Donald Trump Jr. Mocks Alec Baldwin After Wife Hilaria's Cultural Appropriation Scandal

Last week, Donald Trump Jr. took a shot at Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin for the [...]

By Michael Hein

Last week, Donald Trump Jr. took a shot at Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin for the recent cultural appropriation scandal that rocked their family. Trump joked about the actor who plays his father, President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, as though this new development vindicated the Trump family. Trump's input did not amuse even most commenters who have been taking shots at Hilaria.

"Alec Baldwin should play Alec Baldwin when SNL parodies his wife pretending she's Spanish for the last few decades as opposed to the basic white girl from Mass that she actually is," Trump wrote. "It would be the first funny thing Saturday Night Live has produced in years." The tweet got thousands of retweets and over 164,000 likes, but commenters were generally not amused by Trump's take on this scandal. SNL fans accused the businessman of being a sore loser over the show's treatment of his father.

For those that have not followed, the Hilaria Baldwin "scandal" has played out on social media over the last few weeks, with fans and internet sleuths debating the authenticity of Hilaria's ethnic and national identity. Hilaria hosts podcasts, makes TV appearances and posts on social media generally with a Spanish accent, promoting the assumption that she is originally from Spain. However, it has now been confirmed that she was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.

Critics are especially interested in the extent to which Hilaria has actively tried to curate the illusion that she is from Spain. The influencer went over the evidence point by point in an interview with The New York Times, published on the same day as Trump's tweet. She claimed that her accent is natural, that it fluctuates dependent on her mood, and that she did not realize how many articles and biographies online were mistakenly claiming that she was from Spain.

Still, a mound of evidence from Hilaria's prolific media career seems to hint that she was aware of and accepted the misconception about her national identity. Many accused her of a "grift," using her accent to present a more interesting persona to the public. Others mocked video clips where her accent is inconsistent and even one where she asks another Spanish-speaker for the English word for "cucumber."

Baldwin explained all of this away in general or specific terms as needed and tried to steer the interview towards a more broad conversation about social media "oversharing." She questioned what a professional influencer like herself is obligated to share with fans and how she is allowed to protect her privacy.

"The things I have shared about myself are very clear," she said. "I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since. For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like it's not enough."

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