Note: This article contains images of dead animals that some readers may find disturbing.
LAST NIGHT AS Donald Trump Jr was proudly announcing his father as the Republican candidate for the US presidency, journalist and broadcaster Ronan Farrow couldn’t help but notice some symbolism.
While many of the delegates at the four-day-long convention in Cleveland are enthusiastic supporters of Trump Sr, many just can’t get behind him.
Conventions are supposed to be the time when, after a gruelling primary process, party members put their own personal choices behind them and unite behind whoever won.
Sometimes it can be difficult – but most of the time, they get there.
Except this time there are many who simply refuse to do so. Some Republicans – notably, the likes of Mitt Romney – think that supporting Trump is damaging to their own party, and indeed to the US as a whole.
That’s why, among the cheering for veterans and booing for Hillary Clinton, Commentary Magazine described a general listlessness among delegates.
That’s where the symbolism comes in…
In particular, the Republican Party’s symbol of the elephant and a reminder from Farrow that Donald Trump Jr once proudly stood holding the severed tail of a wild elephant.
The picture was taken during a ‘big game’ hunt Donald Jr went on with his younger brother Eric Trump. The photos surfaced in 2012 with The Daily Beast reporting that the pair were hunting in Zimbabwe.
Last year’s killing of Cecil the lion by US dentist Walter Palmer in the same country provoked global outrage.
On their hunting trip, the Trumps also posed beside a dead cheetah and a crocodile hanging from a tree.
The story made quite big news at the time and Trump Jr subsequently defended himself in an interview with Deer & Hunter magazine, saying he had “no regrets about it”.
Last night’s tweet from Farrow provoked a bit of reaction online – and he wasn’t the only person to notice the symbolism – but it’s unlikely to hurt his father’s campaign too much.
Whether or not the Trumps will actually kill the party, well that’s a different question.
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