Donald Trump Jr attacking Biden less than 24 hours into his presidency – with misleading tweets

The president’s oldest son, who still has a Twitter feed at his disposal, is following in his father’s footsteps

Permanently deprived of his Twitter presence, Donald Trump has left the presidency relatively quietly – but his most belligerent child has no intention of leaving his father’s successor alone.

Even with the Biden administration less than 24 hours old, Donald Trump Jr is rolling out accusations and mockery directed at the new president and the Democrats in general. Having worked hard over the last four years to elevate himself as a scourge of the liberal left, Mr Trump clearly intends to continue playing the role despite his father’s loss.

On Thursday morning, he shared a New York Times story about federal agents using anti-riot weapons on protesters in Portland, Oregon the night before. “Joe Biden uses tear gas,” he tweeted. “That’s how this is supposed to work right?”

He also complained about supposed media bias against conservatives, a longtime hobby horse for him, his family and his father’s supporters. “Imagine how much easier it is to run as a Democrat,” he wrote, “when you have a multi billion dollar main stream [sic] media complex willing to lie and run cover for you at all times! Our media is broken.”

To make the point, he shared screenshots of two news stories: a Washington Post fact check from 7 October, headlined “Trump campaign promotes false claim that Biden would end fracking”, and a post on right-wing website Townhall from conservative author Katie Pavlich under the title “Biden Administration: Yes, We Are Following Through With a Fracking Ban”.

Intentionally or otherwise, Mr Trump’s tweet is misleading. The Townhall piece refers to new oil and gas leases on federal land, which Mr Biden repeatedly and openly said during the campaign that he would ban; the Washington Post piece found repeated instances of him making exactly that promise.

Alongside tweets of his own, he shared various caustic messages about the administration’s priorities – among them a much-ridiculed statement from Texas Senator Ted Cruz complaining that by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, the president “indicates that he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh".

Mr Trump, who regularly appeared at his father’s rallies and campaigned hard on his behalf, is thought to harbour political ambitions of his own, though what form they might take is as yet unclear. The same goes for his sister-in-law Lara, also a highly visible Trump surrogate, and his sister Ivanka.