Donald Trump Jr encourages American truckers to follow Canada’s lead as border blocked for fourth day

Donald Trump Jr has called on Americans to follow the lead of dozens of Canadian truckers, who have blocked the country’s border with the United States as part of a protest against Covid vaccine mandates.

The eldest son of the former US president said on Monday that Americans should “support the truckers” who have blocked downtown Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and the Coutts border crossing for several days.

“Support The Truckers,” Mr Trump Jr said in an Instagram post. “I hear something similar is happening in the US and if it does it will be a great first step.”

Speculation on social media suggests an anti-vaccine mandate rally could occur around Washington DC in the coming days, as well as in states including California and New York — where truckers held a “freedom rally” in Buffalo on Saturday.

That comes after former President Donald Trump addressed a rally in Conroe, Texas, with praise for the anti-vaccine mandate demonstrators and on Saturday said: “We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way.”

“They’re resisting bravely these lawless mandates. They’re doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders, by far. And we want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way”.

The Instagram post by Mr Trump Jr’s was accompanied by a screenshot of a tweet from Jack Posobiec, a far-right Republican commentator who was among many attacking Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau for introducing a requirement for cross-border truck drivers to be vaccinated against Covid

“This you?”, wrote Mr Posobiec above a tweet from Mr Trudeau asking Canadians to “thank a truck driver for everything they’re doing and help them however you can”.

The tweet was in reference to Canadians who could not work from home during the first lockdown in March 2020, during which hospitality, health care and haulage workers could not do their jobs from home.

Addressing the blockade on Monday, the Liberal Party leader and prime minister said there was “no place in Canada for this behaviour. So, to those responsible: It needs to stop. And to those who joined the convoy but are uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display: Be courageous and speak out. Do not stand for, or with, intolerance and hate”.

The mayor of Coutts, Jim Willet, has said he supported the removal of the truckers blockading the border crossing as the demonstration entered a fourth day , CTV News reported.

Protesters, some of whom have been reportedly seen waving Nazi swastika flags, have so far not complied.

The symbol, and other references to the Holocaust, have been used during protests by some anti-vaxxers and anti-mandate backers in a ham-fisted attempt to suggest they are being persecuted. Six million Jewish people were murdered in the Shoah, and those making coronavirus and Holocaust comparisons have been widely criticised.