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USA Today: Long a divisive figure, Don Jr. says Trump is a changed man after attempted assassination

  |   By Polling+ Staff

(Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) / ALTERNATE CROP (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Long a divisive figure, Don Jr. says Trump is a changed man after attempted assassination 

Trump a changed man post-assassination attempt.   The story reports:

“MILWAUKEE – Former President Donald Trump is a changed man after a would-be assassin tried to kill him and the new tone of unity he is projecting won’t fade away, his eldest son said Tuesday in discussing his divisive father’s change of heart on the second day of the Republican National Convention.

Speaking at an Axios event, Donald Trump Jr. said the attempt on his father’s life during a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania is the type of event that permanently changes someone. “You know, I think it lasts,” Donald Trump Jr. said in response to a question of how long the “new Trump” would continue. “There are events that change you for a couple minutes and there’s events that change you permanently. Now again it’s Trump so you’re still going to be reactionary.”

Trump Jr’s take on his dad’s makeover runs counter to the former president’s reputation. The 78-year old, who hopes to win back the White House, is a highly polarizing figure who is known for a cutthroat, divisive brand of politics. He has long reveled in mocking and belittling his opponents on the left and right, and engaging in no holds barred political combat.

Trump’s presidency was marred by constant chaos and controversy and concluded with a deadly pandemic. The U.S. House also impeached Trump twice, the last time for his role in a deadly insurrection aimed at overturning the results of an election he lost. Trump also has made history as the first former president ever to face criminal charges and to beconvicted of a felony.

The former president and current GOP presidential nominee will always punch back against critics, his son said, adding that he will “always be a fighter, that’s never gonna change, but he’s gonna do, I think, his best to moderate that where it needs to be.”

“He’s going to be tough when he has to be. We’ve seen that, he’s never gonna change. But I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently,” Trump Jr. said.

Trump has talked about rewriting his convention speech to strike a new tone of unity after the shooting.

Trump rewrites RNC speech after assassination attempt. Here’s what to ex…

Former president Donald Trump said Saturday’s shooting provided a moment to “bring the whole country” together.

Trump Jr. worked with his father on the original speech, going over it with him for hours on Friday.

“It was, it was hot,” Trump Jr. said of the original speech. “And by the way, I think it probably should have been at that time. But again, a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.”

Yet even as he talked about striking a new tone, Trump Jr. took repeated jabs at President Joe Biden throughout the event Tuesday, including bragging that his father draws more people to his rallies.

“Obviously, he’s a guy that attracts a lot of people,” Trump Jr. said in discussing his father’s security needs. “There are big crowds. It’s a little different than a Biden rally.”

The audience laughed.”

It would be next to impossible, one suspects, to come as close to death as Trump did and not be a changed man in some way. We shall see. Stay tuned.