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Home » Transcript: Donald Trump Jr. on Keeping It Real Podcast w/ Jillian Michaels

Transcript: Donald Trump Jr. on Keeping It Real Podcast w/ Jillian Michaels

Here is the full transcript of Donald Trump Jr.’s interview on Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels, premiered November 30, 2025.

Donald Trump Jr. joins Jillian Michaels for an unfiltered conversation on everything from the Thomas Crooks shooting and “deep state” narratives to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the threat from Iran, and Venezuela’s narco regime. He lays out his view of Trump’s foreign policy “peace deals,” explains why he thinks endless funding for Ukraine is a mistake, and defends targeting Venezuelan drug boats as a better way to protect Americans from fentanyl. Don Jr. also digs into inflation, Mamdani-style socialism, the 2026 midterms, and the internal war inside the GOP, while opening up about what it’s really like to live under constant investigation and media fire as the president’s son.

The India Wedding Experience

JILLIAN MICHAELS: Thank you so much for joining me. I’m pretty freaking excited to talk to you, I’m not going to lie. But you set me up for this. What the heck was going on in India?

DONALD TRUMP JR.: So yeah, a friend of mine, his daughter was getting married. American guy but Indian descent and it’s an insane experience. I’ve been invited, I’ve done a lot of business in India, but always usually just in and out for work. It’s a five-day production. He had JLo, he had Cirque du Soleil, Tiesto, Black Coffee. I mean every night was three major performers and it’s just wild.

So I was like, I had to experience it. I don’t even go to my friends’ weddings anymore. I’m just like, life’s too short to go to another wedding. And yet this one, he was persuasive and so I was like, okay, I’ll go. And it was pretty wild.

JILLIAN MICHAELS: Well, thank you so much. I’m sorry you’re jet lagged. I’m not really letting you off the hook but you are who you are and it’s so exciting to talk to you.

Living Between Hitler and Jesus

JILLIAN MICHAELS: So if you don’t mind, I want to start from the top. Your dad has been called the second coming of Hitler and Jesus. Now as a public figure I’ve experienced this in some small, infinitesimal way. People will come up to you and be like, “Oh, you saved my life.” And you’re thinking, I’ve never even met you before. I don’t know your name. I can’t take credit for this.

And then you’ll see somebody say, I can’t wait for you to be the next—referring to some of the horrible things that have happened to Charlie Kirk. I experienced this insanity on the smallest scale. What does it feel like for you and your family? And honestly, who are the Trumps in that continuum of Jesus to Hitler? Who are the Trumps?

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Well, I mean, I probably wouldn’t be a Trump if I didn’t at least slide closer to the Jesus side. Right?

No, listen, it’s hard. And you’ve experienced that. I imagine you also experienced the downside of that one so much more when you simply called out a couple things that would have otherwise been common sense. When you’re agnostic, you don’t take a stance, and so many people don’t for so long. But after a while, you start watching that, you’re like, we actually have to say something about this one.

So it’s not easy. But I had Democrats literally try to throw me in jail. They called my father every name in the book. They tried taking away his businesses. They tried throwing him in jail. They created so much rhetoric that multiple people tried to kill him. That’s not awesome.

And it’s hard sometimes because you get so used to functioning that way, it doesn’t even affect you that much, but it does certainly affect your response to something. My kids, they have a problem with something. I’m like, that’s not a problem. Look at what we’re dealing with over here. But to them, it’s everything. They’re little and they’re young, and it certainly messes with you a lot.

I guess I got enough of the Trump gene that it’s, well, I’m sort of backed in that corner. My instinct is just to sort of fight. And so it’s what I do. And I’ve gotten comfortable with it, but it’s definitely not fun.

But it is also when those same people come up to you and be like, “Hey, because of you guys, I’m building the wing to my store to expand. And you guys made that possible. And with the tax deduction or whatever it may be,” you see these guys, grown men sometimes, or women, coming up with literally tears in their eyes that they’re going to get to experience their American dream. That makes all of it worth it. But no, it’s certainly not been easy.

The Escalator Moment

DONALD TRUMP JR.: I think my father, the story I always tell on this one is my father recognized it really early when he ran, when he did that announcement. It was June 16, 2015. And I remember that because it was my daughter’s first birthday.

And we’re getting in the elevator out of Trump Tower at his office before the infamous escalator ride. And he just looked at me and he goes, “And now we find out who our real friends are.” And at the time I was like, cool. He understands this won’t be easy. And I think we probably grossly underestimated just how difficult it would all be.

But I think as I thought about it more in the future, and it describes him so well, it wasn’t just that he knew what would happen, it’s that he knew what would happen and he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. And so that’s the true testament of the guy, who he is. He does the hard things that need to be done.