Donald Trump Jr. is being flayed on social media after he posted an Instagram story comparing a border wall to a zoo fence, amid a national debate over border security.

“You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo?” Trump wrote. “Because walls work.”

Immigrants as caged animals, from the First Son pic.twitter.com/nsAJRASvnM — Emily Jane Fox (@emilyjanefox) January 9, 2019

Trump Jr. made his comment on Tuesday evening as his father addressed the nation, calling once again for funding a wall along the US’ southern border. At present, the government has been partially shut down for 18 days as Trump struggles to reach a deal with congressional Democrat leaders to fund the wall.

Donald Jr’s post instantly triggered the anti-Trump masses on Twitter.

“The son of the President of the United States just compared immigrants seeking asylum to zoo animals,” one commenter wrote. “Good night, America.”

The son of the President of the United States just compared immigrants seeking asylum to zoo animals.Good night, America. pic.twitter.com/T7VBCuU36w — Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) January 9, 2019

Just the first son equating poor brown people and children to animals. I wonder if this is gonna be received with the same outrage the “let’s impeach the mf” remark did. — Vivian Vacca (@ViviVacca) January 9, 2019

Others goaded the First Son, suggesting he might end up behind bars “very soon” for still unproven shady dealings with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election campaign.

@DonaldJTrumpJr is going to get to know life behind bars very soon. pic.twitter.com/7aAlPeIOe7 — Buisson (@Buisson2020) January 9, 2019

I hope the First Son gets to find out just how efficient walls really are... pic.twitter.com/VD6I8Ihrvn — Norseman Actual (@NorsemanActual) January 9, 2019

As Trump Jr. posted on Instagram, his father struck a different tone in his much-anticipated television address to the nation.

Calling the current situation at the Mexican border “a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul,” Trump claimed that building a wall would reduce the harm done to Americans by drug traffickers, criminal gangs, and migrant workers, whom he said undercut the wages of African-Americans and Hispanics.

In a ‘good fences make good neighbors’ kind of argument, the president also pointed out that anti-wall politicians like former President Barack Obama build walls around their own houses.

“They don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside,” Trump said. “But because they love the people on the inside.”

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