MILWAUKEE — Although Donald Trump Jr. boasted of his "badass" father 's resilience after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt during a rally on Saturday evening, the former first son remains indignant over how the since-slain shooter was able to come so close to murdering the former president in the first place.
"I don't want to be the guy to be conspiratorial," Trump Jr. said on the second morning of the Republican National Convention during a conversation with Axios's Mike Allen. "A guy does not get on a rooftop with a rifle — that doesn't happen without a serious breach of something."
The Secret Service, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, has come under fire for the evident security breach on Saturday. The elder Trump's would-be assassin managed to bear-crawl up a rooftop fewer than 500 feet from the president's podium, and despite various eyewitnesses spotting the shooter and attempting to alert authorities before the shooter blew off a portion of former President Donald Trump's ear, the shooter was not stopped until he shot at multiple victims, killing one.
"How did someone get that close for that long?" Trump Jr, who confirmed the Trumps have previously requested further security from the Secret Service, asked. "It's a little different than a Biden rally — [Trump] attracts a lot of people there."
The agency's latest excuse came during a Tuesday interview with ABC News.
"That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point," Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle said in defense of the decision not to secure the site of the shooting. "And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof."
Trump Jr. praised his father for fighting rather than fleeing after the shooter was subdued.
"My family, we’re built a little differently, as you probably noticed: [Trump] stood up with defiance," the proud son said. "Everyone is a badass on the internet, but when you’re actually tested."
The Republican presidential nominee was notably emotional as he joined the RNC on Monday, with Trump uncharacteristically somber and grateful and the party, polling ahead of the Democratic nominee in the general election for the first time in two decades, unusually gleeful. Trump confirmed to the Washington Examiner that he scrapped his original convention speech after his brush with death, reflecting his desire to focus not just on uniting the party but also the country at large. His son confirmed that the "new Trump" is here to stay — with some caveats.
"There are events that change you for a couple minutes, and there are events that change you permanently," Trump Jr. said but confirmed that he will still prove pugnacious when necessary. "My father will always be a fighter. That will never change. But he’s going to do his best to moderate that when he needs to be."
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In the meantime, Trump Jr. signaled that his father can rely on his new running mate as his attack dog, lauding Sen. J.D. Vance's (R-OH) "ability to prosecute the case" for Trump on hostile media. Trump Jr. heavily lobbied for his father to choose the Ohio senator as his vice presidential nominee specifically because of his ability to go on the offense. Even the "new Trump," however, can still be relied upon to push back on defense.
"He's never going to stop being Trump when attacked," Trump Jr. said. "That’s what makes him an effective leader. He doesn’t cower when under fire, literally."
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