So it seems like Don Jr’s book tour is going well pic.twitter.com/m0mZQQMHSi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 11, 2019
Campus lefties protest avowed fascists & Neo-Nazis. Right-wing media spins it to make it sound like conservatives are under attack. Jr, Kirk, Owens et al build astroturf groups under guise of free speech promotion. And they get roasted by the Nazis they came to protect/fleece.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 11, 2019
Sure, it’s perfect as an easy punch line: Don the Lesser, his girlfriend/handler, and Charlie ‘Diaper Boy’ Kirk fall victim to the narcissism of small differences, but from rightwingers this time! However, when you pay attention to the ‘activists’, it’s uglier and potentially far more dangerous… as always, when it comes to the Trump “brand”…
Donald Trump Jr becomes a collateral casualty of the recently-declared war by the far right against the only-far-right-adjacent student group Turning Point USA.
— Mark Pitcavage (@egavactip) November 11, 2019
… At first, Trump and Guilfoyle tried to ignore the discontent, which originated with a fringe group of America Firsters who believe the Trump administration has been taken captive by a cabal of internationalists, free-traders, and apologists for mass immigration.
When the shouting would not subside, Trump Jr tried – and failed – to argue that taking questions from the floor risked creating soundbites that leftwing social media posters would abuse and distort. Nobody was buying that.
In minutes, the entire argument put forward by the president’s son – that he was willing to engage in dialogue but that it was the left that refused to tolerate free speech – crumbled…
The fiasco pointed to a factional rift on the Trump-supporting conservative right that has been growing rapidly in recent weeks, particularly among “zoomers” – student-age activists. On one side are one of the sponsors of Trump Jr’s book tour, Turning Point USA, a campus conservative group with a track record of bringing provocative rightwing speakers to liberal universities.
On the other side are far-right activists – often referred to as white supremacists and neo-Nazis, although many of them reject such labels – who believe in slamming the door on all immigrants, not just those who cross the border without documents, and who want an end to America’s military and diplomatic engagement with the wider world.