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Once again, Donald Trump has proven himself to be an utter
Jackass! He has again put his foot in his mouth – a mouth that he cannot ever
keep shut.
On Sunday, 14 July 2019, “President Donald Trump tweeted . . . that a
group of minority Democrat ‘congresswomen should ‘go back’ to the countries ‘from which they
came’ given the way they ‘viciously' tell Americans ‘how our government is to be run.’
“Only one of the four {Trump} singled out for criticism, Rep. Ilhan
Omar (D-Minn.), is foreign born, having moved from Somalia. He has singled her out before,
saying ‘she shouldn’t even be in office’ given her statements echoing anti-Semitic tropes.
"The other congresswomen Trump referred to were Rep. Rashida Tlaib
(D-MI), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
“The president’s complete comments, which carried through in a series
of tweets, were:
“ ‘So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who
originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the
worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government
at all), now loudly……
“ ‘….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the
greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they
go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then
come back and show us how….
“ ‘….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave
fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel
arrangements!’
- - -
“The targeted Democrats responded on Twitter.
“Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, ‘Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,
& the country we all swear {allegiance} to, is the United States,’ adding that ‘You rely on a
frightened America for your plunder.’ [Emphasis mine]
“Omar addressed Trump in a tweet, writing: ‘You are stoking white
nationalism (because) you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting
against your hate-filled agenda.’
“Tlaib tweeted, ‘Yo @realDonaldTrump, I am fighting corruption in
OUR country. I do it every day when I hold your admin accountable as a U.S. Congresswoman.
Detroit taught me how to fight for the communities you continue to degrade & attack. Keep
talking, you’ll be out of the WH soon. #TickTock.’
“The Democratic presidential candidates also weighed in on Trump’s
comments, charging him with racism and sowing division.
“New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, speaking to reporters in Pelham,
New Hampshire, said ‘This president is hurting our country and bigotry like he just spewed
is something that we need to end in this nation.’
“Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke tweeted,‘This is racist.
These congresswomen are every bit as American as you — and represent our values better than
you ever will.’ [Emphasis mine]
“Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren also tweeted that Trump’s comments
were ‘a racist and xenophobic attack.’
California Sen. Kamala Harris, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio,
and Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, all voiced their disapproval.”
(Ref. 1)
The four who Trump chose to pick on: 1) All are American citizens,
three by birth and one through naturalization – she was born in Somalia; 2) All are women;
3) All are women of color; 4) All are duly elected freshmen Democratic members of the House
of Representatives; 5) Two recipients of Trump’s reprehensible words are Muslims; 6) One is
the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from Massachusetts; 7) The four
constitute "the Squad."
On 16 July, 2019, the House formally condemned President Donald
Trump’s Twitter posts about ‘the Squad’ as racist, “in a vote split largely along party lines
despite pressure for Republicans to denounce the president’s attacks on four Democratic
congresswomen of color that they should ‘go back’ to where they came from.
- - -
“The vote, 240-187, fell nearly entirely along party lines
with only four Republicans voting with Democrats. [Emphasis mine] The
four Republicans lawmakers are: Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of
Pennsylvania, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan and retiring Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana.
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who recently left the GOP to become an independent, also
voted in support of the resolution.
“The resolution specifically called Trump's comments about "The
Squad" . . . ‘racist’ and says the attacks have ‘legitimized fear and hatred of new
Americans and people of color.’
“The vote put Republicans on the record as to whether they
denounced the president's comments or stuck beside him. . . .
- - -
“{Two days prior to the House action, Trump had continued his
irresponsible tirade against ‘the Squad’ by writing on Twitter:} ‘Why don’t they go back
and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came . . . Then
come back and show us how it is done.’ “ (Ref. 2)
To make matters even worse, Trump tried to turn the issue of the
“The Squad” into an issue of supposed anti-Semitism on their part. “The president’s demagoguery
was accompanied by the usual dishonesty. His claim that he had tried to cut off the North
Carolina hate-chants was quickly exposed as bunk. His line that he is offended by the
congresswomen’s criticism of American policy was also hooey; Trump came to power bitterly
criticizing America, and has spent most of his presidency vilifying American law enforcement,
American intelligence agencies and the American judiciary. No one has suggested that he
‘go back’ to his forebears’ Germany. Slyer still was his attempt to use American Jews as
‘human shields’ for his vitriolic calls to ship Congresswoman Omar back to Somalia. He is
crafty enough to know American Jews oppose him overwhelmingly and, whatever their revulsion
at Omar’s anti-Semitic remarks, they view his attack on her with no less revulsion. By using
Jews to defend his remarks on Omar he seeks to drive a wedge between American Jews and
communities of color, which places the Jewish community in jeopardy. So much for his being
a friend of the Jews.
