Donald Trump Jr. Blasts ‘Rioting, Looting and Vandalism’ in RNC Speech

Donald Trump Jr. delivered a scathing speech in support of his father during the opening night of the Republican National Convention. In an address that painted a grim outlook should Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden be elected, Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, also blasted the “rioting, looting, and vandalism” that has occurred across the nation in response to the police deaths of Black Americans, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the recent shooting of Jacob Blake.

Speaking from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., Trump Jr. addressed the months-long protests that are still taking place across the country. Those protests were sparked in response to Floyd’s killing, though they have continued, and sparked anew, amid multiple other police shootings and killings. Echoing his father, Trump Jr. slammed leaders of Democratic-run cities for failing to maintain order and squash out the protests. He claimed that it is a double standard that Christians cannot worship in church during the coronavirus pandemic, which he claimed his father “acted quickly” to contain, while “rioting, looting and vandalism” is happening.

“Anarchists have been flooding our streets and Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down,” he said. “Small businesses across America — many of them minority owned — are being torched by mobs. The Democrat mayors pretend it’s not happening. They actually called it ‘a summer of love.’ That’s why we must put an end to racism, and we must ensure that any police officer who abuses their power is held accountable.”

Although he called the death of Floyd, who died in police custody after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd said repeatedly that he couldn’t breathe, a “disgrace,” Trump Jr. also defended law enforcement. He said that most police are “American heroes” that deserve “our deepest appreciation.”

Elsewhere in his address, Trump Jr. directly targeted Biden, dubbing him “the Loch Ness Monster of the swamp after his nearly half-century in public office. He also dubbed the Democratic presidential nominee “Beijing Biden,” as he “is so weak on China that the Intelligence Community recently assessed that the Chinese Communist Party favors Biden.”