The importance of being Donald Trump Jr.

New Delhi: Without the burden of his legacy, he would be just another American businessman traversing the world for opportunities to make a deal. In the event, the weight of the silver spoon Donald Trump Jr. has been born with is both a blessing and a bit of a drag. Yes, he is the son of US president Donald Trump and that name goes far anywhere in the world. But he is also the son of a US president under constant attack by political rivals, concerned Twitterati and the media. That means he’s had to put on hold new deals, though he says he’s itching to get back into the game. 

But to his credit, these concerns sit lightly on the 40-year-old. Getting off a flight to India at 3.30am, he is ready less than 6 hours later for a tête-à-tête with journalists, where he takes most questions sportingly. Affable and charming, he is combative when asked about his father’s politics and his vocal support for it.

When asked who the best business person in the Trump family is, he is unequivocal in his praise for his father, whom he calls an “incredible businessman”, a “visionary” and an achiever in whatever field of life he’s got into. “Our role”, he says about himself and his brother Eric, who oversee the trust that manages the Trump Organization’s assets, “is different”.

Effectively, it is to hold the ship steady till the elder Trump finishes his term of office either in 2020 or, if he gets another term, in 2024. 

His immediate focus, though, is the business at hand—making a case for the 250 apartments his company is launching in Gurugram in collaboration with local builders M3M India Pvt. Ltd and Tribeca Developers. Trump Towers, which will house the apartments, looks awesome on the AV, rising some 600 feet into the sky with its 47 storeys.

In five years' time, once it is completed, it will be among the tallest structures in the city. Priced at between Rs5.5 crore and Rs11 crore a pop, they should be loose change for the kind of buyers Trump Jr. is targeting, the ones who will pay a mini-fortune for the privilege of a dinner date with the son of the US president. And the kind that will buy an address, never mind the winter of discontent that’s gripped the residential real estate market in India over the last three years.

No wonder that Trump Jr., whose company is merely lending its brand to the venture, says sales have been already been brisk.

If Indian buyers have an affinity for the Trump brand of housing (another Trump-branded property in Pune is ready for occupation), Trump Jr., aka Don, returns the compliment, saying that the spirit of doing business in India, a country he’s been visiting since he was in his 20s, is more “aligned to our way of doing business” than in China. “Things in India are more above board than in China”, he adds. Charming.

He is Donald J. Trump after all, even if he is junior.