Every July, members of the Kennedy family get together at their compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to celebrate the Independence Day holiday with food, drinks and a wide variety of decorations.
This year, however, the gathering featured an unusual item: a blue-suited, golden-haired piñata resembling Donald Trump so each member of the family got to “bash” the Republican presidential candidate … literally!
The partisan activity might have gone unnoticed if Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy -- daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. -- hadn't posted on the Instagram online site on Saturday a picture of the candy-filled piñata that blindfolded people try to break open with a stick.
Entitled “It's a yuge party” (mocking Trump's pronunciation of the word “huge”), the entry quickly drew positive comments from several of the Kennedys' famous friends, including actress Glenn Close, Hardball host Chris Matthews' son Thomas, E! reality star Jessica Joffe, singer Santigold and publishing heiress Anne Hearst, who commented: "Is that a piñata? Very funny."
Another person who responded quickly was Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She stated:
I've learned to separate the politician from the man because it’s something I always had to do with my father.
Donald Trump and his family have always been very close [to me]. I'm good friends with his kids. I was not looking forward to having to watch our fathers go against each other.
However, by late Monday morning, Kennedy had second thoughts and deleted the image and text even though the story had already spread throughout the media after more than 230 people liked the picture.
Nevertheless, Lindsey Ellefson of the Mediaite website asserted that while the item was quickly taken down, “screengrabs live forever.”
Warner Todd Hudson of the Breitbart website posted that many members of the family have already declared the candidate they intend to vote for on November 8.
Those are Clinton supporters Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend (former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert) and Rory Kennedy (Robert’s daughter).
Meanwhile, several reporters claimed that “Trump's relationship with Hispanic people is rocky,” including Ellefson, who stated:
Ask any Mexicans who’ve heard about the earliest days of the mogul’s presidential campaign when he said that their homeland wasn’t sending its “finest” to America, but rather its rapists and killers.
Add to that the nationalistic displays that pop up whenever the man talks about his proposed wall on the Mexican border, and the tension really starts to make sense.
Mark Hensch of The Hill website noted that this isn't the first time people have taken out their frustrations on a piñata that looks like the GOP presidential candidate.
“Trump piñatas began appearing in Mexico last year amid outrage over the billionaire’s rhetoric towards Hispanic immigrants,” Hensch stated.
“Artist Dalton Avalos Ramirez created the papier-mâché caricature in response to his country’s anger toward the billionaire celebrity,” the reporter noted.
“People want to burn the piñatas, they want to break them,” Ramirez said from his hometown of Reynosa, Mexico.
The artist added that he made the effigy “because of the hatred Trump expressed for the Mexican people” and the Republican candidate's repeated vow that “he will build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico.”
Of course, if the tables were turned and an Independence Day party at Trump Tower included a piñata of his Democratic opponent, the resulting coverage would be 24/7, and the event would be described by the media as yet another example of the GOP candidate's lack of presidential timber when compared to Hillary Clinton, a pattern we already see regularly.
