Donald Trump Jr. becomes campaign flashpoint
NEW YORK — Donald Trump is trying to run a more disciplined campaign, going easy (for him) on slip-ups and inflammatory tweets lately. His eldest son is another story.
In recent tweets, Donald Trump Jr. likened Syrian refugees to a poisoned bowl of Skittles candy, spread an incendiary story suggesting Muslim men are preying on Western women and used a cartoon character appropriated by white supremacists. He’s one of his father’s most prominent advisers.
The three adult Trump children, who are running their father’s company in his absence, have been valuable assets in the campaign. Daughter Ivanka introduces him at major events like his convention acceptance speech and last week’s rollout of a policy on child care. Sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump do frequent interviews and campaign stops and have become popular figures with donors, who often cite Trump’s kids as evidence the nominee is a good father and a good person.
Donald Trump Jr., though, has been raising eyebrows with some of his own pronouncements recently, such as a pair of tweets within 24 hours warning about refugees allowed in the U.S. In the first, he posted a tweet featuring a bowl of the candy Skittles with a warning: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful?” The tweet went on: “That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”