A Journey Into the Paranoid, Fantastical, Fantastically Boring Mind of Donald Trump Jr.

Trump’s breathless charges of “liberal privilege” largely boils down to wondering why-wasn’t-this-random-thing-a-Democrat-did-a-huge-weeklong-media-scandal and acting as if being the Twitter villain of the day holds actual value. And even when Trump makes fair points about the media dropping the ball, a lack of sincerity undermines his entire argument. For example, when discussing the collective—and, importantly, media—outrage to President Trump’s family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, Don Jr. points out that the Trump administration was simply “using detention facilities Biden and Obama built.” He also mentions one photo in particular that was circulating in Democratic circles depicting migrant children in bleak cages, covered in emergency blankets. Many believed the photo showed the heartlessness of Trump’s family separation policy, but the photo was taken in 2014, during the Obama years.

“But of course, the DNC marketers in the media would never criticize Obama’s immigration policy, even if he did lock up more kids than Trump,” Trump wrote.

It’s true that there wasn’t much pushback from the media against deportations during the Obama years, and that Obama’s deportation apparatus only helped the Trump administration deploy their own anti-immigrant agenda with ease. But the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their guardians as they sought asylum was, in fact, new and uniquely cruel. Trump’s complaint here seems to be that his father’s administration can’t be more brutish with less scrutiny.

But that’s not the only way that Don Jr’s concept of “liberal privilege” falls flat. Trump argues that liberal privilege villainized Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and intensified the sexual assault allegations against him during his confirmation hearings, while the allegations against Biden were ignored (they weren’t). He complains about the liberal privilege that granted news outlets the permission to criticize MAGA teen Nicholas Sandmann, the liberal privilege that apparently sustains the Democratic party, the liberal privilege that gave Democratic politicians the reprieve when they flubbed their covid-19 response.

If liberal privilege existed, it hasn’t done a great job at keeping its intended targets out of power

But the current state of affairs does not support his thesis. Let’s grant for a moment that so-called liberal privilege is real and not a fantasy courted by the son of a multi-millionaire to launch complaints: A villanized Kavanaugh still made his way to a lifelong position on the Supreme Court. Even if Sandmann was turned into a perfect villain, he was likely awarded a sizable sum in damages and even got to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention. And ultimately, Trump is still president and the country has been at the mercy of a Republican-controlled Senate for the majority of the last two decades. If liberal privilege existed, it hasn’t done a great job at keeping its intended targets out of power.

If anything, Liberal Privilege solidifies the fact that, ironically, conservatives only know how to carry themselves as victims. Even when they’re winning, they think they’re losing. The presidency isn’t enough, Supreme Court appointments that will impact the next generation aren’t enough, because as long as they have to respect a transgender person’s pronouns they believe they’ve lost the culture war (Trump suggested “liberal privilege” has made transgender women “fully protected,” as if trans women—particularly Black trans women—aren’t murdered at an alarming rate). Throughout his book, what Trump is actually describing is the abject horror having to consider others.

Liberal Privilege ends with a desperate pitch at the reader, an attempt to frighten them into voting for Trump via dog whistles and anarchistic boogeymen.

“That’s [the Democrats’] legacy, and it’s overtaking their party,” Trump writes. “Their goal is not a more exceptional America; their goal is the defeat of America. They are after you, what you have, how you earned it, and anything you hold dear. In their demented minds—it’s THEIRS.” This message becomes increasingly dire, especially when listening to Guilfoyle on the audio version. Her calm devolved into the kind of blaring chauvinistic fervor that defined her Republican National Convention speech:

They want you to do what they say, when they say. They want you to repeat their talking points mindlessly, without having your own opinion. The only option is their opinion; otherwise, they cancel you. They want to dictate your values, which change by the hour. They will not protect you or your property or your rights, because they will give preferential treatment to the dependents they court as their voters. They’ll support riots and anarchy because it’s woke, and they will drive this country into the ground.

Honestly, America, can you see yourself voting to destroy all you hold dear?

For the right, the answer to this question is a resounding “no.” But even if President Trump wins re-election, the war against so-called liberal privilege has no end in sight. There’s no winning in the worldview Donald Trump Jr has laid out, and that’s precisely what he and his comrades the right want: A neverending battle against phantom threats.

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to more accurately reflect Nicholas Sandmann’s settlement with the Washington Post.