Donald Trump Jr. emerges as a political force of his own as he helps his father launch a second term

NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. circled up aboard the president-elect’s plane over some McDonalds burgers and fries recently, Donald Trump Jr. was seated in the center of that power foursome.

The central spot occupied by Trump’s eldest son, as captured in a photo widely shared online, reflects how Trump Jr. has become a prominent player in his father’s political orbit and a potential heir to his Make America Great Again movement.

For the son of a president-elect, Trump has already had an outsized impact on the next White House. He lobbied hard for the former president to choose his good friend, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to be his running mate.

“I exerted 10,000% of my political capital,” Trump Jr. said of his effort in an interview with Tucker Carlson on the night of the election. “I may get a favor from my father in like, 2076. I used it all.”

As an honorary chair of the Republican president-elect’s transition team, Trump Jr. is part of a core group of people deciding who will fill top jobs in the next White House, and his imprint is clear.

Trump Jr. pushed in particular for roles for former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whom the president-elect has chosen to be director of national intelligence, and Kennedy, who is in line to lead Health and Human Services.

Another close ally, Sergio Gor, will be running the personnel office. He and Trump Jr. run a publishing company, Winning Team Publishing, which has published two of the former president’s books.

The younger Trump has said he has no plans to join his father’s administration in the way his younger sister Ivanka Trump did during the first Trump term. His brother Eric is also an honorary chair of the transition but hasn't been as much of a political player. Eric's wife Lara has been more involved, serving as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Trump Jr. is expected to continue to be a vocal supporter of his father and his agenda and has made it clear he wants to be an influential voice from the outside, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

The president-elect's style — brash, indelicate and pugilistic -- is distilled in his son. Donald Trump Jr. often takes a more aggressive tack than his father, in his calls for disrupting government as usual, in the way he dives into the culture wars with gusto and in his enthusiasm for trolling.

“He’s probably the best embodiment of the take-no-crap attitude of the Republican Party,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican political strategist.

Trump Jr.'s attitude and the way he communicates don’t make him sound like a regular political figure, Jennings said, and that’s part of the appeal.

“I think that’s one thing about the Trumps that is probably broadly true but certainly for him: They just don’t participate in the normal political pablum that sort of pre-Trump politicians were schooled in or trained to do.”

The 46-year-old is fluent in the online world of conservative politics and attuned to cultural issues that catch on with the MAGA faithful.

The posts on Trump’s X account, where he has more than 13 million followers, are often peppered with exclamation points and emojis. On Instagram, he is a prolific poster of conservative memes.

He flexes between interviews on established media outlets like Fox News and an array of podcasts influential among young conservatives, and he hosts his own twice a week, “Triggered With Don Jr.” During the campaign, he pushed for the former president to make appearances on podcasts as part of an effort to reach young men, including the popular Joe Rogan podcast.

Trump Jr.’s aggressive style has particular appeal with younger men.

“I think that’s one of the reasons a lot of these young men like it because that’s how they talk,” Jennings said.

Trump Jr. has said he has no plans to run for office himself, but he’s been working to cultivate the next generation of his father’s movement, boosting like-minded, communication-savvy Republicans.

Beyond his political activity, the father of five also serves as executive vice president at the Trump organization’s main family business, has launched a new crypto platform and recently announced he’s joining a venture capital firm that invests in conservative-focused businesses.

In an earlier time, Trump Jr. appeared with his father on “The Apprentice,” the reality show that helped propel the billionaire’s first presidential campaign. When Donald Trump launched his White House bid in 2015 and faced skepticism from swaths of the Republican Party, Trump Jr.’s outreach helped his father win more support, especially among conservatives who saw someone who espoused their views and as an avid hunter and fisherman who is a staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

He’s been increasingly visible in Republican politics since then, campaigning not just for his father but for like-minded candidates. He was a backer of Vance in his 2022 Ohio Senate race, nudging his father to do the same, and this year threw his support heavily behind successful Republican Senate candidates Jim Banks in Indiana, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Tim Sheehy in Montana.

Trump Jr. helped broker a relationship with Kennedy as the Democrat-turned-independent suspended his presidential campaign, working to bring him into the MAGA fold and endorse his father. He floated the idea of Kennedy joining the administration early, saying in an interview with conservative host Glenn Beck that “I loved the idea,” of Kennedy joining a Trump White House.

“I love the idea of giving him some sort of role in some sort of major three-letter entity or whatever it may be and let him blow it up,” Trump Jr. said, a reference to the many initials for government agencies.

The two hit it off, and Trump Jr., an avid outdoorsman, shared images on social media in October of a day he spent with Kennedy enjoying the latter’s favored hobby: falconry.

