With the Trump campaign repeatedly attempting to damage Joe Biden's election chances by raking his son Hunter over the coals for months, father/son dynamics have become something of a fixture of this long slog of a presidential campaign.
And now, the internet thinks it knows why.
A wildly awkward video of President Trump seeming to brutally rebuff a hug from Donald Trump Jr., has Twitter cringing--and guffawing.
The weird non-hug occurred during a rally in the hotly contested state of Wisconsin on Monday.
Following a rousing speech given by Donald Trump Jr. in which he urged Wisconsinites to repeat their decisive 2016 win for the President and "Make liberals cry again," Trump Jr. introduced his father. As he handed the mic to President Trump, he outstretched his arms, seeming to invite him for a hug.
But his father simply ignored him, took the mic, and turned to address his adoring crowd. Ouch.
The version of the video created by podcaster Vic Berger IV, of the call-in show Office Hours Live, has left the internet in hysterics. The video, in which Berger IV adds an exceedingly somber music score and a series of dramatic close-ups to play up the father/son heartbreak of the moment, has been retweeted more than 11,000 times and has more that 1.4 million views on Twitter.
Berger's video is just the latest chapter in the long-running joke on the internet about Trump's disdain--or at least indifference--toward all of his children who aren't Ivanka.
There is no shortage of evidence to back up their Trump's strange dynamic. In a 2006 interview, Trump Jr. recounted a time his father called him a "loser" when he was four, and in June, Trump Jr. interviewed President Trump for a YouTube special and seemed inordinately excited to have landed an interview with his own father, among other awkward moments.
So of course, folks on Twitter couldn't help but laugh about the President's cold shoulder.
Though some couldn't help but find the Trump Jr./Trump dynamic a little sad.
Hang in there, Junior. You'll get there one day!
@lordye/Bluesky