Last week, I had dinner with Donald Trump, Jr., and I suspect that at least some readers may be interested. So today, I’ll tell you about it.
And first, yes… I mean that DJT Jr. (see photo), son of the U.S. President of similar name. And no, I don’t mean that we were in the same building at the same time, although that’s one way to say it. Nor do I mean that we were even in the same dining room at the same time, although that’s another way to say it.
Your editor and Donald Trump, Jr. BWK photo.
I mean that I sat right next to the guy for about an hour, munching on salad and roast beef. My left elbow was about four inches from his right elbow. And we talked about all sorts of things, some of which were personal and private, and on those matters I’ll exercise discretion. But other points of discussion were, I believe, open to share with readers, particularly our focus on the U.S. energy situation, as well as mines and minerals.
Of course, DJT Jr. is not a member of the Trump administration. He has no government title, nor does he run any policy portfolio. But it’s fair to say that he knows a few people who do hold such jobs, and perhaps some of what we discussed will filter around. You never know, right?
So to kick it all off, you may wonder how does something like this happen? Well…
It Began with a Telephone Call
About two months ago, my phone rang. A long-time acquaintance asked if I’d like to attend an energy conference in mid-October. I checked my schedule, the dates were open, so I asked for more information.
The sponsor was an energy company, currently not publicly traded but it holds a large portfolio of uranium. It would be a day-long program about uranium, mining, processing, nuclear power and the U.S. energy complex.
Overall, the invitation was intriguing. Then, my acquaintance said, “We think we’ll have Donald Trump, Jr. as a keynote speaker. Would you like to meet him?”
Well, sure I’d like to meet DJT Jr. I’ve never met President Trump, nor have I ever even seen him in person. I’ve never attended a Trump rally. Never been anywhere near the man.
But if I can meet Don Jr.? Okay by me. I’d be pleased to see him up close and just say hello. And heck, over the years I’ve had lunch or dinner with more than a few famous people.
For example, long ago out in Hollywood I dined with Charleton Heston, the late movie actor. We talked about Shakespeare’s plays, and at several points he recited long passages from the Bard. So yes, Chuck knew his stuff.
Way back at Harvard, I had lunch with Wassily Leontief, Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 1973. We discussed input-output analysis. “It takes coal to make steel,” he said. “But you need steel to produce coal. So I/O analysis is all about how to allocate resources in a planning scenario.” And as you add more variables, per Leontief, it gets way more complex.
In 1987 when I was in the Navy, I had lunch in the dining room of the Secretary of Defense, deep in the heart of the Pentagon. It was hosted by Admiral William Crowe, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Reagan. And as we were dining and talking, in walked the SecDef himself, Caspar Weinberger. He sat down and we discussed Soviet submarines and the economic capabilities of the Soviet Union.
You get the picture, right? I’ve been around, and I’ve met some famous people. So, if someone offers to get me in the handshake line with Donald Trump Jr., I’m cool with that.
Later, I received another call. “Byron, would you like to sit at the head table with Don Jr.?”
Head table? Umm… sure, although that entailed a bit more scrutiny to clear me through the Secret Service. Then again, it helps to be a retired Navy captain, whose life story is on file with various national security organizations. I guess they ran the records and figured I was safe.
“Ladies and Gentleman, Our Guest of Honor…”
The energy conference itself was plenty interesting. I was there along with Dan Amoss, my friend and colleague from Paradigm Press. We spent the day watching presentations about uranium, U.S. energy, Chinese energy growth, and much else along those lines.
The day faded into late afternoon and early evening, which led to a reception adjacent to a dining area. At one point the lights flickered, our cue to take our assigned seats. The room was noisy and echoed with everyone talking. Then came the loud ring of a bell, followed by a booming voice: “Ladies and gentlemen, our guest of honor, Donald Trump Jr.”
DJT Jr. walked into the room, and people began to applaud. He walked up to the head table, stood for a few seconds next to the chair right beside me. Briskly, he walked around the table and introduced himself to seven other people including me; and then he sat down.
By then the room had gone totally silent. You could hear the rustle of napkins. The woman seated to my right said, “Don, do rooms always go completely silent when you walk in?” Her line was loud enough for people to hear, and there was a wave of friendly laughter across several tables.
“No,” said DJT Jr., “I’m not used to being in crowded rooms where people are quiet. Let’s all open up.” That comment elicited some chuckles. But really, this was a business affair, and we were then at a point where the introductory ice was broken. People began to talk, and the serving staff began to hand out plates of food.
Here are some basics: DJT Jr. is 47 years old and appears in excellent physical condition. He stands tall and speaks clearly. He was polite, gentlemanly, and exceptionally courteous to the serving staff at the dinner venue, always a giveaway of someone who is self-aware. He’s a Penn grad like his father, yet very down-to-earth, to the point that he can operate a heavy-duty bulldozer. During our discussions he was energetic, informed, reflective, and curious, by which I mean interested in learning. Oh, and he did not touch the wine, not a drop. He just sipped ice water.
