Instagram | Donald Trump Jr
In a political climate where a child getting special treatment because of what his father does is high on the list of ‘things to look out for,’ Donald Trump Jr. is about to be in hot water.
According to a new report, Trump Jr. went to Mongolia in August and used a rifle with a laser sight to shoot and kill an argali, the largest known living sheep species.
The problem? According to the report, Trump Jr. didn’t get permission from Mongolia to do so until well after the animal was already dead.
That’s…an issue, in a lot of ways.
After Trump Jr. took down the animal in the dark, his guides used flashlights and their phones to locate where it fell.
Instead of butchering the animal there, as is apparently the custom, Trump Jr. asked the men to carefully load it onto an aluminum sheet, keeping the horns and fur as intact as possible. This indicates that he plans not to use the animal for meat, but to stuff and mount it in his home.
While Trump Jr. reportedly flew commercial to Mongolia, he had a team of five American bodyguards with him at all times.
This isn’t the younger Trump’s first exotic outing, either – during the 2016 campaign photographs of Trump’s children posing with animals they killed on a safari went viral, including pictures with an elephant, a buffalo, and even a leopard.
It isn’t just the hunting trip itself that has people raising their eyebrows in surprise over this–it is the way that Trump Jr. obtained his permit for taking down the argali.
If this report is correct, Trump Jr. obtained the permit for hunting the endangered sheep after he had already taken it down and packed it up, something that is apparently “highly unusual.”
Sheep hunting season in Mongolia only lasts between the beginning of July and the end of September, and last year only 86 permits were issued.
Apparently, the issuing of permits is a very political situation, and it is often only those with high-level government contracts that get a permit.
It is almost unheard of for a permit to be issued days after the animal is already dead, so we’re going to let you draw your own conclusions both on how Trump Jr. obtained that permit, and what would have happened if he was unable to do so.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1mgpDNl05v/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
If you go back far enough in Trump Jr.’s Instagram account, you can see pictures from the trip in August. They show him riding a horse, holding an eagle, and standing in front of a traditional yurt. So far, no one from the Trump administration has commented on Trump Jr.’s trip.
