he was on TV on one of the number one shows in the country every week? It just shows you how rigged this system is and how disgusting it is. It makes it difficult for someone to want to do it.

Now it is exciting; it is amazing … when you feel you can make that difference for some family or to someone, and you see. And I’ve done it as I go around the country stumping and talking to people and you see that look of hope. It would be great to have more people who have been successful in the private sector, elsewhere, want to step up and get in this game.

(My father) wants to … put congressional term limits in there and prevent these same people that function in high levels of government from then going on being lobbyists making billions of dollars selling American influence to foreign countries. I think putting an end to that would be a really good start.

Who is voting for Trump?

I can’t tell you – all across the country — the number of people that come up to me and say, ‘Don, I’m 25, 35, 45, 55,’ up to 83 was the oldest who said ‘I’ve never voted in my life but I registered last week so I can vote for your father.’

This is not one or two people. This is dozens of people every day that have said that. And it’s not the angry old white guy that the media wants you to believe is the only person voting for Trump. It’s women, Latinos, African Americans, young, old, everything in between.

President Donald Trump, center right, first lady Melania Trump, right, China's President Xi Jinping...

Associated Press

11 minutes on the steps: How an AP photographer framed Trump and Xi’s red-carpet shot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Julia Demaree Nikhinson has been a staff photographer at The Associated Press for 2 1/2 years and is based in Washington. She was previously based in New York City, where she also interned in 2022. Why I shot this photo I took this photo on the last day of Chinese President Xi […]

22 minutes ago

FILE - People take photos near a John Harvard statue on the Harvard University campus, Jan. 2, 2024...

Associated Press

Appeals court weighs judge’s authority to restore Trump administration funding cuts to Harvard

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court heard opposing arguments Monday over whether a judge had the authority to restore billions of dollars in funding that the Trump administration cut from Harvard University. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled last year that the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of the administration’s demands […]

23 minutes ago

Colorado rancher Kathryn Bedell talks about the impact of droughts on her business as activists gat...

Associated Press

Supreme Court weighs local governments’ climate change lawsuits against oil and gas companies

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court grappled Monday with whether local governments can sue oil and gas companies to help cover costs associated with climate change, an issue with potentially billions of dollars at stake. Key justices appeared wary about the potential sweep of litigation, but torn over the complex legal interplay of federal and […]

29 minutes ago

andrew seay seattle police...

Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin Show

‘Deadly force should be a last resort’: Family attorney questions Seattle police tactics as Andrew Seay’s family files $30M claim

A $30 million claim against Seattle questions police force used in Andrew Seay's shooting, highlighting excessive force concerns.

32 minutes ago

Associated Press

Mother and son from Bermuda named as passengers on missing medical flight from Bermuda to Boston

The two people aboard an air ambulance that crashed in the waters off Massachusetts over the weekend while flying from Bermuda to Boston were identified Monday as a mother from Bermuda and her son. Bermuda police said Marilyn Lavonne Bean, 66, and Sergio Wayne Lottimore, 41, both Bermudian nationals, were aboard a Gulfstream G100 with […]

48 minutes ago

80-year-old driver I-82 zillah...

MyNorthwest Staff

80-year-old driver dies after crossing median into oncoming traffic on I-82 near Zillah

A fatal car collision occurred in eastern Washington over the weekend, killing one and injuring two others.

49 minutes ago

Donald Trump Jr. tells Dori locker room talk is ‘a fact of life’