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Trump Says Bin Laden Endorsed Biden

On a special Father's Day episode of his YouTube show, Don Jr. sat down with his dad to smear Joe Biden.
June 18, 2020
Trump Says Bin Laden Endorsed Biden

What do you get the president of the United States—the man who has everything—for Father’s Day?

If you are Donald Trump Jr. the answer is actually kind of obvious: You smear Joe Biden.

On Thursday night, Don Jr.’s campaign YouTube show, TRIGGERED, aired a Very Special Episode about Father’s Day. The intro rolled classy black and white still photos of the Don and his pops together in the White House over the orchestral sounds of violins, horns, and the gentle cadence of a drum. But this is Don Jr., the self-proclaimed “General in the Meme Wars” who recently compared Biden to a pedophile, we’re talking about. While the chassis might look like The West Wing, under the hood it’s pure Reddit.

After dispensing with some small talk about how NFL star quarterback Drew Brees “will regret” apologizing for his comments about national anthem protests, Don Jr. told his father he had found “documents that were taken in the Osama bin Laden raid” that were recently declassified and showed

that he wanted to assassinate President Obama because it would put Joe Biden in charge, and essentially, he’s so grossly incompetent it would lead to the destruction of America.

As Don Jr. was speaking a chyron flashed on the screen reading “Bin Laden for Biden.”

There was no pause to reflect on the horrors of bin Laden’s terrorism or how terrible it is for an American president to be targeted for assassination. And this isn’t actually a Don Jr. discovery—though the idea of a montage sequence where DJTJ is sitting alone in an archive room, surrounded by stacks of paper, diligently deciphering al Qaeda intelligence is definitely memeworthy. The Washington Post reported all of this back in 2012.

Don Jr. had the money shot for his dad. Staring firmly, unblinkingly, into his father’s eyes, Don Jr. intoned:

What does it say to you that, basically, the Democrat nominee for president of the United States got the posthumous Osama bin Laden endorsement?

To which the president of the United States replied, “It says to me, I didn’t know that. And, it says to me we are immediately going to make a commercial out of that if that’s true.”

“It’s true,” Don Jr. replied. He began to stammer on, but his father cut him off. “By the way, say no more, it’s a great commercial,” President Trump said.

“Well then, that’s your Father’s Day present, congratulations,” Don Jr. replied.

And then, the interview cut straight to a Trump campaign-produced “exclusive premiere” for a commercial about—you guessed it—Osama bin Laden’s “endorsement” of Joe Biden.

The people at Conservative Treehouse are gonna need a cigarette.


In a way, you have to admire the Trump family for being so on-brand that even their Father’s Day “special” is an infomercial for a new attack ad. Because, of course.

Don Jr. asked his dad a couple more questions: whether he approved of his beard and if information about alien life forms would ever be declassified. Coronavirus deaths were not mentioned. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book never came up. Not a word was uttered about the new Fox News poll showing Trump down 12 points to Biden.

President Trump landed some more talking points about how it would be “bedlam” if Biden won the election, certain to lead to a terrible economic crisis. (Worse than, I don’t know, the one we’re already in?)

And then, just like that, the show was over. As the closing music swelled, President Trump said to someone off screen. “I think he did a good job.” The two of them got up. Don Jr. affectionately swatted his father with his notes. “Good to see you,” the son said.

The smear was delivered; the transaction was complete. Both men were pleased.

Like father, like son.

Amanda Carpenter

Amanda Carpenter is an author, a former communications director to Sen. Ted Cruz, and a former speechwriter to Sen. Jim DeMint. She was formerly a Bulwark political columnist.