Donald Trump Jr. compares refugees to death-deal
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to death-dealing Skittles, sparks a storm
What do color-coated candies and Syrian refugees have in common? Not much, according to denizens of the internet, who collectively raked Donald Trump Jr. over the coals for a tweet he sent out late Monday.
The first child and namesake of the Republican presidential candidate sent #Skittles trending on Twitter after sending out the post below:
But the tweet quickly backfired as Twitter erupted into memes, take downs and outrage over the candy/refugee analogy:
The post from Trump Jr. came as the U.S. grappled with a string of possible terror attacks and after 28-year-old Afghani native Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested in an investigation into explosions in New York over the weekend.
As for the inspiration for the Skittles analogy, conservative talk-radio host and politician Joe Walsh, appeared to be taking the credit:
Others noted a resemblance to a Twitterstorm that broke out two years ago, over another candy-related comment:
It’s the second time in less than a week that Trump Jr. has stumbled into a furor over comments seen as insensitive by some. On Wednesday, he suggested the media would be “warming up the gas chamber” if the Trump campaign had behaved the same way as the Democratic Party. He then said the ensuing outcry proved his point that conservatives don’t get fair treatment in the press.
As for the Skittles remark, not all were coming down hard on the Republican presidential candidate’s son. Some criticized Democrats and their supporters for getting more incensed about the post than about bombings and terrorist incidents:
But perhaps the best response came from Skittles maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, which carefully removed itself from the political brouhaha.
“Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel it’s an appropriate analogy. We will respectively refrain from further commentary, as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing,” said Denise Young, vice-president of corporate affairs for Wrigley Americas, according to a tweet from The Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch. MarketWatch contacted Wrigley, but has received no response yet.