The choice of anti-vaccine activist Kennedy to run the nation’s public health agencies is sure to draw tough scrutiny during confirmation proceedings in the Senate, even with a Republican majority,

Trump Jr., in a recent interview on Fox News, acknowledged some of his father's choices will face pushback.

“They are going to be actual disrupters,” he said. “That’s what the American people want.”

FILE - Michael Boulos and his wife Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Trump and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump listen as Donald Trump Jr., speaks at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena, Nov. 5, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump hugs Donald Trump Jr., at a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, looks at his son Donald Trump Jr. at an election night watch party, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

AVIGNON, France (AP) — A mammoth rape trial in France moved into a new phase Monday as prosecutors began to lay out the verdicts and punishments they want for dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband.

After hearings stretching over nearly three months, the trial of 51 defendants in the southern city of Avignon is beginning to wrap up. Pelicot’s courage during the harrowing proceedings has helped transform her into an icon, even beyond France, for campaigners fighting against sexual violence.

The public prosecutors started Monday by focusing on Dominique Pelicot, the man that 71-year-old Gisèle Pelicot was married to for nearly 50 years and who she believed was a loving, caring husband.

But he has admitted that for years he mixed sedatives into her food and drink so he could rape her and also invite dozens of strangers that he recruited online to also rape her.

Prosecutor Laure Chabaud asked the panel of judges for the maximum possible penalty for aggravated rape — 20 years — against the victim's now ex-husband. Dominique Pelicot, who turns 72 this week, stared down at the floor, one hand on the handle of his cane, as the prosecutor spoke.

“Twenty years between the four walls of a prison,” she said. “It’s both a lot and not enough.”

The court is expected to deliver its verdicts by Dec. 20.

Gisèle Pelicot, who waived her right to anonymity, has pushed for graphic images that her husband filmed of the rapes to be presented in the courtroom, showing that she was unconscious and inert, audibly snoring.

“This woman was you, Madame Gisèle Pelicot, an ordinary woman," said prosecutor Jean-François Mayet, turning to her, as he praised her courage and her desire to make shame change sides, so it falls on rapists and not their victims.

He noted that Monday also marked the international day for the elimination of violence against women and said that France faces “a long path for our society to change its view of rape culture.”

Gisèle Pelicot sat quietly, sometimes staring up the ceiling, as the prosecutors detailed how Dominique Pelicot amassed and carefully catalogued a library of 20,000 photos and videos of the abuse that stretched over nearly a decade. The evidence that he stored on hard drives, memory sticks and phones led investigators to dozens of the men he recruited, although about 20 others haven't yet been identified.

All but one of the defendants are on trial for aggravated rape or attempted rape. In previous testimony, she said they treated her "like a rag doll, like a garbage bag.”

“When did they ask the question of Madame Pelicot's consent? Not before. Not during," Mayet said.

Members of the public who hoped to witness the proceedings and lined up outside booed some defendants as they entered the courthouse, yelling, “We recognize you” and “Shame.” Banners that campaigners hung opposite the building read “20 years for each of them” and “a rape is a rape.”

Gisèle Pelicot was greeted outside with cheers and applause.

“We feel it does her good. And it’s doing us good, too, because she’s really making a difference when it comes to feminism,” said Chantal Crémont, a supporter who traveled from western France.

She added: “It’s revolutionary in a way. When she says that shame changes sides, it’s really that. She’s standing as the victim, and she’s turning the tables. It’s very important."

Prosecutors described the rapes one-by-one that Dominique Pelicot's co-defendants allegedly committed on his unconscious wife and with his help and rules, including that they not make loud noises and first warm their hands so as not to wake her up.

The defendants and alleged rapes are so numerous that the prosecutors were expected to take three days to summarize the evidence and detail the verdicts and sentences they want. In the first cases that the prosecutors focused on Monday, after requesting 20 years imprisonment for Dominique Pelicot, they asked for sentences of 10 years or more for co-defendants also on trial for rape or attempted rape.

Dominique Pelicot has previously tearfully acknowledged in court that he’s guilty of the allegations against him. He said all of his co-defendants understood exactly what they were doing when he invited them to his home in Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have sex with his unconscious and unwitting wife, who divorced him after learning what he had done to her. He had no difficulty finding dozens of men to take part.

In previous testimony, many defendants told the court that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife, and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a kinky fantasy.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said the prosecutors' request for the maximum possible penalty against him was justified “in view of the gravity of the facts and the seriousness of the acts of which he is accused.”

“There’s no surprise in asking for 20 years, and that’s what I personally expected. But it’s still a shocking and heavy sentence for a man who’ll be 72 in a few days,” she said.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier, speaking in Paris at a center for women victims of violence, said: “The French have been deeply touched by the incredible courage of Gisèle Pelicot. This ongoing trial affects us all."

AP journalist Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris.

FILE - Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house, in Avignon, southern France, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)