Don Jr. Has Gone Full Kendall Roy

A new season of Succession could not come soon enough, but this substitute, reality television version where Donald Trump Jr. takes the place of Kendall Roy isn’t really doing it for us. In his latest appearance on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Don Jr. goes from zero to unhinged in record time when Carlson asked about the conflicting messaging leading up to Georgia’s runoff election in January. And I have to say, I haven’t wanted anything to be over this badly since Kendall rapped. 

Acknowledging the rock and a hard place the Trump campaign seems to find themselves between, Carlson said that it left Republican voters “very dispirited, very distrustful,” and convinced that “it doesn’t matter who controls the Senate.” (A reminder: if both Democratic candidates win in Georgia’s runoff, the Senate will be a 50-50 party split, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the swing vote).

This is the moment when Don Jr.'s soul seemed to leave his body: “I think that’s literally what the Democrats want you to believe,” he chaotically shouted. “They could love for you to take this stance, that it doesn’t matter, to roll over and die.” He shook as he tried to list the scariest things he could think would happen if Democrats controlled both houses, like statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. 

Last month, the president’s eldest son joined a super PAC run by some of his father’s former aides with the purpose of getting Georgia Republicans to get out and vote. The only problem is that the Trump team has spent the last month chipping away at America’s faith in the electoral process. Turns out, if you keep telling your supporters that they shouldn’t trust the voting process, they just might believe you. The president’s legal team even went as far as to tell Georgia voters to boycott the runoff because the two Republican candidates had not done enough to support Trump and condemn the election results. 

These outbursts are becoming a common occurrence for Don Jr. If he makes the headlines, we have come to assume it will likely involve a video of him shouting about something, worked up beyond all hope of coherence. Last month, when he tested positive for COVID-19, he spent his quarantine flooding Twitter with asinine statements and quashed conspiracy theories. Not to mention his rage shaming of Republican leaders for not taking his father’s side in attempting to undermine the election results. Another memorable moment that still haunts us was when Don Jr. tried to scare voters into thinking that President-elect Joe Biden was going to raise their taxes by 82 percent when really he just failed to do the math correctly.

Like Kendall Roy, Don Jr. wants nothing more than to please his father, but the task is near impossible. How can you stay on message that voting can’t be trusted but also try to get supporters to participate in an election...by voting? Make it make sense. At this point, Don Jr. breaking out into some ‘90s hip-hop-style lyrics would be about as good a strategy as any.