Donald Trump Jr. distinguished between the Old and New Right with a clip of former President George W. Bush in a Thursday tweet.
Bush gave a speech late Wednesday at the George W. Bush Institute smearing Russian President Vladimir Putin for attacking Ukraine.
“In contrast, Russian elections are rigged, political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise eliminated for participating in the electoral process,” Bush said. “The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq, I mean of Ukraine.”
Trump Jr. responded to Bush’s own foreign policy decision during his presidency after he deployed U.S. troops to Iraq in 2003.
“I wish he would’ve been this honest and critical of himself 20 years, countless lives, and trillions of dollars ago,” Trump Jr. said.
I wish he would have been this honest and critical of himself 20 years, countless lives, and trillions of dollars ago. pic.twitter.com/d8nhcZ981d
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 19, 2022
The Old Right, including former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, had vowed never to criticize a fellow Republican. Reagan famously pledged to honor what he called the Eleventh Commandment, declaring, “Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican” during his 1966 gubernatorial campaign.
Lawmakers on both sides have called for increased military aid in Ukraine, but the issue of assistance has split the Republican Party. In the Senate, 11 Republican lawmakers, including Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri, voted Tuesday against a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine.
Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson took shots at Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw during Tuesday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” for allegedly accusing anyone shifting focus away from Ukraine during the U.S.’ own crises of being “pro-Russia.” (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Questions Whether Supporting Ukraine With Weapons Is ‘Counter-Productive’)
“Why is Congress so focused on Ukraine but you can’t find baby formula?” Carlson said. “According to Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas, asking questions like that, or really any questions at all, thinking you are a citizen, makes you ‘pro-Russia…’ You know, the more I think about it, it takes a lot of gall for eyepatch McCain to attack moms who are worried about baby formula as ‘pro-Russia.’”
Crenshaw called the host’s shots “juvenile” in a Wednesday statement to the Daily Caller.
A handful of journalists and lawmakers have even pushed for heavier involvement in Ukraine, but President Joe Biden’s administration and several members of Congress have vowed to keep the U.S. out of military conflict with Russia. At a White House press briefing in early April, CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steve Portnoy asked then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki why the U.S. should not go to war in Ukraine.
“Well, the president has described outrageous things. You’ve called them atrocities. You’ve said perhaps we should brace ourselves for worse. Why not?” he pressed. Psaki said the administration will make decisions that are in “the best interest of the United States.”