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Donald Trump jnr cancels anti-cancel culture tour amid visa doubts
By Matthew Knott
Donald Trump’s eldest son has cancelled a planned speaking tour of Australia just days before he was due to arrive in the country amid doubts over whether the Albanese government would grant him a visa.
Donald Trump jnr was scheduled to make appearances in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne between July 9 and July 11, but organisers abruptly announced on Wednesday afternoon that the “landmark” tour had been postponed “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
Donald Trump Jr’s live speaking events in Australia have been postponed.Credit: Bloomberg
“Ticket holders are urged to hold on to their tickets, with details of the rescheduled date to be confirmed in the coming days,” event organiser Turning Point Australia said in a statement posted to the tour website.
Some commentators, including former Labor speechwriter and The Australian columnist Troy Bramston, had called for Trump jnr’s visa to be cancelled on character grounds because of his role in promoting misinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 US presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A change.org petition calling for Trump jnr to be denied a visa to Australia had attracted 21,725 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
Government sources who were not permitted to speak publicly said that Trump jnr was granted a visa to travel to Australia on Wednesday morning, before the cancellation of the tour was announced.
“It’s his choice whether he comes or not but there is no immigration impediment to him coming,” a spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said she was not able to comment on individual cases.
In the lead-up to the tour, Trump jnr said it was clear “the same disease of woke identity politics and cancel culture that’s crippled the US has clearly taken hold” in Australia.
“It is the biggest existential threat we face in the West and is literally the decay of Western society,” he said.
Speaking on Sky News, Labor MP Graham Perrett said he had heard that ticket sales for the tour were “tanking” which could help explain the last-minute cancellation.
There has also been speculation that the high cost of providing security for Trump jnr may have made the tour financially unfeasible.
The Migration Act says that the government can deny a visa on character grounds if the applicant is likely to vilify segments of the Australian community, engage in harassment or intimidation, or “incite discord” with their views.
General admission tickets for the tour, which also featured former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and Liberal Senator Alex Antic, were selling for $89 while backstage passes that included a drink of champagne with Trump jnr were selling for $495.
The tour website said the former president’s son’s “fearlessly outspoken, anti-politically correct stance has captured the imagination of conservatives from around the world”.
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