Don Lemon Draws Trump Backlash as His Show Pauses to Joke About the President & His Supporters
Donald Trump Jr. was upset Tuesday — on behalf of Trump supporters, he said — over a clip from CNN that showed anchor Don Lemon laughing at a guest’s joke about President Donald Trump‘s geography skills followed by mockery of some Trump voters.
The viral moment came as Lemon was interviewing a panel about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent, profane blow-up at NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly in which he challenged her to find Ukraine on a map after he reportedly said, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?”
(Ukraine is at the center of President Trump’s impeachment trial for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.)
The guests on Lemon’s show, former Republican strategist Rick Wilson and New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, cracked themselves up with jokes about hypothetical Trump supporters after Wilson asserted that the president himself wouldn’t be able to find Ukraine on a map.
Wilson said that Pompeo “also knows deep within his heart that Donald Trump couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter ‘U’ and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it.”
The quip caused Lemon to begin laughing as Wilson said Pompeo’s anger was, in part, a strategy to appeal to the “credulous boomer rube demo that backs Donald Trump.”
Ali joined in as he and Wilson imitated these Trump supporters, angry about “you elitists with your geography and your maps.”
The segment received backlash from conservatives online, including the president himself who tweeted that Lemon was “the dumbest man on television.”
Don Jr., 42, jumped in as well, saying he was speaking up for his dad’s supporters.
“[These] people make me sick!!!” he wrote in an Instagram post sharing the CNN clip.
Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!). https://t.co/iQXCc7lvCt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2020
Don Jr. is no stranger to defending his dad or to making headlines for his own controversial comments, and Trump detractors are no stranger to making fun of him for it.
Since President Trump launched a political career, Don Jr. has become one of his most outspoken surrogates — often adopting the same divisive social-media style.
Last year Don Jr. published a part-memoir, part-polemic about his dad called Triggered. The cover quickly became a meme for liberals online.
In New York City, copies of it were also trollingly swapped out with a new cover that read Daddy, Please Love Me.
For Thanksgiving last year, Don Jr. encouraged his followers to take video of themselves picking fights with non-conservative family members.
“Have some fun with this guys,” he wrote.
