A minister in Australia’s left-wing Labor government wasted no time in sneering at Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday after the son of the former U.S. president canceled a planned speaking tour Down Under.
The younger Trump had been booked on a three-day tour of Australia that was scheduled to begin in Sydney on Sunday. The speaking tour included Nigel Farage, architect of the successful UK Brexit vote.
Promoters said the eldest son of the former U.S. president was now deferring visits to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane because his Australian visa was only approved barely 24 hours before he was to board a flight.
“It seems America isn’t the only country that makes it difficult for the Trumps,” the group Turning Point Australia, a local non-profit in favour of “free markets and limited government” said in a Facebook post.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, one of the highest-ranking members in the leftist government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said Trump had been granted a visa and mockingly claimed poor ticket sales was the reason he called off his visit.
Member for Hotham Clare O’Neil during the opening of the House of Representatives at Parliament House, on June 18, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)
She made the cancelation personal when she sneered at him on social media and accused Trump Jnr. of “trying to blame the Australian government for his poor ticket sales and cancelled tour.”
“Geez, Donald Trump Jr is a bit of a sore loser,” O’Neil wrote.
“His dad lost an election fair and square – but he says it was stolen. Now he’s trying to blame the Australian government for his poor ticket sales and cancelled tour.
“Donald Trump Jr has been given a visa to come to Australia. He didn’t get cancelled. He’s just a big baby, who isn’t very popular.”
The tweets were posted about 11.54am. But by 1.23pm, the messages were gone.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator James Paterson, a member of the conservative coalition opposition, was quick to take on O’Neil and defend Donald Trump Jr. after the minister hastily retreated.
It’s good to see these childish tweets have now been deleted. The Minister should leave the woke tweets to Labor backbenchers and get back to focusing on the serious national security challenges facing Australia. pic.twitter.com/2k1zU94ij9
— James Paterson (@SenPaterson) July 6, 2023
Nigel Farage was also happy to weigh into the furore.
My statement on the postponement of the @DonaldJTrumpJr tour of Australia due to a late visa. We will be back! pic.twitter.com/9jcsp2geac
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 6, 2023
A spokesperson for Trump Jr. told Daily Mail Australia they would not “dignify the Minister’s tweets with a comment.”
“Suffice to say she is entitled to her opinion and freedom of speech, no matter how idiotic,” the spokesperson said, happy to avoid going down the same low path as the leftist Albanese government minister.
Albanese himself has previously taken personal jabs at the ex-president.
ABC News reports Albanese, still opposition leader at the time, said Trump had “encouraged” the January 6 events in 2021. He labelled it a direct assault on “the rule of law and democracy.”
The Labor leader also suggested Trump’s foreign policy approach “saw the first steps in a retreat by the U.S. from its historical role as leader of the post-war international order”.
File/Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese departs for the QUAD Leaders’ meeting in Tokyo in May, 2022, soon after his election. (David Gray/Getty Images)
Donald Trump Jr. was scheduled to appear in Sydney on July 9 for a tour which promised to discuss “the disease of woke identity politics and cancel culture.”
Turning Point said they had sold 8,000 tickets for the events planned July 9-11, advising buyers to keep their tickets and promised new Australian dates for Trump’s speaking tour would be announced soon.