Donald Trump Jr just stepped in it
In April, Palmer Report told you about a supposed Fox News bombshell about how documents (declassified in 2012) revealed that Osama bin Laden wanted to assassinate President Obama so that an “unprepared” Joe Biden could take over. Far from being new or damaging, this headline was a desperate repackaging of a very old story that, if anything, helps Biden more than Trump. Now, Don Jr. has breathed new craziness into the story, repackaging it again as a Father’s Day gift to Trump, succeeding only in embarrassing them both.
Don Jr.’s contribution to this aging nothingburger was his false proclamation in a YouTube interview with Trump on Thursday that Bin Laden has endorsed Biden over Trump in the 2020 election. After Trump feigned ignorance of the whole matter, Don Jr. proceeded to claim erroneously that the government “finally declassified” the documents, as if it were a guarded secret of the Obama administration. He then asked, “What does it say to you that basically the Democrat nominee for President of the United States got the posthumous Osama bin Laden endorsement?”
Trump interrupted his son on cue: “Say no more! It’s a great commercial, because it happens to be true. We speak the truth,” to which Don Jr. announced: “Well, then that’s your Father’s Day present. Congratulations!” An “exclusive premiere” of the 60-second spot followed, focusing on the lie that Bin Laden, who was killed over nine years ago, somehow picked a favorite candidate in the 2020 election. Were Bin Laden alive today (or in 2016), he may very well have preferred Trump, believing, just as Putin and others have, that a Trump presidency would best promote his cause.
In any event, all that happened was, a long time ago, Bin Laden called one of the most competent Vice Presidents in history “unprepared ” —and then the Obama-Biden team won reelection. Don Jr.’s attempt to portray Biden as unprepared, by suggesting he waffled on backing the raid on Bin Laden’s compound, falls flat. As Biden has stated many times (before finally putting the issue to rest in an October 2015 CBS “60 Minutes” interview), he supported the raid once he was convinced that Obama would ensure Bin Laden was present at the compound.
We can only imagine what Don Jr. will give Trump for Father’s Day next year. Like this year, it will probably be something fake, unpatriotic, and nasty that reminds us of the flawed characteristics this father-son team shares. Whether either one of these Trumps gets a gift at all, however, could turn out to be the bigger issue. It may depend on how reliable the prison mail system is.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month