Like father, like son

You know how they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? Well, in the case of Donald Trump Jr., the old saying is right. This spoiled white boy is just like his father and his grandfather: a bully, a cad, a snot-nosed insult artist.

I happened across Junior’s Twitter page. Now, before I proceed, let me explain a little about presidential children. I’ve seen a lot of them, from John-John and Caroline through Nixon’s daughters, Ford’s model-handsome sons, Amy Carter, Reagan’s soap-operatically dysfunctional brood, George H.W.’s kids, Chelsea Clinton, George W. Bush’s daughters (who I kind of like) and Obama’s wonderful daughters. These White House children shared one thing in common: a sense of dignity and decorum. They were removed from the public sphere, and didn’t engage in partisan politics (except for the odious, ambitious Maureen Reagan). That is, I think, as it should be: leave the politicking to your father. Stay above the fray and set an example.

So when I saw Junior’s rantings, I was shocked. I never much liked the two elder Trump sons. They seemed like mean rich boys: spoiled, entitled brats, raised in the lap of luxury, with little knowledge or concern of the problems of Black people, poor people, gay people, immigrants, the handicapped, working women. When those notorious pictures of Trump’s sons on a wild animal-slaughtering safari were published, this one of Junior particularly galled me:

He has obviously murdered a great elephant and sliced off its tail, which he displays with a lewd, proud grin, as though he has just done something praiseworthy. What’s that all about? Why slice off its tail? Is that some kind of castration fantasy? I Googled “Why do hunters cut off the tails of elephants?” and learned that

(a) They take the hairs at the end of the tail and make a bracelet out of it

(b) it’s a longstanding tradition that the tail provides ownership

(c) it is a trophy! Tribal leaders/chiefs would have them as a sign of power & leadership

Well, isn’t that special? After taking the elephant’s life, Junior couldn’t even let it rest in peace. He had to further bully and mutilate it. Just like Daddy. Melania tells us that, when someone attacks Trump, “he will punch back 10 times harder.” In Junior’s case, when he kills something, he rekills it again afterwards—the ritual of a serial torturer who gets his rocks off by maiming.

I doubt whether the elephant “attacked” Junior. It was peacefully foraging in its home when Junior ambushed it. Junior wasn’t defending himself: he flew to Africa on a private jet with the intention of killing innocent great beasts and then bragging about it. This is just an insecure, callow young man, raised without moral scruples, acting out a Great White Hunter fantasy. Perhaps he was trying to compete with his father and show him what a strong, brave son he is. But all that this foul deed proves is that Donald Trump Junior is a smarmy bastard, with no respect for the rights of animals.

If a man doesn’t respect the right of a great innocent animal to live, he’s not likely to respect the rights of the humans around him. We know that the father is a bully whose favorite pastime is to insult his “enemies.” One might have wished that the son and namesake would decide to live in a more graceful, respectful manner, but no: On his Twitter feed, here’s Donald indulging in the same cheap, tawdry, immature name-calling as the father. Here are the same racist, misogynist insults of Hillary and Obama,

the implied death threats to liberals,

The gratuitous, childish insults of his father’s critics.

“Jeff Flake? What’s in a name? #FLAKEnews

Here is the pathetic attempt to distract the nation’s attention from the Mueller investigation:

“Confession-I was wrong about the Russians messing w/ election. Looks like they did. Just that HRC and DNC paid to make it happen. Ruh Roh!”

Well, you can check out the page for yourself, if you can stand it. It’s really pathetic.

The irony of Trump and his family is that the very people who support him the most probably wouldn’t want him in their family (except for the money). They would never admit it, but even the vilest of the Breitbart white supremacists privately know that Trump, Senior is a bastard and that Trump, Junior is a schmuck. One of the things I’ve always liked about my Democratic Presidents is that their children were role models. I don’t think anyone would possibly say that about Donald Trump Jr.