Donald Trump Jr. Epically Clashes with ‘The View’ in Heated Interview

The View‘s 5000th show certainly did not disappoint. On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. stopped by The View to celebrate the milestone episode, but the feel-good vibes quickly fell by the wayside as he battled with the co-hosts on issue after issue. The lengthy interview got everyone riled up, with the exception of Meghan McCain, who remained calm as she interrogated Trump Jr. about whether his family’s commitment to destroying “character in politics” was “worth it.” The discussion devolved into full-on screaming at multiple points, but things got particularly heated when the first son accused ABC of “chasing down a whistleblower about all of the Epstein stuff because those stories were killed.”

This morning, Trump Jr. was joined by girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump advisor and former Fox News personality, to promote his new book, Triggered: How The Left Thrives On Hate And Wants To Silence Us. Quite simply, that’s exactly what happened. After Abby Huntsman asked Trump Jr. why he would retweet something outing the Ukraine whistleblower, he insisted that as “a private citizen,” he has a “first amendment right” to do whatever he wants. When The View‘s panel pushed back on the idea that Trump Jr. is a private citizen — he’s leading Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign — he pivoted, bring up the Epstein “whistleblower.”

“ABC is right now chasing down a whistleblower about all of the Epstein stuff because those stories were killed,” said Trump Jr. “So, if we’re going to have a conversation about the outrage about whistleblowers, you work with CBS to out a whistleblower who came up with a story that’s kind of shady.” The comment set off the entire table, and after some very loud back-and-forth, moderator Whoopi Goldberg finally shut it down. “Stop yelling! Stop yelling!” she said (for what it’s worth, she also had to yell to get her point across).

After the commercial, Goldberg gave the floor to McCain, who was uncharacteristically quiet during the first segment. “You and your family have hurt a lot of people and put a lot of people through a lot of pain,” said McCain, keeping her voice measured. “Does all of this make you feel good?” Trump Jr. insisted that he doesn’t “think any of that makes [him] feel good,” but he and his family “got into this because we wanted to do what’s right for America.”

He proceeded to give some inflated figures about unemployment (the table pushed back, calling him out for the “lies”), and McCain attempted to ask her question again. When Trump Jr. avoided it again, McCain’s co-hosts stepped in to back her up, igniting another round of yelling.

After Behar cited the Access Hollywood tape, Trump’s remarks about Mexicans being “rapists,” his attacks on veterans, and more, and Trump Jr. really blew up. “We’ve all done things that we regret,” he said. “I mean, if we’re talking about bringing the discourse down, Joy, you’ve worn blackface. Whoopi, you said that Roman Polanksi, it wasn’t ‘rape rape’ when he raped a child. So, let’s talk about serious things.”

“Oh, you wanna bring this up?” fired back Goldberg. “She was not in blackface. Listen, being black, I recognize blackface. I know it when I see it.” She asked if Trump Jr. is “questioning [her] character,” before saying that people are entitled to criticize Trump. At one point, things got so bad that McCain could be heard whispering into her mic (maybe to a producer?) that “this has to stop.” You couldn’t be more right.

It wouldn’t be a milestone episode of The View without a full-on meltdown. Watch Donald Trump Jr.’s View interview in the clips above.

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