Donald Trump Jr. triggered an avalanche of mockery for claiming that his father, Donald Trump, doesn’t need political donations.
“He doesn’t need their money,” Trump Jr. said on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) when right-wing extremist Steve Bannon asked him about his father’s appeal to the grassroots vs. the corporate interests.
“Tell me, where why is President Trump so important to the populist movement?” asked Bannon.
“Well, there’s a little bit before because he doesn’t need their money. Right? He doesn’t need their money yet other people that are running, they’ve never been anything other than a politician,” Don Jr. replied. “They need that fuel. they have no choice but to take that phone call.”
He added: “If they want the flow of money to continue, they need to act on it. And that’s the difference. That’s why you see a rebellion, frankly, from those big dollar places against Trump because they don’t have enough control.”
Don Jr. failed to acknowledge that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, including half a billion since he lost the 2020 election, from both big-money donors and corporate interests, as well as grassroots contributors, according to OpenSecrets.
According to MarketWatch, Trump raised five times more than President Joe Biden in 2020 from S&P 500 CEOs, and Forbes identified 133 billionaires or billionaire spouses who contributed to Trump in that election cycle.
As reported by multiple news outlets, some of Trump’s donors’ money has ended up in his own pockets, and some has been used to pay his legal bills.
Naturally, Twitter users had to respond. Check some of the reactions below.
Junior is asked by Bannon at CPAC why the grass roots people in the party should favor Trump over other candidates: “Because he doesn’t need their money.” pic.twitter.com/sOTxyixpBv
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 3, 2023
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Jonny Lieberman (@mt_loverman) March 3, 2023
Read the label, Junior. Suppositories are not to be taken orally.
— Christopher G. Moore (@cgmooreauthor) March 3, 2023
Cool. So no more donations, right?
— RadicalOldWoman (@RadicalOldWoman) March 3, 2023
😂He's raised more than $500M "since" the 2020 election, and he doesn't need their money?? Is Jr. saying that Trump plans to give it all back? 😜
— Steve Scrivner (@ScrivnerSteve) March 3, 2023
Why has he been asking for their money everyday for the last two years?
— colette flanigan (@FlaniganColette) March 3, 2023
Yeah, he just made those nft trading cards because he loves to cosplay
— Doug Gray (@HeyDougGray) March 3, 2023
— MoLo (@MoLo9355) March 3, 2023
Then why is he always asking for it!!
— Jo Wilson (@JoWilso99859694) March 3, 2023
