Donald Trump Jr. backs Inna Vernikov for NYC Council in nasty GOP primary

Brooklyn City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov has landed a potentially key endorsement from a big backer — Donald Trump Jr. — in her nasty Republican primary battle.

Donald Jr. praised Vernikov as a MAGA fighter in a new campaign video as she seeks re-election, slamming her opponent, Democrat-turned Republican Ari Kagan, as a “hack and fake Republican.”

Vernikov and Kagan are battling to represent the heavily Jewish 48th council district in southern Brooklyn that covers Gravesend, Coney Island-Sea Gate, Brighton Beach, Midwood, Madison, Sheepshead Bay Manhattan Beach and Gerritsen Beach.

“The constituents of Council District 48 are incredibly lucky to have Inna Vernikov — someone who, like our president, is a fighter who never backs down in the fight against the radical left’s attempt to destroy New York City. And they tried hard,” President Trump’s eldest son said in the ad.

“Inna has fought, fought and fought, and we want to make sure a political establishment hack and fake Republican doesn’t succeed in his dangerous attempt to take away one of the strongest fighters we have in New York City,” Donald Jr. said.

“Let’s keep the MAGA movement strong and together, only vote Inna. Get out there, and make it happen, guys.”

There is little question President Trump is a fan of Vernikov himself. The councilwoman met the president in 2022 and later released a photo of the pair standing together, smiling, with Trump flashing a thumb’s up.

Kagan, a former councilman, switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2022, saying his party had swung too far to the left. He lost his seat in a race against Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan in the neighboring 47th District in 2023 after a redistricting.

Vernikov, 40, describes herself as a “Ukrainian-born American Jew.”

She was first elected in 2021, defeating the Democratic candidate, Steven Saperstein, in a landslide.

On the council, she has accused CUNY and other college officials of failing to crack down on rising antisemitism on their campuses and slammed Russian aggression in Ukraine.

She stirred controversy when she was caught on camera with a firearm in her waistband while observing an anti-Israel rally at Brooklyn College in 2023. A gun charge against her was dismissed after prosecutors said they couldn’t cannot prove that the weapon was “capable of firing bullets.”

When the NYPD recovered the gun, it was both unloaded and “inoperable,” missing the “recoil spring assembly” that would have allowed it to fire bullets, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said at the time.

Vernikov had a concealed carry permit, but it is illegal in New York to carry a firearm at sensitive locations such as protests or on school grounds.

The 5’3″ conservative firebrand has taken self-defense classes in the skills of Krav Maga — a martial art developed for the Israel Defense Force that combines judo, karate, boxing, wrestling and aikido.

Considered a rising star in the Republican Party, Vernikov was a keynote speaker at the 2022 state GOP convention.

Kagan, 58, was born in Minsk, Belarus, and immigrated to New York City after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He has worked as a Russian language journalist, television and radio host.

Kagan dismissed the Donald Trump Jr. endorsement.

“I don’t think he knows the details of local Republican politics. Inna has been an absentee council person,” Kagan said.