This Tuesday, New Hampshire is slated to host their presidential primary election, and ahead of the final votes getting cast and tallied up, the president’s favorite show Fox & Friends broadcast a special episode from the state. Both Donald Trump Jr. and the ardently Trump supporting North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows appeared on the show, and — bizarrely enough — they both sported matching jackets emblazoned with the phrase “Team Trump,” as if the president and his allies are just accepting the fact that they’re leading a personality cult now. Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) eventually appeared on the show wearing the same jacket!
Get a load of these guys wearing matching Trump merch on Fox News this morning pic.twitter.com/5hd1nVeDes
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2020
It’s unclear whether there’s any explicit explanation from either Meadows, Trump Jr., or Graham for their jackets — they did not appear on the show at the same time. Their television appearances came the morning after President Donald Trump himself hosted a rally in New Hampshire. Although there’s no actual credible Republican challenger to Trump in the presidential primary season, he has already been hosting plenty of rallies across the U.S. in efforts to distract from the Democrats.
At his New Hampshire rally, Trump commented:
‘Who is their weakest candidate? I think they’re all weak. They’re all fighting each other. They’re all going after each other.’
Meadows attended that New Hampshire rally, and he and Trump Jr. were also among the people in a viral photo of a plane cabin full of the president’s allies and supporters wearing red hats with the message to “Make Iowa Great Again.”
During his Tuesday Fox appearance, Trump Jr.’s rants included a tirade against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who he claimed is advocating for censorship because she seems to have attempted to get Facebook to remove a deceptively edited video of her, which was meant to suggest that she ripped up the president’s recent State of the Union speech in direct response to the Americans and their dreams that he included callouts to.
Trump Jr. railed:
‘That bias, that sort of disgusting action was highlighted, and now she wants total censorship, and that’s what it is guys. They’re not just coming for your 2nd amendment, they’re coming for your 1st amendment — you can’t do anything against the leftists, or you’re going to get censored.’
Don Jr accuses Pelosi of supporting "total censorship," adding, "they're not just coming for your 2nd Amendment. They're coming for your 1st Amendment." 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/VXJZYaTR12
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2020
Meanwhile, Meadows’s rants included a seeming tacit admission that the president’s supporters are actually rather cultlike. In response to a video of a reporter asking the president directly how he’d respond to those who claim he’s basically a cult leader, Meadows insisted:
‘You know, if you talk about cult followings, we’ve been able to see a little bit of that as they follow around some of the Democrat candidates, but listen, this is all about the president’s accomplishments.’
So Meadows’s defense to accusations that the president leads a cult is to claim that well, everybody does it. Got it! The matching uniforms certainly lend credence to the idea that Trump World is essentially a cult at this point.
"Uh, you know, if you talk about cult followings, we've been able to see a little of that as they follow around Democrats" — here's @RepMarkMeadows not exactly denying that Trumpism is a cult while wearing Trump merch pic.twitter.com/GZ5DUFXvvJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2020
Based off polls pitting Trump against leading Democratic presidential primary candidates in hypothetical general election match-ups, Trump Jr., Meadows, and all the rest of them are gearing up for a big loss this fall.
