President Donald Trump’s eldest son spoke before a crowd of rally-goers on Monday evening in El Paso, Texas, targeting teachers he suggested were indoctrinating children to embrace socialism.
Trump Sr. was slated to speak in the Texas city about the value of a border wall, despite previous indications that such a wall in El Paso had nothing to do with its crime rates decreasing over the years. As the Trumps often do, Donald Trump Jr. veered off-topic, and started talking about how happy he was to see young conservatives in the crowd.
“I love seeing some young conservatives, ‘cuz I know it’s not easy,” Trump Jr. told the crowd, per reporting from Raw Story.
“Keep up that fight, bring it to your schools,” Trump Jr. urged. “You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth. You don’t have to do it.”
.@DonaldJTrumpJr's message to young conservatives: "Keep up that fight. Bring it to your schools. You don't have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth." pic.twitter.com/IGzyK48Ilp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 12, 2019
While the crowd seemingly backed Trump Jr.’s beckoning young conservatives to challenge their teachers, others on social media hit back at the president’s son for his demeaning comments toward educators.
“Loser teachers” is an interesting message for the GOP. https://t.co/7pK2g8B8X6
— Anne Ursu (@anneursu) February 12, 2019
My wife teaches at a school predominantly serving poor and minority kids. She’s not a union member. She doesn’t teach about socialism.
But she sure heard “loser teachers” https://t.co/IWM8a8vkBH
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) February 12, 2019
-Every single thing he says is an insanity-level lie.
-Don Jr. calling teachers losers is straight heartbreaking.
-SMH right off https://t.co/SRAoxDyJIX— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 12, 2019
To all my loser teachers out there. Thank you for getting up early, staying late skipping lunch pulling money out of your own pocket so your classroom had supplies. Keep going this administration will end and will be your job to teach how and why it happened. https://t.co/AOJb1XGDQE
— AssCat (@theasscat) February 12, 2019
Whether it’s the result of supposed indoctrination (of which Trump Jr. provides no proof of in his speech), or just because of how the Trump administration has behaved over the past two years, in actuality teens and young adults are more likely to be liberal or progressive than conservative.
Pew Research polling found that members of the Millennial generation, as well as Generation Z (those born after 1996), are more likely to believe that government should help solve big problems, a decidedly liberal position to hold.
Younger people are also more likely to say that racial and ethnic diversity are good things, according to the poll, and members of Gen Z are decidedly more familiar with gender-neutral pronouns, which could mean they’re likely against any attacks made by this administration against the LGBT community.
Indeed, among members of Generation Z, that same poll found that less than 1-in-3 of them approved of Trump Sr.’s job performance. Their older brothers and sisters in the Millennial generation only gave the president a 29 percent approval rating.