The son of the 45th President decries the political left and mainstream media whilst lamenting the imagined marginalization of rich white men like himself.
In Triggered, the president’s eldest child excoriates the left for its censoriousness, but ignores his father’s repeated demands for the same ... As is to be expected, Triggered’s displeasure with social media is exaggerated and omits a key fact: the apparent Cambridge Analytica–Facebook–Trump campaign axis ... Still, Triggered’s critique of the left’s use of shaming as a cudgel should not be ignored. The fact is, members of the Democratic establishment continue to worship at the twin altars of identity politics and political correctness ... Ultimately, Triggered is best viewed as the opening salvo of the Trump child with real political chops ... Triggered is a better campaign biography than most.
Donald Trump Jr.’s best-selling new book, Triggered, fails as memoir and as polemic: Its analysis is facile, its hypocrisy relentless, its self-awareness marginal. (The writing is wretched, even by the standards of political vanity projects.) But the point of Triggered is not autobiographical, literary or analytic, and it should not be read or evaluated on such grounds. Rather, the book is most useful as a preview of a possible Donald Trump Jr. 2024 presidential campaign ... The latest book is also littered with familiar Trump put-downs, talking points, omissions and pats on the back ... Don Jr. also displays his father’s eagerness to stoke culture wars and deploy wedge issues ... A fixation on masculinity is at the core of Don Jr.’s efforts to appeal to his father’s base ... There’s plenty of meat in Triggered, and all of it is red.
... it reads exactly like the kind of book a high level professional ghostwriter would produce, so if Donald Trump, Jr. did write it, he does an excellent imitation of a ghostwriter imitating him ... Much of Triggered is devoted to matters that I do not think anyone should care about ... Trump’s book depends for its effectiveness on distracting us with non-issues...to avoid confronting serious political questions like how to give everyone healthcare, housing, and good schools ... Many of the arguments in here are silly, but some accurate points are made ... The Democratic Party’s neoliberal turn means that Trump Jr. is able to produce a far more effective book than he would be able to if we still had the Party of FDR, which even Trump Jr. says nice things about ... While much of what Trump Jr. discusses in Triggered should have no interest for any morally serious person who is capable of staying focused on the issues that matter, sometimes he does find himself commenting on issues that have consequences outside of television, such as climate change ... I could begin picking apart Trump Jr.’s nonsense about the Green New Deal, but it would take ages and I sense Trump Jr. is not interested in a serious debate about climate policy ... Triggered is wrong about so much, but it is wrong in a very dangerous way. It accomplishes what it sets out to do: It humanizes Trump Jr. by telling self-deprecating anecdotes about his life and making him more than the two-dimensional 'rich kid' figure of media portrayals.
