Donald Trump Jr. praised the Canadian "freedom convoy," hundreds of truckers blocking their country’s border with the U.S. as part of a COVID-19 protest, and he called on Americans to follow suit.
On Monday, the eldest son of former president Donald Trump said Americans should "support the truckers" who have blocked downtown Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and the Coutts border crossing for several days.
"Support The Truckers," Trump said in an Instagram post. "I hear something similar is happening in the US and if it does it will be a great first step."
Social media speculation indicates an anti-vaccine mandate rally could happen around Washington, D.C. soon, as well as in states such as California and New York, where truckers held a "freedom rally" in Buffalo on Saturday.
Addressing the crowd at a rally in Conroe, Texas on Saturday, former President Trump praised the Canadian demonstrators.
"We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way," he said. "They’re resisting bravely these lawless mandates. They're doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders, by far."
Trump Jr.’s Instagram post included a screenshot of a tweet from Jack Posobiec, a Republican commentator critical of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers.
"This you?" Posobiec wrote, above a 2020 tweet from Trudeau asking Canadians to "thank a truck driver for everything they're doing and help them however you can."
Trudeau's tweet was in reference to Canadians who could not work from home during the first lockdown in March 2020.
Addressing the trucker blockade at a virtual press conference Monday afternoon, the Liberal Party leader and the prime minister said there was "no place in Canada for this behavior."
"To those responsible: It needs to stop," Trudeau said. "And to those who joined the convoy but are uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display: Be courageous and speak out. Do not stand for, or with, intolerance and hate."
CTV News reported that Coutts Mayor Jim Willet said he supported the removal of the truckers blockading the border crossing as the demonstration entered the fourth day.
Protesters, some of whom have reportedly been seen waving Nazi swastika flags, have so far not complied.
Those opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine mandates have sometimes used Holocaust symbols or references to suggest that they are being persecuted.
NBC News reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently apologized after critics, including members of his own family, denounced him for implying that Anne Frank had more freedom hiding from the Nazis than people today have under U.S. vaccination policies.
Kennedy, the son of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy spoke at an anti-vaccination mandate rally on Jan. 23 in the nation’s capital, where he likened vaccination policies to totalitarian leadership.
via newsmax