Donald Trump Jr.'s Tweet About Ted Cruz Is Raising Eyebrows

Sen. Ted Cruz is probably wishing for a time machine right now so he could go back a day or two. This week, his home state of Texas was hit by severe winter weather that knocked out the power grid and broke water mains, leaving millions without power, heat, and water (via CNN). Rather than working round the clock to help his constituents, the senator flew to the balmy resort town of Cancun, Mexico, with his family. Social media reaction was swift and outraged, and came from both average folks and more well-known names like Dan Rather, George Takei, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Cruz tried to explain that he was just trying to be a "good dad" by chaperoning his daughters to the vacation spot overnight (via ABC News), which didn't help his case. Meena Harris responded, "I still can't believe he blamed his daughters oh wait yes I can."

The senator did get support from one friend. Although former President Donald Trump is still banned from sharing his opinions on social media, son Donald Jr. has no such restrictions — and he posts almost as often as his father did. His feed is filled with retweets of posts from fellow conservatives and attacks on prominent Democrats. Recently, he taunted President Biden for playing an arcade game at Camp David in an attempt to equate the incident with former President Trump's many golf outings while in office. In response to the Cruz incident, Don Jr. once again used a whataboutism tactic.

The Lincoln Project is an organization of Republicans who fought against Trump's re-election and who now work to end "Trumpism" in America. The group posted several tweets criticizing Ted Cruz for leaving Texas during a time of crisis. One of them said: "'When the going gets tough...head to Cancun, baby!' -@tedcruz (probably)." In response, Don Jr. tweeted, "Still so much better than covering for sexual predators." The reference was to recent allegations that Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver sexually harassed young men (via CNN).

Trump's tweet generated thousands of likes, but also plenty of clapback. One responder linked to an article listing all the sexual misconduct allegations made against former President Trump, adding, "Still so much better than having a father that is a sexual predator." Many pointed out the ex-president's friendship with financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. One woman called attention to the actual crisis: "Right now Texas is in a state of emergency. Take a break and show some compassion towards anyone else besides yourself."

This hasn't stopped Don Jr. from continuing to defend Cruz. Early Thursday evening, he followed up by posting a short video saying that while "the optics weren't ideal" for Cruz, "I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon of trying to cancel this guy for taking a family vacation." Trump Jr. added that the ultimate responsibility for the crisis in Texas lies with Gov. Abbott, not a U.S. senator.