Donald Trump Jr. Got a Pass for Hunting Endangered Sheep in Mongolia
Donald Trump Jr., the president's oldest son, has been touring the U.S. promoting his book, Triggered, which is selling very well thanks to bulk purchases by the Republican National Committee. But that's not the only traveling he's done in the last few months—he also took time off at the end of the summer to hunt endangered animals in Mongolia.
According to new reporting by ProPublica, in August of this year, Trump visited the highlands of western Mongolia, where he hunted and killed an argali, the extremely endangered largest sheep in the world. Argali rams can be as heavy as 785 pounds and their curved horns can reach spans of six feet across. The species is prized as a "national treasure" in Mongolia, according to ProPublica, and the practice of hunting them is extremely controversial. Permits to hunt them are extremely rare and difficult to acquire, yet Trump somehow managed to obtain one even after he had already killed an argali.
Per ProPublica:
The Mongolian government granted Trump Jr. a coveted and rare permit to slay the animal retroactively on Sept. 2, after he’d left the region following his trip. It’s unusual for permits to be issued after a hunter’s stay. It was one of only three permits to be issued in that hunting region, local records show. Afterward, Trump Jr. met privately with the country’s president, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, before departing the capital of Ulaanbaatar back to the U.S., according to Khuantai Khafezyn, a local government official in the region where Trump Jr. hunted the argali and a former government official with knowledge of the meeting. It isn’t clear what was discussed. Trump Jr. wouldn’t answer questions about the meeting. Representatives for Battulga haven’t responded to requests for comment.
Trump's trip also required government resources from both the U.S. and Mongolia, as both countries supplied security for his travels. Kathleen Clark, a professor and expert in legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, said to ProPublica, "What are the chances the Mongolian government would’ve done any of that to someone who wasn’t the son of the United States' president?" She added that even if Trump didn't have an official role in his father's administration, his mere presence was enough to elicit special treatment from Battulga out of "desire on the part of a foreign government to curry favor with the president’s family."
Like in so many aspects of his life, Trump Jr. is again benefitting from being his father's son—even as he attempts to demonize Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, for exactly that reason. Appearing on Fox News in October, Trump loudly lamented, "I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off of my father's presidency. I'd be a really rich guy. It would be incredible." Trump Jr. has, of course, gone on many international trips promoting his father's business, on top of this latest instance of him milking his father's presidency to hunt a rapidly disappearing species.
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