Donald Trump Jr., in a recent speech, said out loud what many have seen for years now, according to a report from the Daily Beast: that his father, President Donald Trump, has destroyed the GOP as it once was and made it into something else in his own image, claiming, "This isn’t the Republican Party anymore."
Trump Jr. gave a speech on Sunday at the final day of Turning Point USA's AmericaFest convention. In it, he warned attendees that Democrats, poised to make significant gains in the 2026 midterms as President Trump's popularity plummets, are aiming to undo what his father's "movement" has accomplished.
“We have to stay involved. We have to stay in the game," Trump Jr. said in his speech. "Midterms are coming around the corner, and make no mistake, the Democrat Party wants to do whatever they possibly can to shut this movement down."
He continued: "Not just the Democrats. The RINOs [Republicans in Name Only]. You see the manufactured attacks on [Vice President JD Vance], myself, my father—anyone who understands that this isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It’s the America First Party. It’s the Make America Great Again Party, and we are not going back.”
Per the Daily Beast's report on these remarks, the audience gave Trump Jr. a standing ovation for him "effectively acknowledging that his father has reshaped the GOP in his own image."
The rest of the event, meant to present the future for the Republican Party, instead gave a grim outlook on its prospects in the midterms and in the years to follow 2028, as Trump leaves office and cedes the mantle of his MAGA movement to new figures who can continue to pursue the presidency.
"The event was intended to commemorate Kirk and chart a path forward for conservatives amid fears Republicans could suffer major losses in next year’s midterm elections, as Trump enters the final years of his presidency," Daily Beast's Ewan Palmer wrote. "Instead, the conference underscored just how fractured both the Republican Party and the MAGA movement have become, highlighting an increasingly ugly battle over control of the conservative movement’s future."