Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@donaldtrumpjr
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Social Media, Animals, Parenting
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Social Media, Animals, Parenting
United States President Donald Trump has a pretty huge family.
The 79-year-old Republican, who preaches conservative family values and nuclearity when it comes to the family unit, shares five children from three different marriages: Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump with Ivana Trump; Tiffany Trump with Marla Maples and his youngest Barron, with third wife Melania Trump.
From those five children, he has 11 grandchildren. Don Jr. and his former wife Vanessa have five children, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have three, son Eric and his wife Lara share two, and his daughter Tiffany and her husband Michael Boulos have one.
Now, one of the US leader's grandkids just celebrated his 13th birthday and his father's birthday post has sparked some outrage online.
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Earlier today (22 October), Don Jr. took to Instagram to share a 12-photo post celebrating his son Spencer's milestone birthday with his 10.1 million followers.
The 47-year-old captioned the photo dump: "Happy birthday to the littlest of my little men. Spencer, I can’t believe you’re 13 and I hope you have an awesome day buddy.
"I love you so much. I can’t wait to get back into the outdoors with you. You make me very proud."
Amid the avalanche of 'happy birthday' messages from MAGA heads, some individuals were left seriously stunned by the fact that the just-turned-teen was seen posing with a gun.
Three of the 12 photos featured in the post showed Spencer out and about hunting with guns.
Some critics were shocked that he was out hunting from such a young age, with one Instagram user writing: "Not even 13 and you threw a gun in his arms. Truly sick. There is no reason a young man today needs to kill an animal for food."
Another fumed: "You're a sorry excuse for a human - not happy unless you're killing some innocent animals."
This is far from the first time Don Jr. has sparked controversy for his hunting pursuits.
His hunting trip to Mongolia back in 2019 reportedly cost US taxpayers over $75,000 (£59,000), per the BBC.
A ProPublica investigation released that same year stated that Don Jr. killed a rare Argali mountain sheep and only retroactively secured hunting permission from the Mongolian government.
Then, just this year, he was filmed hunting ducks near Venice, Italy, and was accused of killing a protected Ruddy Shelduck in a conservation zone.
Italian prosecutors launched an investigation, but his team reportedly denies wrongdoing.
He's regularly faced criticism focused on ethical and legal issues around endangered species and hunting permits as well as his defence of gun rights and the various 'trophy' images he posts on social media from his many hunting trips around the world.