Donald Trump Junior kills a threatened bighorn sheep
The son of the US president shot dead an argali while on a private trip. The license to shoot the animal would have been granted to him after the fact.
Donald Trump's sons, Donald Jr and Eric, are big game hunters. They took part in safaris in Africa, slaughtering elephants and leopards. Last August, the eldest son of the US President, Donald Jr, took part in a private trip to Mongolia. And, according to Propublica, he would have taken the opportunity to afford a beautiful trophy: an argali.
This mouflon is one of the largest species of sheep in the world and lives mainly in the highlands of Central Asia. It is considered endangered, especially because of hunting, its meat being prized by local populations and its magnificent horns by trophy enthusiasts. From 50,000 in 1985, their number fell to 18,000 in 2009 in Mongolia, according to the most recent census.
Laser sight
Donald Trump Jr is said to have shot down a specimen during a night hunt, using a laser sighting rifle. Once his prey died, he allegedly prevented his guides from butchering it on the spot, asking them instead to transport it carefully in order to preserve fur and horns.
Mongolia would have issued this year 86 permits to hunt argali, which would cost between 24,000 and 50,000 francs, according to Propublica. But the particularity for Donald Trump Jr is that his license would have been issued to him on September 2, while the hunt took place in August. The site specifies that the president's son would also have slaughtered a red deer during his stay, an animal that also requires a permit to be shot.
Trip purchased at auction
According to a spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr, he bought the trip during a charity auction organized by the National Rifle Association (the powerful arms lobby in the United States) in 2015, even before his father announced his candidacy. The fact remains that this took place just a few weeks after a meeting at the White House between American and Mongolian officials, the United States doing everything to increase its influence with Mongolia, to the detriment of China.
Donald Trump Jr has also, during his stay in Mongolia where he was accompanied by his son Donnie, met in private the Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, this after the hunt. According to Propublica, the way in which permits are allocated in the country is very opaque, mainly based on money, relationships and politics. The site clearly suggests that the president's son would have been entitled to preferential treatment, especially since receiving the right to slaughter an argali after having already done so is extremely rare.
It is not known what the president's son did with his trophy, but if he brought it back to the United States, he would normally have had to ask for special permission. In any case, this is a good candidate for ibex hunting in Valais.
Not Greta's friend
Donald Trump Jr also seems to have as tense a relationship with ecology as his father. He reacted on Wednesday to the nomination of Greta Thunberg as personality of the year by “Time” by writing on his Twitter account: “Time is abandoning the protesters in Hong Kong who are fighting for their lives and their freedoms to put forward a teenager used as a marketing gimmick. "
Time leaves out the Hong Kong Protesters fighting for their lives and freedoms to push a teen being used as a marketing gimmick.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 11, 2019
How dare you? https://t.co/dnV9mESM6G
