In recent days, President Donald Trump has attracted large waves of scrutiny for his racist targeting of Congresswomen of color from across the U.S., and now, he’s doubling down the day after halfheartedly trying to distance himself from a rally chanting “Send her back!” targeting Minnesota progressive Ilhan Omar. In a conversation with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump jumped right into lauding the people who delivered the chant and trying to cast them as better Americans than Omar, or something, who he threateningly insisted is “lucky to be where he is.” In other words, the president of the United States is demanding that immigrants adhere to his strict personal standards before they even deserve a chance to live in the United States.
Trump shared:
‘Those people in North Carolina, that stadium was packed, it was a record crowd that I could have filled ten times as you know. Those are incredible people, those are incredible patriots. But I’m unhappy when a congresswoman goes, ‘I’m going to be the president’s nightmare; she’s going to be the president’s nightmare. She’s lucky to be where she is, let me tell you. And the things that she has said are a disgrace to our country.’
Watch his rambling:
Trump has singled out Omar’s rhetoric in particular as supposedly anti-Semitic and erasing the seriousness of the 9/11 terror attacks, but surprise! The account of the situation from the guy who has lied more than 10,000 times and counting in the last little over two years doesn’t tell the whole story. Trump has veered between wild sexism and more and still finds it in himself to call other people a disgrace, and he’s ignoring the fact that on the one hand, Omar never dismissed the 9/11 attacks. What she very explicitly dismissed was the contention that the global Muslim community bore some kind of collective responsibility for the incident — which Trump shouldn’t exactly be considered a trustworthy source on in the first place, since he made up that he saw crowds of U.S. Muslims celebrating right after it happened.
In the case of her supposed anti-Semitism, Omar simply pointed out the real pervasive presence of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States and in so doing, was accused by some of employing anti-Semitic tropes, which she promptly apologized for. Trump has himself used anti-Semitic tropes like in calling the Jewish cable news host Chuck Todd “Sleepy Eyes” — which was used by the Nazis among others as a slur — but it’s not like he ever apologized for that.
Trump has singled out others besides Omar, claiming for instance that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called America “garbage” which is laughable considering what she actually said, which was as follows:
‘And this idea of like 10 percent better from garbage shouldn’t be what we settle for.’
On top of these points, it’s worth repeating — criticism of the Trump administration is not synonymous with being some kind of traitor, no matter how passionately Trump hugs random flags when he walks onto a stage and tries to insist otherwise. Trump’s egomania is pushing him full speed ahead into a racist bonanza, and it’s up to the Democratic presidential primary field to come up with someone to take that down in 2020. Numerous front runners have consistently polled well against Trump in hypothetical general election match-ups.
Featured Image via screenshot
