Donald Trump Jr, the self-described “general in meme wars”, had a rare about-face as he deleted social media posts that openly mocked the attack on Paul Pelsoi.
On Sunday evening, just two days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was forced to undergo surgery after being attacked at the couple’s San Francisco home by a hammer-wielding intruder, Mr Trump shared a meme on his personal Instagram account that made light of the attack that left the 82-year-old with a fractured skull.
The meme shared by Mr Trump included a picture of a pair of Hanes underwear alongside a hammer, with the caption that read: “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”
Critics of the conservative antagonist’s cruel sense of humour were quick on Monday to pile on and condemn the post as “dangerous”, “sick” and “homophobic”.
“One of the most vile things is people like Donald Trump Jr now mocking 82 year old Paul Pelosi after being beaten with a hammer by a MAGA terrorist,” tweeted Dean Obeidallah, an American lawyer and host of radio show The Dean Obeidallah Show.
“Donald Trump Jr. joking about the assassination attempt on Nancy Pelosi. Republicans are sick and dangerous,” tweeted another online observer of the controversial meme.
The online provoker seemed to initially double down on the post, as he later posted another mocking meme that seemed to acknowledge the backlash he was receiving from those who viewed his message in poor taste.
In that meme, since deleted from his Instagram, he shared an altered South Park screenshot that showed two men having a sexual relationship with a hammer beside the bed, with one of the men saying in a word bubble: “Ah yes, officer, I’m being attacked”.
Mr Trump Jr, seeming to address the online blowback, wrote in the accompanying caption: “Dear fact checkers this has nothing at all to do with anything going on in the news and simply posting a cartoon of what appears to be an altered South Park scene.”
By Monday afternoon, however, both offending posts had been scrubbed from his public Instagram profile.
The exact timing of the posts getting deleted was unclear, but it seemed to arrive sometime after federal charges were announced against the suspect in the attack, David DePape, which included charges of assault on the immediate family member of a federal official and attempted kidnapping of a federal official.
Despite being removed from his Instagram account, one of the offending memes – the Halloween costume post – remained in full view on his personal Twitter account as of Tuesday morning.
Online observers continued to pile on the post and decry it as inappropriate, particularly considering the news that the suspected attacker had stated, according to the criminal complaint released on Monday, he attacked Mr Pelosi “with intent to retaliate against” the speaker “on account of the performance of official duties”.
“DePape stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he was going to break ‘her kneecaps’,” the complaint said. “DePape was certain that Nancy would not have told the ‘truth.’ In the course of the interview, DePape articulated he viewed Nancy as the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party.”
Mr DePape was expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors have charged him separately with assault and attempted kidnapping. He is not yet scheduled for a court appearance in the federal case.
The state charges are punishable by a prison sentence of 13 years to life. The federal charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 50 years, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the charges.
