A new wave of protest is exploding on social media, all digitally, against – needless to say – crazy quiff Donald Trump. The hashtags #DraftBarron and #SendBarron are the protagonists, which are going viral on social media for a rather simple reason.
Thousands of users are literally provoking the White House by asking for a symbolic thing: send the tucoon’s nineteen-year-old son to the front, Barron Trump. A real social campaign in light of the military escalation between the United States, Israel and Iran and the death of six American soldiers in a drone attack in Kuwait, which occurred during the US military operation in the region.
From that moment the network began to spread a provocative message:
If the government considers war necessary, then the children of political elites should also be ready to fight it.
The hashtags that directly challenge the White House
The idea behind the hashtags is simple and deliberately polemical: many consider the fact that war decisions are often made by leaders whose children do not risk the front. Hence the message that went viral:
If the war is just, send Barron too.
Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, is 19 years old and theoretically falls within the age that in the United States requires enrollment in the military draft system (the Selective Service), which concerns men between 18 and 25 years old, even though the country has not used compulsory military service since 1973. The young man’s name has therefore become the symbol of a broader criticism: the distance between those who decide wars and those who actually fight them.
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The satirical site that sparked controversy
A satirical site launched online, DraftBarronTrump.com, created by a former author of the animated series South Park, also made the protest go viral.
The site mocks patriotic rhetoric with tongue-in-cheek messages like:
America is strong because its leaders are strong. Of course, Barron is also ready to defend the country.
The page features parody images and false comments attributed to the Trump family, in a deliberately sarcastic style designed to challenge the political narrative around the war.
Memes, photomontages and millions of views. Within hours the hashtags were trending in the United States, with memes of Barron in military uniform, photo montages shared and comments calling for “equal sacrifices for all:
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The same message appears in many posts:
If you ask soldiers to die, you must be willing to put your family at risk too.
The campaign is obviously not a real request for enlistment, but a political provocation with the sole purpose of highlighting what many users consider a double standard: military decisions are made by leaders and ruling classes who do not directly suffer the consequences of war.
