Donald Trump Jr. compared the sacrifices of fallen troops to those his family made to get to the White House in his new book.
You just can’t make this up.
Don Jr., the son of a man who allegedly escaped the Vietnam War draft by obtaining a bogus doctor’s note claiming he had bone spurs in his foot, recalled the day before his father’s inauguration when President-elect Trump brought his family to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
“I rarely get emotional, if ever. I guess you’d call me hyper-rational, stoic,” Don Jr. wrote in his new book Triggered. “Yet, as we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country.”
Standing there surrounded by the graves of more than 400,000 troops and their families, Don Jr. wrote, he could not help but think of his own families “sacrifices.”
“In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we’d already suffered as a family and about all the sacrifices we’d have to make to help my father succeed — voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were ‘profiting off the office,’” he wrote.
“Frankly, it was a big sacrifice, costing us millions and millions of dollars annually . . . Of course, we didn’t get any credit whatsoever from the mainstream media, which now does not surprise me at all,” he added.
US veterans and the families of soldiers killed in combat today accused Trump of not showing proper respect.
Those who lie in Arlington Cemetery sacrificed for the country and the common good of its people. Don Jr. and every vile member of the Trump family are not fit to ever set foot there. #BasketOfDeplorables
— @DanaBird (@DMNCBIRD) November 8, 2019
My grandparents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. My grandfather, who I’m named after, served in World War II. I could not help but think about them as I read this section of Trump Jr.’s book and wrote this article. Money is the last thing I think about while visiting. https://t.co/xuFq0u9Iwm
— John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) November 8, 2019
My grandparents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
My grandfather was a paratrooper who fought Nazis and was wounded in the line of duty in WWII. He rests in that hallowed ground because he was awarded the Silver Star for valor.
How dare you. https://t.co/1Ogl8JaRg4
— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) November 8, 2019
Eight men I served with are buried in Section 60 of Arlington. I visit them monthly. Even if Donald JR. lived a 1,000 years he will never even get close to being as good and honorable as they were. Sacrifice is only a word to the Trumps. https://t.co/47eIc9SBPg
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) November 7, 2019
Glad to know all my friends buried at Arlington National Cemetery from recent conflict could help remind @DonaldJTrumpJr of all the sacrifices his family has made in, “voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals.” #TYFYS https://t.co/05VOTU0JLS
— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) November 8, 2019
Hi @DonaldJTrumpJr. When I visited Arlington National Cemetery, I didn’t think about the sacrifices anyone in my family made, except for my cousin who served in Vietnam, came home with PTSD and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
How many Trumps have served, btw?
— *you’re (@RKJ65) November 8, 2019
Neither Trump nor any of his children have served in the military.
Don Jr. did not mention that his father broke with decades of precedent by retaining ownership of his company and continuing to profit from international business ventures.
Don Jr.’s sense of victimhood was also an ironic twist in a book — that is effectively cashes in on his newfound relevance — in which he writes that a “victimhood complex has taken root in the American left.”
His father later plugged the book on Twitter, benefiting his son even further by reaching the president’s 66 million followers.
Much of the book finds the son of the most powerful man in the world complaining that his family is the victim of unfair attacks.
In one passage, Don Jr. refutes critics who have called his father “racist” by pointing out that Trump allowed him and Eric to play with Michael Jackson as children and let him go on vacation with former NFL star Herschel Walker.
Considering “all the things my father has been called, particularly a ‘racist,’ it sure sounds odd that he’d let his son vacation with a black man or hang out with Michael Jackson, doesn’t it?” he wrote. “If he’s a racist, he’s sure not very good at it.”
Don Jr. even compared former special counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation, which was ordered by Trump-appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after extensive evidence of the campaign’s contacts with Russians during the 2016 election, to the FBI’s smear campaign against civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.
“Even now there are forces deep inside our government trying to bury evidence of wrongdoing against my father,” he wrote. “If those people have a hand in writing the history of the Russia hoax — and believe me, they will try — they will say that the Mueller investigation was based on real evidence and that Donald Trump and his administration really did commit obstruction of justice.”
The Mueller investigation extensively detailed numerous instances of possible obstruction of justice by the president.