November 21, 2021

Donald Trump Jr. Promoted Giving a New AR-15 to Kyle Rittenhouse

The since deleted tweet was part of a far-right celebration over the killer’s acquittal.

Donald Trump Jr. speaks January 6, 2021, in Washington at a rally in support of Donald Trump. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Not long after a jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges on Friday, Donald Trump Jr. chimed in with support for the teenager, who shot and killed two people and wounded another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.

The verdict, which came after a tense trial in which Rittenhouse claimed self-defense, has been loudly praised among conservatives as a vindication for Second Amendment rights and criticized by many others, who worry it will embolden gun-toting men to take the law into their own hands.

Trump Jr. wasted no time following the verdict, going on Twitter to amplify a far-right gun group’s campaign to send Rittenhouse a free rifle as a sort of congratulatory award.

“Gun Owners of America is sending Kyle Rittenhouse an AR-15. Sign the card in support of Kyle,” Trump Jr. wrote in a since-deleted tweet, urging his 7.1 million followers to add their name to a virtual card showing their appreciation of Rittenhouse. The gun lobbying group had stated that the AR-15 was a “thank you” gift to Rittenhouse “for being a warrior for gun owners and self defense rights across the country!” In another tweet, Trump Jr. shared an article that referred to Rittenhouse as a “badass” for the “near flawless” way he handled his gun on the night he shot three people. “Worth the read,” Trump Jr. wrote.

A screenshot of Trump Jr.’s since-deleted tweet

via HuffPost

Rittenhouse’s own defense attorney, Mark Richards, slammed Trump Jr. for backing such a publicity stunt. “He’s an idiot,” Richards told Insider. “I don’t have to expand on that because it speaks for itself.”

Many pro-Trump voices from the GOP rushed to praise and promote Rittenhouse. As my colleague Tom Philpott recently detailed, some Republican members of Congress, including Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz and Madison Cawthorn, have excitedly offered Rittenhouse internships.

“There’s a lot of people trying to profit on this, and I don’t think people should,” Richards further commented about the politicians’ job offers. “They want to trade on his celebrity and I think it’s disgusting.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate