Donald Trump Jr claims his dad shouldn’t have been booted from Twitter as he hasn’t ‘killed homosexuals’
Donald Trump Jr’s rant against the transport secretary has been watched more than 400,000 times (Getty/ Alex Wong)
Donald Trump Jr has claimed his dad should not have been permanently suspended from Twitter because he hasn’t “killed homosexuals”.
The lame duck US president’s @RealDonaldTrump account was initially suspended from Twitter on Wednesday (6 January), after the social media platform decided a video he posted praising armed, extremist rioters at the US Capitol, describing them as “very special”.
The platform was clear that if Trump continued to violate its guidelines, a permanent suspension would follow. Which is exactly what happened.
After being allowed to return to Twitter Friday (8 January), Trump tweeted: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Shortly afterwards he posted again: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
His account was then permanently suspended, and Twitter said in a statement that his latest tweets were “likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on 6 January, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so”.
The next day his son Donald Trump Jr, who still has a Twitter account, tweeted: “So the ayatollah [Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei], and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc… but The President of the United States should be permanently suspended.
“[Chinese communist leader] Mao would be proud.”
So the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc… but The President of the United States should be permanently suspended.
Mao would be proud.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021
On the same day as the outgoing US president’s Twitter account was permanently suspended, Iranian supreme leader Khamenei had tweets removed by the social media platform in which he said coronavirus vaccines made in the US and the UK were “untrustworthy”.
Although Khamenei is undoubtedly a homophobe who has overseen human rights abuses in Iran, he does not seem to have made any threats or incitements to violence on Twitter.
Therefore, it is unclear how his actions and Twitter account are relevant to Trump’s, who on the day of the riots where five people were killed, told his supporters that the election result was an “egregious assault on our democracy” before calling on them to “walk down to the Capitol”.
so you agree. your dad acts like a dictator https://t.co/3VkGOPDmqH pic.twitter.com/4nDE9Bxcl3— elias kdin 🇵🇸 (@shostabrovich8) January 9, 2021
One Twitter user wrote: “Dude, TOTALLY! My uncle got arrested once for robbing a 7-Eleven and beating the clerk half to death. And they arrested HIM!
“Even though there were dictators and mass murderers all over the world in like other countries and stuff!! It was nuts!!”
Others pointed out that simply not “killing homosexuals” was a fairly low bar.
One person wrote: “Do you really want to say that your father can do and write whatever he will as long as he does not proclaim genocide or kill homosexuals?”
