Former President Donald Trump’s oldest son took on a Willy Wonka—Oprah Winfrey persona on Friday afternoon when he excitedly told a crowd of Trump supporters that if they received a golden-wrapped chocolate bar, they had just won a VIP ticket to see his presidential dad at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.
“Uh, check under your seats—if there happens to be a gold chocolate bar underneath here, no I’m not joking, that’s a VIP ticket to my father’s reception tomorrow at CPAC.”
It wasn’t clear how many attendees received golden chocolate bars during the event.
Netizens responded to the presentation by criticizing Trump Jr.’s awkward hand gestures and the sparse room he was addressing.
“I’m just gonna eat the chocolate and skip the reception. Thanks, though,” wrote one Twitter user.
“No one was paying to attend so they had to giveaway tickets to make Trump appear popular,” wrote Twitter user @karbbev.
“This is so pathetically sad and hilarious,” wrote another social media user.
Trump is expected to speak at CPAC on Saturday. The conference has diminished in size as the GOP finds itself divided between “moderate” conservatives and far-right conservatives who aligned themselves with the embroiled former president.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, for instance, are expected to announce their candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, but chose to skip CPAC, which kicked off on Wednesday.
The conference has also shrunken due to a current lawsuit filed by an anonymous Republican campaign staffer who has accused Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the event, of groping them during a car ride in Georgia before November’s election.