Donald Trump Jr.'s Email Tweet

Overview

Donald Trump Jr.'s Email Tweet refers to a series of potentially incriminating emails between President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Russian contacts that Trump Jr. tweeted before they could be released in The New York Times. In the emails, Trump Jr. is told that the Russian government launched an ongoing campaign to damage Hillary Clinton's chances in the 2016 presidential campaign race in order to swing the election to Trump. While many analysts and commentators have stated that the emails prove the suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the posts also inspired a number of popular memes and catchphrases.

Background

On July 8th, 2017, The New York Times reported that on June 9th, 2016, key members of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, including Donald Trump, Jr., then-campaign head Paul Manafort and Trump Sr.'s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a high-level Russian lawyer with deep ties to the Kremlin at Trump Tower. The purpose of the meeting was the exchange of incriminating information regarding Hillary Clinton.^[1] The story contradicted statements made by Trump Jr. in March 2017, when he said:

“Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form."

On July 10th, Kellyanne Conway spent 35 minutes--much longer than the interview was scheduled for--on CNN fighting with anchor Chris Cuomo over the nature of the meeting, even as her team at the White House told Cuomo that she needed to wrap up.

The next day, Trump Jr. tweeted^[2] from his Twitter account "Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 9,700 retweets and 27,300 likes in less than 12 hours.

Mere hours after posting that tweet, and just as The New York Times^[3] prepared to publish a report that alleged that Trump Jr. was aware that the purpose of the meeting was to obtain incriminating information on Clinton, Trump Jr posted a series of emails, confirming the correspondence between him and former tabloid reporter and entertainment manager Robert Goldstone. The Trump family had met Goldstone as a judge for the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant. Goldstone also manages Azerbaijani popstar Emin Agalarov, who Goldstone claims asked him to facilitate the meeting with Trump Sr., who has appeared in music videos with the singer.^[4]

Ahead of the emails (shown below), Trump Jr.^[5] wrote a personal statement explaining his intentions. He said:

To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails with Rob Goldstone about the meeting on June 9, 2016. The first email, on June 3, 2016 was from Rob, who was relating a request from Emin, a person I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant near Moscow. Emin and his father have a very highly respected company in Moscow. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research. I first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn’t work out they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet. I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official. And, as we have said, they had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press, the entire meeting was “the most inane nonsense I ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it.”

In the fourth email page, Goldstone offers to provide incriminating information about Clinton's "dealings with Russia" and claims it is a sign of "Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

In the email (shown below), Goldstone says:

"Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for the Mr. Trump."

Within 17 minutes, Trump Jr. responded:

If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

Developments

"I Worked On That Story for a Year"

Moments after Trump Jr.'s tweets, Jared Yates Sexton, an independent journalist who claimed to be working on the story, weighed in. In his comments about how long he had been working on the story, Sexton said, ^[6] of his surprise, "I…worked on this story for a year…and…he just…he tweeted it out." The tweet (shown below) received more than 35,000 retweets and 113,000

Over the next 24 hours, people on Twitter began to parody the tweet, adding the phrase to pictures and tweets unconnected to the Trump email story (examples below),

"I Love It Especially Later in the Summer"

The final page of Trump Jr.'s emails received great attention from people online. The post itself garnered more than 12,300 retweets and 19,000 likes in 24 hours. People online gravitated toward the line "I love it especially later in the summer" in particular. The line even appeared in The New York Times headline, "Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said."

Generally, however, people compared the line to song lyrics and wistful emotions about the summertime (examples below).

High-Quality Person

That day, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from President Trump on Donald Trump Jr. at the White House press briefing (audio below).^[7] President Trump's statement said, "My son is high quality person and I applaud his transparency."

Following the statement, people on Twitter began making jokes about the use of the phrase "high-quality," asserting that it is a very clinical and impersonal way of talking about one's child. Twitter published Moments pages on both the President's statement^[8] and the response to it.^[9]

President Trump later elaborated on his statements on Twitter. He wrote, "My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 17,000 retweets and 75,000 likes.^[10]

Donald Trump Jr.'s Response

That night, Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News program to give his side of the story (shown below). During the interview, he said, "In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently."

Search Interest

External References