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Donald Trump Jr's Disastrous Book Launch May Seem Funny - but There's a Very Dark Side to the Booing

By Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian UK

12 October 19

It’s easy to laugh, but we have to recognise a stark reality. This administration has emboldened the far right so much they’re now coming after Jr

he intolerant left is at it again. I regret to inform you that, in yet another case of political correctness gone mad, the woke brigade has shut down free speech and censored a courageous conservative intellectual. Over the weekend, Donald Trump Jr was heckled off stage while promoting his new book – Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us – at the University of California.

Oh, hang on a minute. It looks like it wasn’t the hateful left that silenced the president’s eldest son; it was his own supporters. You see, shortly after Sunday’s event kicked off, Trump Jr informed the audience that there wouldn’t be a Q&A because leftwingers would inevitably twist his words. The lack of dialogue enraged a far-right faction of the crowd who believe the Trump administration isn’t anti-immigrant enough and were eager to challenge Jr on this.

“We wanted to ask questions about immigration and about Christianity,” two of the protesters, who identify as American Firsters, told the Guardian, “but [Trump Jr] didn’t want to face those questions.”

The booing got so bad that Jr’s girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, had to step in and save him. “You’re not making your parents proud by being rude and disruptive,” Guilfoyle yelled at the audience. She added: “I bet you engage and go on online dating because you’re impressing no one here to get a date in person.” Which is; 1) dreadful syntax and 2) a quaint insult to throw at college students in 2019. It’s a bit like yelling: “I bet you kids use electronic mail because you are impressing nobody with your sub-par cursive.” It is also not clear why Guilfoyle thought people had turned up to a book launch to pick up dates. Despite her witty barbs, the crowd would not be silenced; eventually Trump Jr stormed off the stage.

It is tempting to have a good laugh about the disastrous book launch – and, believe you me, I have. Ultimately, however, there is nothing funny about the fact that the Trump administration has emboldened so many bigots that Maga-hat-wearing supporters are now coming after Jr for not being extreme enough. There has been a 30% increase in the number of US hate groups over the past four years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a trend the civil rights organisation blames on Trump’s radicalising influence. Dangerous fringe groups have crept out of the shadows and are shouting at the top of their lungs.

Trump Jr’s book tour is also a reminder of the right’s limitless hypocrisy. One of the big themes of Triggered is, to quote Trump Jr: “A victimhood complex has taken root in the American left”. But let’s recap the situation shall we? Trump Jr (who describes himself as “hyper-rational” and “stoic”) has just published a book complaining that he is being silenced by the left. He is touring the US talking about how he is being silenced. He has been invited on primetime TV to talk about being silenced. And he is complaining about being silenced to his 4 million followers on Twitter. Maybe I am missing something, but that doesn’t exactly sound like being silenced to me.

And it is not just Trump Jr who loves to play the victim. A delusional victimhood complex is at the very heart of rightwing ideology. Immigrants are invading and stealing all the jobs. Jews are taking over the world. #MeToo is intent on destroying innocent men’s lives. Gays are destroying family values. The right never see themselves as racists or bigots; they see themselves as victims who are fighting back against the imminent extinction of western civilisation. Forget being stoic or silenced; they are constantly triggered and they never shut up.