Donald Trump Jr.’s three-day speaking tour on cancel culture in Australia has been delayed due to “unforeseen circumstances,” the organizer announced on Wednesday. The tour had been set to begin on Sunday.
The last-minute postponement comes as a Change.org petition seeking to ban the former president’s eldest son from Australia garnered more than 22,000 signatures.
Similarly, some commentators called for Trump Jr.’s visa application to be denied on character grounds.
“Trump is an anti-democrat who encouraged the overturning of an election,” wrote one Australian columnist. “He is a conspiracy theorist who spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. And he leads an organization found guilty of tax fraud and document falsification.”
Calls for his visa to be denied were ultimately unsuccessful—with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that Trump Jr. was granted a visa Wednesday morning. But their push may have been successful in delaying the visa and blocking the speaking tour from going on as planned.
Turning Point Australia, the conservative group organizing the tour, said in a Facebook post Wednesday that the event had been postponed “due to unforeseen circumstances.” The post also read: “It seems America isn’t the only country that makes it difficult for the Trumps…”
While Turning Point Australia did not elaborate, it hinted that the postponement may have stemmed from visa issues.
The group shared a video from political commentator Rukshan Fernando who claimed the Australian government “slow-walked” Trump Jr.’s visa application.
“Apparently the visa application was put through in May and it should only take about 21 days for such a decision to be made by the Australian government, particularly for a high-profile person such as Don Trump Jr.,” Fernando said.
He added that even with an approved visa, “they’ve already made it so difficult for the Australians, the many Australians, that wanted to go to this show and participate in this event and listen to Don Trump Jr. speak, but we’re living in a country where these governments, these leftwing lunatics are running rampant over our access to information.”
Turning Point Australia did not explicitly confirm that visa issues caused the postponement, but reshared Fernando’s video and thanked him for his coverage.
