Although many people are trying to make a fast buck by selling merchandise featuring the mug shot of former President Donald Trump, his eldest son insists he’s not one of them. He’s simply trying to help “the cause”.
Donald Trump Jr made this distinction during his Triggered podcast on Monday, saying he’d rather his dad’s supporters purchase said merch from him rather than from someone who is just “lining their own pockets”.
Not that he’s necessarily opposed to that: “I get other people have made [a] very good living doing the MAGA merch, even if”, he slyly noted, “none of the money actually goes toward the [Trump] campaign or the cause”.
But him? No, he doesn’t “feel right about profiting” from his dad’s arrest: “I’d probably actually get killed in the press, thinking about it now.”
If, however, one does want to buy some mug shot merchandise, he said, they can go to his website, where they’ll find a veritable cornucopia of shirts, posters, koozies, hoodies and coffee mugs featuring the infamous photo.
Stressing that it’s “important” to show support for his father, the younger Trump promised he would give “all of the profits” to his dad’s legal defence fund to “push back against some of the insanity, the miscarriage of justice”.
Donald Trump is currently facing 91 charges across four criminal cases, two of which stem from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The mug shot came about through the case in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump turned himself in to authorities last week.
But again, Trump Jr noted, if opportunists are “lining their own pockets”, so be it.
“That’s the nature of capitalism,” he said. “But I figured if you’re going to buy it, this is a good place to do it.”
You can hear his spiel in the video below, courtesy of MeidasTouch editor Ron Filipkowski.
Of course, many social media users were skeptical that the younger Trump was hawking his wares out of the goodness of his heart: