[ad_1] Donald Trump Junior has broken his silence following comments made by federal Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, who suggested the businessm
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Donald Trump Junior has broken his silence following comments made by federal Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, who suggested the businessman’s Australian tour was postponed due to him not selling enough tickets.
On Wednesday, ticket holders received an email from Ticketek informing them the Sydney stint of the Donald Trump Jr. Live tour was postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
“Turning Point wish to advise that, due to unforeseen circumstances, Donald Trump Jr. Live, scheduled to appear in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne has been postponed,” a notice said on the event’s website.
“Ticket holders are urged to hold onto their tickets, with details of the rescheduled date to be confirmed in the coming days.”
Debate later erupted over why the tour was postponed, with the event organisers Turning Point Australia later revealing a visa delay prevented Trump Jr. from coming to Australia on time.
The tour – which was set to have shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne – will now be rescheduled with the “date to be confirmed in the coming weeks”, Turning Point said on its Facebook page.
However, the Australian government denied a “visa delay” was the reason Trump Jr’s tour was postponed, with Home Affairs Minister Ms O’Neil calling the businessman a “sore loser” in a thread of now-deleted tweets.
“Geez Donald Trump Jr. is a bit of a sore loser. His dad lost an election fair and square – but he says it was stolen,” Ms O’Neil said on Thursday.
“Now he’s trying to blame the Australian Government for his poor ticket sales and cancelled tour.”
She continued by confirming “Donald Trump Jr. has been given a visa to come to Australia. He didn’t get cancelled”.
“He’s just a big baby, who isn’t very popular.”
The tweets received more than 30.5 thousand views before she was ordered to delete the comments by the Prime Minister’s Office.
On the same day, a petition on change.org titled “Stop Donald Trump Jr. getting an Australian Visa” claimed victory after receiving 22,812 signatures.
“Thanks to your signature, the Donald Trump Jr. Australian Tour has been indefinitely postponed! People power, manifested in the form of 20,000+ strong petition, secured this win,” a statement on the petition read.
“The Home Affairs Minister has refuted any claims of ‘visa problems’ causing the postponement.
“Australians united against Trump’s agendas made this happen along with presumably weak ticket sales. Thank you for your support.”
But despite these claims Trump Jr. insists his tour wasn’t postponed due to ticket sales, rather telling the Daily Mail he managed to sell more than 8000 tickets before the tour was cancelled in the eleventh hour.
“Despite the ridiculous lies from the fake news, we sold over 8,000 tickets to my free-speech tour in Australia,” he told the news site.
Rather he stood firm on his views that the Australian government was responsible for the postponement, and labelled Ms O’Neil’s claims as “fake news”.
“The tyrannical Left doesn’t believe people have the right to freedom of expression and will do anything to shut down conservative voices, but we will not bow down to them,” he said.
“If Minister Clare O’Neil isn’t too much of a coward to leave her left wing safe space, I’d be happy to invite her to attend any of the events that we put on.
“You never know, maybe she‘ll learn a thing or two about the importance of freedom of speech and diversity of thought.”
The eldest son of former US president Donald Trump, was supposed to speak at Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre on Sunday.
He was then due to take his controversial tour to Brisbane on July 10, before going south to Melbourne on July 11, according to the Turning Point website.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke a short time after Mr O’Neil deleted her tweets about Trump Jr., setting the record straight by saying Trump Jr’s visa was “dealt with in the normal way”.
“Like everyone else, he was entitled to come here. The deferral of his travel is a matter for him,” he said.
Meanwhile Immigration Minster Andrew Giles backed Ms O’Neil’s claims regarding tickets to the event and suggested a lack of sales could have been the real reason Trump Jr. cancelled the tour last minute.
“Every visitor is treated equally when it comes to their visa application. Every application is treated on its merits under Australia’s immigration system,” Mr Giles said.
“Now I‘d be really clear about this. I don’t share many of Mr Trump’s views but that is entirely irrelevant to decision-making. He is entitled to express them if he meets the requirements of the Migration Act.
“Any matters going to the postponement of this tour are entirely for Mr Trump Jr. and of course his tour promoters.
“It may of course be that the reason for the postponement goes to the lack of enthusiasm for ticket sales, rather than any of the issues that they‘ve raised.”
Trump Jr. runs the Trump empire alongside his brother Eric Trump, who are both executive vice president at The Trump Organisation.
General admissions tickets to his Australian speaking tour were on sale for $89 a head, plus booking fees.
A meet and greet is $295 and a ticket to a backstage party is $495. Both include a photo with Trump Jr.
There is also a pre-show private dinner limited to 20 people, which is listed as “price on application”.
News.com.au has contacted the Department of Home Affairs for comment regarding Trump Jr’s opinion of Ms O’Neil.
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