Donald Trump, Jr.'s first job was working for his father, earning minimum wage as a dock attendant at the Trump Castle marina. Growing up, his relationship with his  his father was all business. "When I spent time with my father it wasn't playing ball in the backyard," he told the New York Times. "I came to his office and listened to him do business or sat in on meetings."

Since joining the Trump Organization in 2001, where he is executive vice president, Trump had focused mainly on the commercial leasing side of the business. However, he also oversaw and managed some of the company's high-profile properties, such as the Trump Soho hotel condominium, which was sued in 2011 by the owners of 30 apartments over alleged fraud involving inflated sales figures. The suit was settled in 2015, with the plaintiffs receiving 90 percent of their down payments as well as their attorney fees in exchange for agreeing not to cooperate with prosecutors who were investigating Trump family members. Following Donald Trump's election as president in 2016, business at Trump Soho declined sharply until it changed its name to The Dominick and business rebounded.

A chip off the old block, Trump Jr. also has a flair for controversy and flamboyance. In 2012 Donald and brother Eric were vilified for hunting several exotic animals during a safari hunt in Zimbabwe, even being shown with a severed elephant tail and a dead leopard, after which the Trump sons refused to apologize. He has also had in a supporting role on his father's reality TV show, The Apprentice, where his role has been to stir up controversy in the board room. Since his father's election as president, Trump Jr. has pivoted to a more political role, appearing frequently as a surrogate for his father on TV and posting controversial statements on social media.

Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and marketing. Besides his role at Trump Organization, Trump is an ambassador for Operation Smile, which provides cleft-lip surgery for poor children.

He married former model Vanessa Haydon in 2005, with whom he has five children. They divorced in 2018 after he began dating former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, with whom he jointly purchased a a $9.7 million home in Jupiter, Florida.