“What Should I Know About These Minerals?”
“How did your conference go today?” asked DJT Jr. And with that, several people at the table opened up on the U.S. energy situation. We discussed America’s rapidly growing, national scale rising demand for electric power, particularly due to new data centers across the landscape, as well as generally increasing power use across; data centers and electric vehicles (EVs).
DJT Jr. was surprised to learn that China commissions a new coal-fired power plant just about every week and is online to build over 130 new nuclear power plants over the next ten years. “I didn’t know those numbers,” he said. “But wow… We have our work cut out to stay competitive in energy.”
And DJT Jr. was totally on top of a term that our own Jim Rickards invented a few years ago, namely the “green new scam.” That is, per DJT Jr., “Windmills and solar won’t cut it,” he said. “They can’t supply the energy when and where you need it, not to feed those data centers like we’re building out.”
Collectively, we at the table discussed U.S. uranium. One critical issue is that America currently produces only about 2% of the nuclear fuel the nation uses in its fleet of nuclear plants, a pittance in the large scheme. DJT Jr. was surprised at that number as well.
The fact is that about half of U.S. uranium comes from Canada and Australia; the balance comes out of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. And in this regard, we discussed how fast-growing Chinese demand for uranium will likely shut the U.S. off from Russia and other Central Asian sources, probably by 2030. DJT Jr. took it all in and was nodding his head; he gets it.
We also had a table-wide discussion of the effort to build semiconductor fabrication plants in the U.S., and how that alone creates immense new demand for energy, as well as for unique kinds of skilled labor. I mentioned to DJT Jr. that chip fabs require highly refined basic materials like polysilicon and other exotic metals like gallium, germanium and more; and how the chips themselves must be baked in a sealed oven with a pure helium atmosphere because any oxygen or nitrogen will damage the product.
The comment about helium led to a discussion of scuba diving with helium-oxygen gas mixtures, and DJT Jr. knows about that from his personal experiences. I added that helium is critical to other industrial applications such as rocketry, welding, MRI machines, physics research and much more. And he said, “I’ve always thought it was wasteful to use helium for party balloons.” So, he gets that point as well.
While we were discussing energy and chip fabs, DJT Jr. asked about rare earths. “Are we doing the right things with rare earths? What should I know about these minerals?”
I looked at DJT Jr. and said, “Don, anybody can mine rock. But if you can’t process it, you may as well just sell it to a railway company to use as track ballast.”
He laughed because… yes, he got the point. Then we discussed how rare earth mining is not nearly as big a bottleneck as rare earth refining. And he asked about refining. “What do things like that involve?”
Donald Trump Jr., speaking with audience. BWK photo.
Clearly, DJT Jr. was interested in what we had to say. He wanted to learn, and on rare earths I gave him a very abbreviated lesson in chemical engineering and metallurgy. It was fast and pithy, definitely the 40-second elevator-pitch on how to turn rock into valuable downstream products, but I credit him for honest interest.
The Personal Side
The dinner discussion wasn’t all rocks, mines, minerals and energy. DJT Jr. told a gripping story about where he was and what he was doing when President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.
Immediately after the assassination attempt, Secret Service imposed a communications embargo, even for family. So, nobody knew anything until a couple of hours later. Then the phone rang and Orange Man reassured Don and the grandchildren that he would be alright. “But,” said DJT Jr., “he said that his hair was a mess.” Yes, a laugh line, but it carried understandable emotion.
Then DJT Jr. told a funny story about how his teenage daughter Kai, the golfing prodigy, wound up speaking at the Republican nominating convention. It developed fast, right after Butler, when she called her grandad (aka President Trump) and requested a slot on the roster. Reluctant at first, President Trump came around and personally bumped a couple of other bigshot political players off the speaker list.
Also at the head table, Dan Amoss asked about how J.D. Vance wound up as Vice President, and DJT Jr. explained how he and the late Charlie Kirk urged President Trump to give the hillbilly Marine and U.S. Senator a hard look. And the rest is history.
Finally, I’ll share that during a lull in conversation, I leaned over to DJT Jr., grabbed his arm and said, “Don, I have something really important I want to pass along.”
The guest of honor looked at me with an appropriate sense of seriousness.
I said, “My wife and I want to thank your dad for ending that Israel-Iran war as abruptly as he did last June. Our son is in the Army and was over in Iraq, up in the mountains of Kurdistan. And for a time it looked like Iran was going to unload its missiles on U.S. forces. And our son was right there, at ground zero. But your dad the President managed to stop the combat action. Boom. It was over. It could have gotten out of hand, but it didn’t. And we are grateful.”
DJT Jr. thanked me for telling him that. And I can’t really say, but I’m hopeful that at least some of that particular comment might make its way up the chain. Because I’d just as soon Make America Great without fighting any wars.
And with that, I’ll sign off.
Thank you for subscribing and reading. Best wishes…
