The New York Post decided to keep it short and not-so-sweet in its editorial board’s response to Donald Trump Jr.
“We see one truly solid takeaway from the story of the day: Donald Trump Jr. is an idiot,” the Post‘s editorial board wrote.
The newspaper’s editorial comes in response to Trump Jr. publishing damning emails regarding his meeting with a Russian lawyer. The email exchange revealed that a British publicist arranged a meeting between Trump Jr. and the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in June 2016.
In an email to Trump Jr., the publicist, Rob Goldstone, identified Veselnitskaya as a “Russian government lawyer.” He also promised “incriminating” information about Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone wrote.
“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. replied.
The emails Trump Jr. released are the clearest evidence that the Trump campaign attempted to collude with Russian operatives during the election.
Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
The Post, which is owned by News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and endorsed Trump’s candidacy, is largely seen as a right-leaning publication. But the editorial board did not hold back on its blunt opinion of Trump Jr.’s emails. The editorial team called Goldstone a “Bozo” and cut down Trump Jr. by proclaiming that someone was “careless” if the emails got into the hands of the New York Times.
“Democrats and the media are frothing to find something criminal in it all, with the most unhinged talking treason,” the Post wrote. “What it clearly was was criminally stupid.”
On Tuesday night, Trump Jr. appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and said his takeaway from the emails was that “someone has information on our opponent [Hillary Clinton] … and maybe I should hear them out.” He then went on to say, “in retrospect, I probably would’ve done things a little differently.”
No matter how Trump Jr. is handling the aftermath, the Post still considers his decision to take the meeting in the first place to be “Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.”