Don Jr blasts critics claiming he’s using dad's name for personal gain: 'Been a business family forever'

WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump Jr hit back after he and his brother Eric Trump faced backlash online for unveiling their latest venture.

The duo introduced Trump Mobile, a wireless service they launched earlier this week.

On the Monday, June 16 episode of 'NewsNation Now', Don Jr got candid about the outrage that followed their announcement, OK! Magazine reported.

“Listen, I think I’ve been a businessman for 25 years. We’ve been a business family forever. We didn’t magically become business people when my father took office,” he said. 

Donald Trump Jr defends his business empire

Donald Trump Jr also got personal about what it's like running companies while being "canceled.”

“I think what we’ve done is... we’ve actually been borne witness to a lot of the nonsense that so many Americans dealt with. We have been canceled. We've been doing this — and I've been doing this, even personally — for years,” he declared. 

The 47-year-old insisted he’s poured time and money into building companies that are "standing up for Americans who have been canceled, who may not have the same platform that I have or the ability to do these businesses when it wasn't so popular."

“You know, I was taking companies public a couple of years ago when we had no chance of ever coming back. But those Americans still understood there was a real sort of threat to them," he continued. 

Don Jr also shut down claims that his father had a hand in the new Trump Mobile venture.

“My father's not involved in any of these things,” he said. “In all fairness, if you turn on the news, he's involved in bigger things,” he noted.

Still, the son of POTUS made it clear that his father "understands just how critical this is,” adding, “Eric and I, we're running the Trump Organization. We're doing these things.”

Don Jr chimes in on his father's feud with Elon Musk 

The eldest Trump scion also weighed in on his father's headline-grabbing spat with tech mogul Elon Musk. 

The dust-up started after Musk accused Trump of blocking the release of the Epstein files and calling for his impeachment.

But Musk eventually walked it back. Just a couple of days after privately reaching out to Trump on Monday, June 9, the billionaire posted an early-morning mea culpa on X (formerly Twitter). “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far," he wrote.

According to CNN, Musk had a flurry of calls around that time—not just with Trump, but also with Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Friday, June 6.

“It seems like it’s fine,” Don Jr. said of the feud, before showering some praise on the Tesla titan. “I mean, the guy is a genius doing incredible things, one of the true great innovators.”

He said fights are inevitable when the parties involved "wear their heart on their sleeve."

“They tell you what they’re thinking. I think that’s fine, and I think he’s going to continue to do great things,” he said of both his father and Musk.

As for Trump Sr, he seemed to take the olive branch in stride. When asked about Musk's apology, the POTUS said, “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”