Imagine a room full of kids, a drag queen in full glam, and a book by Eric Trump. Sounds like a recipe for... well, something interesting. But here's where it gets controversial: during a recent segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, iconic drag queen Trixie Mattel hosted a storytime with several children, only to have them—and herself—literally shred Eric Trump’s new book, Under Siege: My Family’s Fight to Save Our Nation. Yes, you read that right. And this is the part most people miss: it wasn’t just about the book’s content; it was about the kids’ unfiltered reactions that stole the show.
Trixie, a former RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, kicked things off by asking the kids, ‘Do I scare any of you?’ One child’s response? ‘No. You just look amazing. Why would that be scary?’ Talk about a confidence boost! After a playful debate about which book to read—‘This is, after all, a democracy,’ Trixie quipped, before adding, ‘As of this morning, it’s still a democracy. I’m not sure’—she convinced the group to dive into Eric Trump’s memoir. But here’s the twist: the kids weren’t having it.
When Trixie read a passage praising Donald Trump as ‘the greatest father a son or daughter could ever have,’ one child interrupted: ‘OK, I’mma stop you right there. Instead of skipping this page, we should skip the entire book. No, wait—let’s skip storytime and just go straight to lunch because I’m pretty hungry right now.’ Another passage, questioning how Trump could face so many legal challenges after his presidency, prompted a kid to shout, ‘That doesn’t make any sense!’ While one child politely said, ‘Good job for him to being the president,’ another bluntly declared, ‘I would kick him in the [bleep].’ Trixie’s response? ‘Oh, wow! Escalating quickly this evening.’
But the real fireworks came at the end. Trixie, ever the showwoman, took the kids outside for what she called a ‘science experiment.’ Her plan? Turn Under Siege into confetti. ‘This might not be a great book,’ she said, ‘but it’s going to make excellent confetti.’ And with that, she fed the book into a trash shredder as the kids cheered. It was a bold statement—one that’s sure to spark debate. Is it fair to criticize a book in such a public, dramatic way? Or is it a justified response to a narrative many find problematic? And here’s the bigger question: What does it say about our society when kids are more interested in lunch than a political memoir? Let’s discuss—what’s your take?
