Donald Trump Jr doubles down on shameless transphobia – and news host does nothing to challenge him
Donald Trump Jr appeared on CBS This Morning to promote his new book. (Screen capture via YouTube)
Everyone’s least favourite son of a sitting president, Donald Trump Jr, went on a US talkshow and spewed hate against trans people, and the hosts just sat there.
Promoting his new book, Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us, he lashed out against trans athletes and asserted that his father’s administration is struggling to do its “job” because of media bias.
Yet, as he unleashed a tirade against trans people, the CBS This Morning hosts did absolutely nothing to defend the community or offer a trans-positive viewpoint.
This comes as, under the Trump presidency, hate crimes have rocketed and salvos of anti-LGBT+ legislation has been passed or are in the pipeline.
Donald Trump Jr calls trans women in sports ‘wrong’.
Trans female athletes have, in the last year, found themselves under soaring scrutiny from sporting bodies and pundits alike simply for their existence.
Regulators have been swamped by pressure about how to approach a growing debate about trans folk participating in elite sports.
Some leading sportspeople – many with anti-trans sentiments – have voiced outright bans while others have called for testosterone-reducing drugs be taken by participants.
But trans sportspeople have stood their ground about their right to compete.
Donald Trump, Jr. (R) greets his father Donald Trump. (Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images)
As the debate continues, the 41-year-old business-person ripped into trans athletes while also attacking social justice activists.
“I think we’re actually all pretty […] live and let live,” Trump Jr said. “So is my father.
“But today, you know, it’s sort of the ‘woke’ goalposts. They keep moving.
“The example I use in the book is obviously as it relates to, you know, trans women in sports.
“Identify how you want, I think it’s wonderful. I don’t care.
“When you start saying: ‘OK, I’m a man. I’ve become a woman. I’m now winning national championships, setting weightlifting world records,’ you know, displacing women who’ve worked their entire lives to get to a point in their careers, I think that’s wrong.
“And that’s the point. The goalposts never stop moving.”
His comment comes after he called trans women in sports “BS [bulls***]” and not “right”.
Donald Trump’s son calls for more ‘grownups’ in the media.
Moreover, Trump Jr minimised a significant amount of his father’s administration as he stressed the need to return to “normalcy” which he said no longer “exists today”.
He said: “When I look at the media bias, it makes it very hard for my father to do his job. For example, last weekend [Abu Bakr] Al Baghdadi, the leader and founder of ISIS.
Donald Trump Jr. arrives at Trump Tower. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“It’s an important point to make because you can’t go back to normal when The Washington Post is going around and calling the leader of ISIS, a guy that lit people on fire in cages who throws homosexuals off of buildings is ‘an austere religious scholar’.
“You need some grownups in the room there, too because that’s not working.”
However, his father’s “job” is one that has resulted in vulnerable LGBT+ migrants facing abuse at the Mexican border and countries with severely anti-queer legislation receiving aid.
PinkNews has contacted CBS for comment.
Watch the full interview here:
