Darn those portmanteaus and neologisms. “…failson status is earned through a display of equal parts incompetence, stupidity, and arrogance.” Don Jr. is no Prince Andrew.

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Donald Trump, Jr. cruised into the Thanksgiving weekend on the heels of an enormous literary triumph. His opus Triggered had spent two solid weeks on the top of The New York Times non-fiction best seller list. Junior’s run ended this week when he was knocked off by A Warning. But despite this displacement, Triggered represents a triumph for the young scribe, who has now accomplished something on his own. His father’s namesake is, finally, not a failson.

What’s a failson (pronounced exactly like it looks, just a combination of “fail” and “son”)? He is an upper- (or upper-middle) class incompetent who is protected by familial wealth from the consequences of his actions. The term seems to have been coined by one Will Menaker of the podcast Chapo Trap House, as documented in The New Yorker in this 2016 article. 

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