Donald Trump Jr boasts about flying coach on plane that has no first class

There was no first class option on the flight

Donald Trump Jr has once again boasted about flying coach to assure his fans that, despite growing up in a tower with his name on it, he is actually a man of the people and in touch with the common folk.

In a post he made to Instagram, Mr Trump Jr is seen smiling in a photograph with a pair of passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to Phoenix, Arizona.

“I am not an elitist. Never have been, never wanted to be and certainly never tried to get on the BS rubber chicken dinner circuit,” Mr Trump Jr said in the Instagram post. “I like fishing, hunting, red meat, trucks and guns. And yes, I usually fly coach, but preferably not int’l middle seat!”

The original photo was shared by a man with the posted name Dennis Harms and praises Donald Trump's oldest son for flying coach.

“How cool is This? He is traveling from Las Vegas to Phoenix rally …..center row….coach. Don’t anyone tell me the Trump family doesn’t know how real Americans live. Bet you won’t be seeing any Democratic presidential hopefuls flying like this,” Mr Harms wrote, ending with a red heart emoji.

Mr Trump Jr is not a presidential candidate.

On Twitter, columnist Mehdi Hasan pointed out that Mr Trump Jr couldn’t have flown first class on the flight even if he’d wanted to, as he was on a Southwest plane and the charter doesn’t offer a first class option.

However, Mr Trump Jr’s claims that he flies coach do seem to hold up. In a GQ profile of Mr Trump Jr from 2018, the author describes Mr Trump Jr sitting in coach talking about ballistics with the Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden. In 2012, Mr Trump Jr made a Twitter post that mentioned he didn’t have his own plane and that he was flying coach.

Mr Trump Jr said he made flying coach company policy so he is holding himself to the standards of his employees.

“I made [flying coach] a company policy so if I do it and no one travels more than me others can’t complain,” he wrote on Twitter.

Of course, choosing not to fly coach is not the same as being unable to afford any other option. Mr Trump Jr chooses coach because he wants to “lead by example” and because he doesn’t like to “piss money away.” Most Americans have to fly coach – if they can afford to fly at all – because all other options are prohibitively expensive.