Donald Trump Jr. jumped to Ted Cruz’s defense on Thursday (Feb. 18) amidst mounting backlash for the Texas senator’s trip to Cancun. In a video shared to Rumble, the son of Former President Donald Trump slammed criticism against Cruz as “ridiculous” and said Texans should instead point the blame toward someone who has legal authority in crisis situations, like the governor.
“In the grand scheme of things, [Ted Cruz is] a senator,” Trump Jr. said. “He doesn’t manage crisis in states. That’s a governor’s job.”
In a tweet, Trump Jr. railed against the “hypocrisy” of trying to “cancel” Cruz while ignoring the “incompetence” of the state’s “Democrat” governor.
“The hypocrisy of those trying to cancel Ted Cruz who have been totally silent on their Democrat Governor’s incompetence is telling,” he wrote. “My thoughts on the Cancún Cruz fauxoutrage! #Cruz #CancunGate is fake.”
However, this tweet was ill-received for one important reason: the governor of Texas is a Republican. Gov. Greg Abbott was a proponent of Donald Trump’s and even supported his claims of fraud in the presidential election last year.
Many Twitter users pointed out the error to Trump Jr. online.
“Someone might want to tell him that the governor of TX is a Republican,” one person wrote.
“Greg Abbott is a Republican. He was the chair of the Republican Governor’s Association until about [two] months ago, hoss,” another tweeted.
As reported by REVOLT, Cruz returned home from Cancun yesterday amidst growing criticism and calls for his resignation. The senator admitted that the trip to Mexico was a “mistake,” as millions of Texans continue to suffer through the state’s historic winter storm.
In a statement, Cruz explained that his daughters asked for the trip and claimed he only accompanied them to “be a good dad,” but didn’t intend to stay. However, leaked text messages shared by The New York Times revealed on Thursday that Cruz actually did plan to stay in Cancun for the remainder of the week.
See Trump Jr.’s tweet about the matter and reactions below.