Always one willing to help the Russians, Donald Trump, Jr. reposted at least one meme from a Russian troll farm that set up a phony account from right-wing tool and middling talented performer Kid Rock, one of the few friends Junior has in real life, Rolling Stone reports.
An investigation by Stanford University and social media tracking firm Graphika found Junior posted a meme that a fake “official” Kid Rock account “KidRockOfficial” had posted on conservative social media platform Gab, promoting the use of horse dewormer ivermectin to treat coronavirus. Junior took a screenshot of the post and put it on his Instagram account with the comment, “Yup.” While the Trump family of anti-scientists and their gullible followers tout ivermectin as a cure for coronavirus, no legitimate scientific study has found ivermectin to be effective in treating or preventing a coronavirus infection. (Editor’s note: I tried to find Junior’s Instagram post, but after the 300th idiotic meme, I couldn’t take it anymore.)
The study found the memes were posted by Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens, a Russian-run fake social media news company linked to a known Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency. The investigation found more than 30 accounts combined on Gab, Gettr and Trump Senile Twit Simple Truth Social run by NAEBC, with more than 30,000 unique followers across the platforms. The investigators identified this specific account because a mirror account on Gab had been linked to the Internet Research Agency in an earlier report.
Junior is highly susceptible to “bubble messaging” that confirms the garbage he tells his followers, and he uses social media to promote these debunked claims as well as trying to rewrite the history of his father’s failed term in office and his failed coup. He doesn’t understand how social media works, however, given that he falsely claimed he was shadowbanned by Twitter because some of his posts did not get the attention and approval he so desperately needs.
In another example of his poor understanding of social media, in July 2017, Junior posted screenshots of a string of emails from June 6-7, 2016 verifying that he, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort would “love” to meet with representatives of the Russian government to find out how the Kremlin was going to help Trump in the 2016 campaign for the White House. Although he posted the actual documents in which he literally said “I love it” to the offer of a meeting, which was held at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016. Later, Junior would at first claim he never met with Russians, and then he would claim the meeting was about adoptions. His email release, however, makes it clear the Trump team met with the Kremlin representatives to get help for the campaign.