Twitter Is Letting Trump Jr. Have It For Comparing The Border Wall To Zoo Enclosures
Well, it's safe to say Donald Trump Jr. hasn't turned over a new leaf in 2019. He delivered yet another controversial comment on Wednesday, Jan. 9, when he shared an Instagram post that compared his father's proposed border wall with zoo enclosures. Obviously, some people aren't too happy that he seemingly compared immigrants to zoo animals (can you blame them?) and are taking to Twitter to call him out over his choice of words. These tweets about Donald Trump Jr. comparing the border wall to zoo fences are just some of many that are going in on the president's oldest son.
First, the post: In a message shared to his Instagram Story, which has since either been deleted or disappeared (but not before some of us took a screenshot of it), Trump Jr. wrote: "You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo? Because walls work." Elite Daily reached out to the Trump Organization for any further comment of or clarification on Trump Jr.'s post, but did not immediately receive a reply. A spokesperson for Trump Jr. told The Hill the post was "strictly about illustrating the danger and violence that comes with unsecured borders." The representative added, "Anyone insinuating otherwise is simply attempting to create a phony controversy out of thin air to distract from Don’s point that walls equal safety."
Trump, who once compared Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles, met widespread criticism in the Twitterverse for the comment.
"If I could condense the nearly six-hundred-year-old history of racist ideas down to three words, they would be animals, humans, and walls," wrote author and professor Ibram X. Kendi. "We were animals. They were humans. The 'humans' build 'walls' to protect themselves from the 'animals.'"
Oof.
Trump Jr. was seemingly trying to reinforce comments his father made in a national address on Tuesday, Jan. 8. That evening, the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office about a "humanitarian crisis" at the U.S. southern border. In his remarks, President Donald Trump blamed illegal immigration for alleged influxes of drugs and crime, and claimed that the country is out of space to hold any more immigrants. There appeared to be no sign that he plans on backing down from his $5 billion request for wall funding, even though Democrats have repeatedly stated that they aren't giving him a dollar more than the $1.3 billion they've offered for border fencing and barriers.
In previous attempts to defend his desire for border security, President Trump also referred to immigrants as animals who posed a threat to the United States. Back in May of 2018, during a meeting with California officials, he said: “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in, we’re stopping a lot of them, but we’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are."
President Trump added, per The Hill, "These aren’t people. These are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a rate that’s never happened before." The White House did not immediately respond to Elite Daily's request for additional comment.
With that, I guess it's safe to say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But man, it might be in their best interest to stay away from comments like these. Just saying.
