It seemed almost too surreal to be true. Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle together on The View’s 5,000th episode?
But there they were Thursday morning, promoting both the first son’s new book—provocatively titled Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us—and their budding, MAGA-fueled romance. In her introduction, Whoopi Goldberg refused to even say Trump Jr.’s name, calling him “the son of the gentleman in the White House, DJT.” Predictably, their joint appearance quickly went off the rails.
Abby Huntsman kicked things off by comparing Trump Jr. to a “dictator” for tweeting out the alleged name of the whistleblower in the Ukraine scandal. “The whole point of releasing a name is to intimidate someone, to threaten someone, and to scare other people from coming out,” she said. “That’s something that dictators do. I have lived in China. I have seen that firsthand. That’s not what America does. We stand by our people. Why did you want to release the name?”
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For the next several minutes, Trump Jr. defended his actions by arguing that the name had already been published on sites like the Drudge Report and expressed no regret for doing what could amount to a federal crime. He went on to whine that he wishes the “outrage” was equal when his family has been targeted by critics.
“He asked to be anonymous. Your family did not!” Joy Behar shot back.
“I’m a private citizen putting this out there,” Trump Jr. protested to laughs of disbelief from the hosts.
Asked if, as a lawyer, she advised him not to do it, Guilfoyle revealed that she was in the bathroom at the time. “I did say when I came out of the bathroom, ‘I left you alone for 10 minutes, what happened while Mamacita was gone?’” she joked. No one laughed.
Soon, all seven people on stage were talking over each other and Goldberg was forced to ring a bell to get them all to shut up. By the time Trump Jr. suggested that Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, lied to Congress because he’s “afraid of being attacked like so many of us have by a vicious left that’s running a one-sided campaign,” loud boos could be heard coming from the audience.
Meghan McCain, who did not utter one word during the first segment, made her presence known after the break. “If you could let me speak, I would appreciate it,” she began. Seemingly on the verge of tears, she described the various ways the Trump family has damaged “the soul of this country” before asking, “Does all of this make you feel good?”
She did not seem satisfied by his answer about “unprecedented” low unemployment numbers for African Americans. “I understand that he’s controversial,” Trump Jr. said. “I understand that he’s offended a lot of people, but I also understand that he took on the establishment, and that’s the premier sin here in American politics today.”
Remarkably, it was Sunny Hostin and not McCain herself who brought up Trump’s many insults against her late father, John McCain. “I understand that and I’m sorry about that,” Trump Jr. said. “They did have differences, I agree with that.”
Ultimately, it was left to Goldberg to prevent the couple from trying to rewrite history live on the air. “Part of being president is having a pair that can take whatever heat comes towards you,” she told them.
“I promise you, my father’s got a pair,” Trump Jr. shot back. “And no sitting president has taken the heat that President Trump has taken.” In the next moment, he attacked Joy Behar for supposedly wearing blackface and Goldberg for defending Roman Polanski.
By the end of their third segment, after Huntsman attempted to end on a “light note” by asking when the pair will be “tying the knot,” Goldberg had clearly had enough. There was still more time in their hour, but she said, “It’s the end of this show,” pointing to Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, who looked like they couldn’t wait to get out of there as well.
