Trump Jr. Calls for Ending Protest of Bud Light, Claims 'Anheuser-Busch Totally S*** the Bed'
In a somewhat surprising twist to the ongoing Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney controversy, the beleaguered parent company of the beer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has found a powerful ally among the GOP ranks — the Trump family.
Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of former President Donald Trump, came to the somewhat shocking defense of Anheuser-Busch amid a deluge of conservative backlash for the beer maker after it partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Speaking on his “Triggered” podcast on Thursday, Trump made the case that, despite the boneheaded decision to associate itself with Mulvaney, Anheuser-Busch deserved the benefit of the doubt.
You can watch the entire podcast below:
WARNING: The following video contains language some viewers may find offensive.
The pertinent remarks come fairly early in the episode, perhaps not a surprise given the gravitas of the Anheuser-Busch debacle.
“So here’s the deal,” Trump said. “Anheuser-Busch totally s*** the bed with this Dylan Mulvaney thing.”
“S*** the bed” might be an understatement.
With one dumb decision to emblazon Mulvaney’s deranged smile on a can of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch royally angered its customer base and cost itself billions of dollars in market value loss.
That’s to say nothing of the celebrity big names (Kid Rock, Travis Tritt, John Rich and Riley Green, just to name a few) who have turned on the beer manufacturer since the Mulvaney fiasco. That loss is of particular pain to Anheuser-Busch given that, if there’s one thing that these massive conglomerates love more than cash, it’s cachet.
And it’s hard to replicate the cachet that comes with big-name endorsements.
Good news for the beleaguered top officials at Anheuser-Busch: Trump is as big of a name as it gets (especially in GOP circles), and they’re coming to help.
“I’m not, though, for destroying an American, an iconic company for something like this,” Trump said on his show.
(In fact, while Anheuser-Busch has some iconic American brands, it’s not an American company. The Belgian corporation InBev purchased it in 2008.)
Most conservatives view the transgenderism being pushed on children today as a scourge, so “something like this” is a bit of an undersell when it comes to the message that Bud Light was promoting with its Mulvaney can (a ceremonial can that was never going on sale).
Surely, Trump has a good reason for calling off the attack dogs?
“But when I actually look into it, I’m not going to blame the whole company for the inaction or the stupidity of someone in a marketing campaign that got woke as hell,” Trump continued. “The company itself doesn’t participate in the same, leftist nonsense as the other big conglomerates. Frankly, they don’t participate in the same woke garbage that other people in the beer industry actually do, who are significantly worse offenders when I looked into it.”
That last sentence from Trump is literally not true, but he continued in his defense of the beer manufacturer.
“Listen … I like calling balls and strikes, and I love going after people when they screw up,” Trump said. “But, I think sometimes we do have the tendency of like shooting first and aiming second, not looking into the details. I get that guys. It’s easy.”
Trump Jr. continued: “But when you actually look into it, [Anheuser-Busch would] be one of the more conservative-leaning companies in America.”
Anheuser-Busch being some conservative scion amid a sea of woke, leftist conglomerates is certainly debatable, but Trump swore by them during the podcast, even pointing out the way in which the beer manufacturer supported political candidates and causes.
“We looked into the political giving and lobbying history of Anheuser-Busch. And guess what? They actually support Republicans,” Trump said. “In woke, corporate America, Anheuser-Busch supports Republicans.
“Last cycle their employees and their PAC gave about 60 percent to Republicans and 40 percent to Democrats. That’s literally almost unheard of in corporate America, where it’s really easy to go woke, where they do so constantly, where there’s a consequence to actually being a conservative. So 60/40 to the conservative side is kind of a big deal.”
Ah, so there it is. Anheuser-Busch’s money “is kind of a big deal.”
Sorry for any Trump fans reading this, but there’s no other way to put this: That line of reasoning is wildly soft, squishy, pathetic and an absolute indictment on Trump’s ability to “drain the swamp.”
Really? All it takes for a company to earn your good graces is a little bit of money? That’s the literal definition of “swampy” behavior.
Whether Anheuser-Busch donated one dollar or $1 trillion to Republicans, it shouldn’t change the fact that the company and its executives tacitly just told everyone that men can be women, women can be men, and all it takes is a little wardrobe change and caricature-like behavior to do it.
It’s nonsense. It’s hogwash. And frankly, I expected more out of Trump Jr. on this matter.
Right is right, and wrong is wrong.
Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch were dead wrong for pushing transgenderism on an already confused and dangerous world.
No amount of political donations will ever change that.
To be clear, this is not to say that Donald Trump shouldn’t secure your vote in 2024 should he be the GOP nomination, especially over a beer maker squabble. For as sad and pathetic as it is to see the Trumps tolerate this drivel (for money, no less), it’s so much worse seeing the current presidential administration actively promoting it.
And for anyone who thinks that still voting for Trump after his son’s Anheuser-Busch plug is just as bad as still supporting Bud Light after its Mulvaney fiasco, there is one key difference: There are other beer companies out there, ones that aren’t willing to sell out America’s traditional values for some social media clout.
There will only be one GOP nominee to emerge from the primaries, and cutting off the ostensible head of this gender-confused snake (the Biden administration) is more important than what any woke ad campaign, political donation or former first sons have to say.
CORRECTION, April 17, 2023: Anheuser-Busch is not an American company. It was purchased by Belgium’s InBev in 2008. An earlier version of this article said otherwise.
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