U.S. President Donald Trump is not one to avoid the opportunity to lash out at his political opponents. This week, New York’s (Democratic) Governor Andrew Cuomo quipped that America was “never that great,” providing the president with such an opportunity.
Friday morning, the president spent a considerable amount of time going after Governor Cuomo on Twitter. His Friday morning ranting follows the president already having addressed Cuomo’s comments on the social media platform Wednesday night.
Friday morning, Trump wrote:
‘Wow! Big pushback on Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York for his really dumb statement about America’s lack of greatness. I have already MADE America Great Again, just look at the markets, jobs, military- setting records, and we will do even better. Andrew “choked” badly, mistake!.. This could be a career threatening statement by Andrew Cuomo, with many wanting him to resign.’
Does Donald Trump really believe that in less than two years in office he has personally made an entire country great that wasn’t in the past? That’s a more concerning level of arrogance than anything Cuomo said.
Speaking Wednesday night at a bill signing event in New York City, Cuomo — in his comments that originally so set off the president — said:
‘We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great… We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping of women, 51% of our population, is gone, and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution.’
CNN reports there was an audible reaction from the crowd when Cuomo asserted that America was “never that great.”
Cuomo’s press secretary Dani Lever sought to tidy up the mess from her boss’ widely questioned choice of words, explaining;
‘[Trump] ignores the pain so many endured and that we suffered from slavery, discrimination, segregation, sexism and marginalized women’s contributions. The Governor believes that when everyone is fully included and everyone is contributing to their maximum potential, that is when America will achieve maximum greatness.’
Although Trump took vague credit for supposedly improving national economic indicators in his response to Cuomo, he did not address the greatness-undercutting issue that was actually at the core of Cuomo’s remarks — socially embedded sexism.
Trump himself has repeatedly pushed that sexism on a number of occasions, through means including seeking a gag order on Title X family planning centers that prevents them from presenting patients with options for abortions. The rule would also cut off Title X funding from Planned Parenthood unless they did more to separate their abortion services from their other family planning services.
The sought rule follows a rule Trump put in place towards the very beginning of his time in office barring U.S. funds from international organizations that provide abortions, which cut off a number of similar family planning services around the world.
He has also pushed sexism on a personal level, peddling demeaning remarks about women on a number of prominent occasions.
In other words, Cuomo’s criticism still stands, no matter what angry Twitter response the president can dream up.
Check out Twitter’s response below.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
