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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Imogen Braddick

Donald Trump Jr slams Barbie's new 'campaign team' doll set featuring fundraiser, voter and black presidential candidate

Donald Trump Jr has slammed a move from Barbie to release a "campaign team" set, suggesting the doll is an election cheat.

Barbie unveiled the new range to "expose girls to public leadership roles and pique their interest in shaping the future".

The set, which includes dolls of different ethnicities, features the roles of a campaign - a campaign manager, a fundraiser, a voter and a presidential candidate, who is black.

But in his first post since a temporary ban from Twitter, Mr Trump Jr took the opportunity to criticise the new doll launch.

"'Voter' Barbie must be a Democrat because she’s already wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and yet she’s got another ballot in her hand," he wrote.

President Donald Trump has frequently raised fears over voter fraud ahead of the November presidential election. Last month he claimed foreign countries will "print millions of ballot papers" to rig the election.

Mr Trump Jr made the remark about the new dolls after Twitter banned him from the site for 12 hours over a post containing a video clip discussing the benefits of hydroxychloroquine. Twitter said the post had violated its Covid-19 misinformation rules.

This week, Donald Trump again defended the use of hydroxychloroquine to combat coronavirus, contradicting US public health officials.

He argued the malaria medication was only rejected as a treatment for the virus because he had suggested it.

The new doll set was released this week (Mattel)

Those behind the set said it "highlights dolls of different ethnicities, including a black candidate, to remind all girls they can lead from the polls to the podium".

Lisa McKnight from Toy company Mattel said: "With less than a third of elected leaders in the US being women, and black women being even less represented in these positions, we designed the Barbie campaign team with a diverse set of dolls to show all girls they can raise their voices.

"Our goal is to remove barriers to leadership by giving girls the tools to imagine and play out their future roles."

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