On October 21, Donald Trump Jr. came to the GCU campus to speak at Turning Point USA's "Culture War" event with Charlie Kirk. While everyone should have the right to express their political opinions, whether they are aligned with mine or not, I do not think it's OK to give a platform to individuals as hateful and controversial as Donald Trump Jr.

People like him need to be held accountable for their actions, and hosting him on campus is not the way to do that.

In addition to being son of President Donald Trump, and having been incredibly involved in his 2016 presidential campaign — which already generated enough controversy on its own — Donald Trump Jr. has made quite a spectacle of himself in the past few years. If you take just one look at Trump Jr.'s Instagram page, @donaldtrumpjr, you will be bombarded with political memes and petty digs at his rivals, like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. While I may not be the ethics police, it's pretty obvious that using social media to make inappropriate political jokes is not very professional. In any other profession, using social media responsibly is incredibly important, so why aren't politicians, or should I say, the son of a politician, held to the same standards?

I'm gonna paint you a picture. Let's say there are two competing burger joints in town. The owner of one decides to make a meme about the competing burger joint`s owner. The post is comparing the outfits of various people, including one embarrassing photo of their competition. Do you think this scenario would be appropriate? If you answer yes, I'm not sure you're very conscious of how ethical business is conducted. But if you answer no, then I have a secret to tell you: Donald Trump Jr. does this same thing all the time. While it may be just poking fun, and it's not particularly considered to be slander, it's still an unprofessional way to get your point across.

While the Instagram posts are annoyingly unprofessional, that is not my only reason for thinking he shouldn't have the privilege of being a guest speaker. In June, Trump Jr. came under fire for being racist towards the 2020 presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

"Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves," Ali Alexander, a member of a right-wing constellation of media personalities, wrote on Twitter. "She's not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That's fine. She's not an American Black. Period."

Trump Jr. quoted the tweet of unverified information, then asked his more than three million followers: "Is this true? Wow."

Later that night, the tweet was deleted, and Trump's spokesman claimed that it was all a misunderstanding, and the tweet way never meant to be offensive to anyone. While I'm not a huge supporter of "cancel culture" since its typically pointless to ruin one's career over a simple tweet, Trump never even issued any type of apology to Harris after the tweet was deleted.

In addition to not apologizing for his disgustingly racist attack on Kamala, he has also mocked a news story that highlighted how air pollution is disproportionately affecting black and Hispanic communities. Over the past few years, it has started to become blatantly obvious that the Trump family doesn't care about, or respect the ever-growing issue of racism in our country, especially considering how Trump himself started the "birtherism" movement about former President Barack Obama.

Over the years, Donald Trump Jr. has proven himself to be not only incredibly ignorant but also a raging bigot, take these for example:

- During his father's presidential campaign, Trump Jr. posted a tweet saying "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

- In September 2016, Trump Jr. cited Holocaust imagery to criticize what he perceived as the mainstream media's seemingly uncritical coverage of Hillary Clinton during her campaign, by "letting her slide on every discrepancy," while also accusing Democrats involved in the 2016 campaign of lying. Trump Jr. said if the Republicans were committing the same offenses mainstream outlets would be "... warming up the gas chamber right now."

- In April 2017, Trump Jr. lauded Mike Cernovich, who promotes the white genocide and debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theories, saying, "In a long-gone time of unbiased journalism he'd win the Pulitzer."

- In June 2018, Trump Jr. liked a tweet suggesting that the migrant children separated from their parents due to the Trump administration family separation policy were actors.

- In August 2018, Trump Jr. shared on Instagram a doctored image that had been crudely edited to falsely state that CNN had reported President Trump's approval rating as 50 percent. The actual CNN report had Trump at 40 percent, below Obama's 45 percent at the same point of his presidency. Trump Jr. deleted the image two days later.

- "I will not be getting #MeToo'd this evening, alright?" Trump Jr. joked to the Fayetteville crowd after kissing his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, noting she had consented to it. "Kimberly may #MeToo me later but that's a different story."

- Amid the Trump-Ukraine scandal – where Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden – Trump Jr. strongly criticized Hunter Biden, accusing him of nepotism and leveraging his father as a means to get financial benefits. Trump Jr. said, "When you're the father and your son's entire career is dependent on that, they own you." Trump Jr. was widely ridiculed for these remarks by Trevor Noah and others. Trump Jr. is a top executive in his father's business and has continued to operate and promote the family's businesses across the world during Trump's presidency. The Associated Press wrote of Trump Jr.'s, remarks that he was "showing no self-awareness that he, too, has at least in part been successful because of a famous father."

Once again, I'm not a big supporter of cancel culture, but when one person keeps making the same bigoted mistakes over and over again. and never takes responsibility for them-- should we show them forgiveness? Other than being the son of a powerful man, what has Donald Trump Jr. done to deserve to be so highly respected that he is invited to speak at multiple universities across the nation? Trump Jr. has never had to work for anything in his life, and he has just been handed everything by his father. All of Trump Jr.'s notable accomplishments are either associated with the Trump Organization or the Trump presidency. While I think it's important that GCU doesn't prevent one political side from speaking just because of policy, I don't see how anything that Donald Trump Jr. has to say is relevant.

GCU should be inviting accomplished and intelligent individuals to speak on our campus, especially those who haven't proven themselves to be bigots.

In the future, I think GCU needs to realize that freedom of speech on our campus doesn't mean we have to give bigotry a platform. After the whole scandal with Ben Shapiro last year, and now this, GCU needs to realize that we are a diverse body of students, and thousands of us would also appreciate seeing some speakers from the other side of the political spectrum.

Sources:

The Washington Post: "Donald Trump Jr. made a #MeToo joke last night. But pollsters say women aren't laughing"

Newsweek: "Donald Trump Jr. Likes Tweet Suggesting Children Separated From Parents At Border Are Crisis Actors"

The Washington Post: "'Your name is literally your dad's full name': Donald Trump Jr. slammed for attacking Hunter Biden over nepotism"

Business Insider: "Some of Trump's top supporters are praising a conspiracy theorist who fueled 'pizzagate' for his reporting"