As a vocal proponent of hunting and a hunter himself, Donald Trump Jr. isn’t afraid to face the backlash that comes from publicly defending the sport he loves.
But he’s urging other hunters to step up to the plate and give him a hand.
According to Hunter Nation Foundation, a nonprofit group working to preserve the hunting heritage, less than half of the nation’s 15 million hunters vote.
Trump hopes to change that, and he said the current political climate is a dangerous time for hunters to be complacent.
“Look at the attacks on the Second Amendment. You think these people aren’t going to go after hunting next,” Trump said. “They’re coming for those rights and freedoms, without question.”
Specifically, Trump is referring to presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democrat party, which he said is far from moderate. Trump cited Biden’s inclusion of Beto O’Rourke as his “gun czar,” the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate and the adoption of elements of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ platform as examples of moves that he says are radical.
And the attacks on hunting have already begun, he added.
“I see the hate mail I get for being a vocal hunter, for being all about that lifestyle and defending it,” Trump said. “You see what social media does to hunters, outdoorsmen, to shooters. How they’ll suppress that kind of information, attack and try to cancel people who take part in these hobbies. That’s what the left is about right now and that should scare all of us who sportsmen.”
That’s why Trump is hoping to get more hunters to the polls on Nov. 3, especially in Pennsylvania.
Hunters in the Keystone State could be a crucial voting bloc in the upcoming election, he said, although historically that demographic hasn’t showed up to the polls in significant numbers.
Hunters have been hesitant to mix politics with their sport, Trump added, and if they were aware of what’s at stake that would change.
“I hear from hunters all the time, ‘I don’t want to mix politics with my hobby.’” But they need to realize the other side’s hobby is trying to screw with yours,” he said. “I hope they recognize that everything they hold near and dear, and the lifestyle they choose to live, is literally under attack from the left. One day they’re going to wake up and they’re not going to have it, and they’re going to be really upset they didn’t vote.”
Still, there is progress in the effort to mobilize hunters before the upcoming election.
Hunt the Vote, a project of the Hunter Nation Foundation, recently announced that more than 200,000 hunters pledged to vote in November. And there is plenty of room for the number to increase as approximately 7 million sportsmen and women nationally did not vote in the last presidential election.
Aside from the potential threats to the nation’s hunting heritage, Trump said there is another reason why it’s imperative that hunters, and anglers, vote this year. They have an ally with his father’s administration, he added, pointing out that under President Trump, more than 4.1 million acres of public land have been opened for hunter access, $750 million allotted to protect the Great Lakes fishery and nearly $1 billion has been spent to preserve the Florida Everglades and the surrounding coastal fishery.
“Donald Trump has done incredible things for the outdoors, but because he did it you won’t hear about it,” Trump said. “He’s done more for conservation and opened up more public land for access than anyone since Roosevelt. But the left has full control with the messaging from the media, so you won’t hear about it.”
When it comes to hunting and conservation issues, it also doesn’t hurt that Trump has the ear of the president himself.
“That means a lot,” he said. “While I’m not in the administration, I don’t think anyone’s ever said that I wasn’t willing to be vocal.
“I actually live the lifestyle of an outdoorsman. My vacations are spent on an elk hunt, my weekends are spent hunting deer in New York or Pennsylvania, of fly fishing the Delaware River. It’s what I do.”
But for the time being, Trump is putting his passion for the outdoors on hold while he campaigns around the clock for his father’s re-election bid. Aside from an elk hunt in Colorado six weeks ago, Trump said he won’t have time to hunt again until Nov. 4 – the day after the election.
“Right now there’s just too much at stake. I have to be in the game,” Trump said.
- Photos courtesy of Rich Hudgens.
