One of President Donald Trump’s many country clubs has been scrutinized after two videos surfaced Thursday, showing what appears to be animal cruelty.
The club allegedly dumped pet store fish in a shallow, chlorinated swimming pool, seemingly for a “fun” Labor Day weekend game. The PatriotTakes X account unearthed the videos, which showed parents and their kids running around with plastic cups, trying to catch the distressed fish.
Trump appears in the second video from the same source, apparently at the same time as the event, walking around the pool area of his Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C.—a private club he bought for $13 million in 2009.
Fish of any kind can suffer serious injury from exposure to chlorine, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual. Chlorine is highly toxic to fish, with adverse effects possible at very low concentrations and mortality possible at higher concentrations.
The video shows the fish swimming erratically as children chase them around the pool and attempt to catch them.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
X users posted their outrage over the stunt, in which kids were shown splashing around and trying to catch the fish.
“You have to be a sick f— to dump fish into a chemically treated pool for entertainment,” writer Amy Lynn Phillips Thatcher commented.
“No… what the f—?” journalist Jim Stewartson—who was sued for defamation by FBI Director Kash Patel after calling him “googly-eyed”—chimed in. “Everything has to be weird and sadistic with these people.”
PETA representatives commented on the footage, saying that even “brief exposure” to chlorine is “devastating” for fish.
“PETA has not verified where this footage was taken, but if it is authentic, no fish should be subjected to being harassed, chased, grabbed, fought over, or potentially stepped on by excited children who may not mean to hurt them,” PETA told the Daily Beast in a statement.
“Fish are sentient animals who feel pain, fear, and stress, and children should be taught empathy for animals, and not encouraged to treat living, feeling beings as toys or prizes,” the statement continued.
If any fish survived the Labor Day weekend event, the nonprofit animal rights organization “stands ready to help ensure their safety and care.”
Representatives also added that the organization works with organizers on humane activities that let children have fun while learning respect and compassion for animals.
