Australians are calling for Donald Trump Jr to be banned from the country before his planned speaking tour.
Donald Trump’s eldest son will embark on a tour in July with dates in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, presented by Turning Point Australia.
In a video he shared to social media to announce the tour, Mr Trump Jr said he had been to Australia while he was in college.
“I absolutely loved it. Incredible country, amazing people, beautiful scenery,” he said.
However, not all of the “amazing people” in Australia want Mr Trump Jr to enter the country.
A petition that calls for him to be banned is gaining traction.
At 9.30pm on Monday, an online petition calling for his ban has more than 3400 signatures.
“I do not want this racist American here yelling his divisive politics at us,” wrote one person, adding that America is a “mess” and the “fascist laws” over in the US should not be accepted in Australia.
“I don’t want the hatred and the lies that the Trump family and MAGA spread in Australia,” another person wrote.
No stranger to controversy
Mr Trump Jr has promoted conspiracy theories widely, including ones relating to Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and Joe Biden.
He was instrumental in his father’s bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election and promoted several conspiracy theories about the election.
“The best thing for America’s future is for @realDonaldTrump to go to total war over this election to expose all of the fraud, cheating, dead/no longer in state voters, that has been going on for far too long. It’s time to clean up this mess & stop looking like a banana republic!” he once tweeted.
He also once shared a meme associated with white supremacists and throughout COVID-19 promoted misinformation.
Following his father’s indictment earlier this year, he went on a rant on his podcast, called Triggered with Donald Trump Jr, and claimed the US government was “communist”.
“It’s so flagrant. It’s so crazed when even like the radical leftists of The Washington Post are out there saying it’s not really based on facts,” he said.
“If you don’t think that the weaponisation of the entire federal government against their political enemies, against the voters – half of the country approximately – as we’ve seen, if you don’t think that’s a problem, you don’t even belong in any position in government, let alone president.”
Tweet from @DonaldJTrumpJr
In a TV rant that was widely labelled as homophobic, he referred to Pete Buttigieg as “that gay guy” and insinuated he was only made Secretary of Transportation under Joe Biden to “check off a box”.
‘Keep him’
However, Mr Trump Jr appears confident that his fans will support him while he is on his tour.
“I have a huge fanbase in Australia and after speaking with some of them it’s clear the same disease of woke identity politics and cancel culture that’s crippled the US has clearly taken hold there,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“It’s not good. It is the biggest existential threat we face in the West and is literally the decay of Western society,” he said.
In the replies to his video on Twitter announcing his trip to Australia some Americans were begging Australia to “keep him”.
“Just send him somewhere in the middle of your country,” someone suggested on Twitter, saying the world would be indebted to Australia for doing so.
However, a few people on the platform expressed excitement about the son of the 45th president of the United States coming to Australia, and said they had already booked tickets.
Tour topics
Mr Trump Jr will speak about “woke identity politics” and cancel culture, touching on how, in his opinion, Western societies are in decay.
Australia has a “great MAGA fanbase”, he said in his announcement video.
“I think they [Australians] saw their rights being infringed, the insanity that went on there around COVID, and they understand the existential threat to the West that’s taken root,” he said.
“The disease of woke identity politics and cancel culture that’s crippled so much of the US has just taken root there and we need to stop it.”
Tickets will start at $89 ($59 for students); however, if people wish to they can pay more for a VIP meet-and-greet package ($295), or a backstage pass ($495), which allows people to enjoy a champagne with Mr Trump Jr after the show.