“If Donald Trump thinks he can win support among Jewish Americans
by targeting people of color, he should think again. Jews know a thing or two about bullies,
about the derisive mockery of minorities. ’ . . .” (Ref. 3)
If Donald Trump had an ounce of common sense, our Twitter-obsessed
president would have immediately issued a simple apology and said he misspoke when he attacked
the four first-term African American congresswomen. Instead, he has dragged out the
controversy and made himself a greater object of ridicule than if he had instantly made
his apology and then shut up.
Donald Trump – the Misogynist
Donald Trump has been proven to be a lying misogynist.
“Back in October of 2016, the Washington Post published that tape
of Donald Trump bragging to Access Hollywood anchorman Billy Bush that ‘I don’t even wait.
And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab them by the pussy.’
It wasn’t just Trump’s use of the p-word that was astonishing; it was the fact that he
seemed to be saying he sexually assaults women just because he can. But the p-word and the
objectifying, misogynist way it was used, coming from the mouth of a man who hoped to be
president, was shocking, too. It was a national scandal, but apparently not scandalous
enough. Trump won anyway, and now claims the voice on the tape isn’t him. Billy
Bush says the president is lying again. [Emphasis mine]
“Now, there’s another story about our lewd, loutish president and
his propensity for that same p-word. Trump was profiled for the August 2000 issue of Maximum
Golf magazine, and, according to the author of the piece, when Trump saw a young woman enter
his Mar-a-Lago club, he told the writer, ‘there is nothing in the world like first-rate
pussy.’
“There is nothing in the world like a man who doesn’t see women as
people, but as walking sex-holes.
“Michael Corcoran, who wrote the original Maximum Golf piece, told the
Daily Beast that he wanted to include the quote, but that the magazine’s top editor deemed it
too risqué, and changed ‘pussy’ to ‘talent’” (if true, that’s a significant journalistic lapse).
A second editor at the magazine has confirmed Corcoran’s account. . . .
“Trump has long bragged that he likes ‘beautiful women’ . . .
His comments aren’t about sexual desire, but a more generalized dehumanization of women.
He literally sees {women} as useful primarily (or entirely) for {their} sexual appeal;
{their} ability to be ‘first rate’ depends on what’s between {their} legs, and how readily
{their} physical appearances impress his golf friends. For Mr. Trump, this sexism moves in
two directions: Women who are young, slim, white and conventionally attractive are sex objects,
while women who don’t fit his narrow ideal of femininity are dismissed as pigs and dogs.
Either way, there’s one status no woman seems to achieve: Human being.
[Emphasis mine]
- - -
“This is how Mr. Trump sees women: Either as ‘first-rate pussy’ or
‘fat’ and ‘ugly.’ He didn’t invent this dichotomy; he simply expanded and exploited it. It’s
not just that Mr. Trump is so gross and sexist he’s unfit to be president (he is). It’s that
he’s a kind of hideous funhouse mirror, reflecting back at us an engorged, amplified vision
of the misogynist norms we have all enabled and perpetuated. He’s the epitome of a repulsive
chauvinist. . . .” (Ref. 4)
Donald Trump – the anti-Latino
To date, the Trump administration has shown itself to be the most
anti-Latino one that America has ever had. “Donald Trump began his campaign for the presidency
by racializing Latinos as mostly criminals and rapists. He called for and continues to call
for a wall and for Mexico to pay for it. The wall is not just a structure for Trump and his
supporters, but a symbol of keeping out the ‘zombies’ or, in this case, Mexicans and Central
Americans fleeing poverty and violence.
“He did away with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program that President Barack Obama through executive action had provided for temporary
protection for the Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as children, from being deported.
“Trump has likewise increased deportations of undocumented immigrants
irrespective if they have a criminal record. Just being in the country without papers — a
misdemeanor — is enough now to be rounded up and deported. He continues to play games and
hold Dreamers hostage until he gets an immigration bill that will give him his wall and
significantly reduce what he calls ‘chain migration,’ but what is really family reunification.
“Family reunification has been central to U.S. immigration law for
decades, but now Trump wants to eliminate this. Why? Because he and his people don't want any
more Mexicans and other Latinos to come into the country. They see them as inferior people who
will racially pollute the country. Such racism!
“Trump, in his own words, does not want any more immigrants from
‘shithole countries.’ And . . . Gen. John Kelly, {his then} chief of staff, has stated that
those Dreamers who did not sign up for DACA are ‘too lazy to get off their asses.’ This is
the resurrection of the racist stereotype of the lazy, sleepy Mexican.
“All of these statements and actions add up to the most racist
and anti-Latino administration in American history. Trump and his staff don't want more Latinos,
or other people from developing countries for that matter, to enter the U.S. because they want
to keep America ‘white.’ [Emphasis mine] . . .
“The problem that Trump has, however, is that Latinos are here to stay,
close to 60 million with another 11 million undocumented, mostly Latino, in the country. The
Latino population continues to grow. Every month, thousands of Latinos turn 18 and many will
register to vote.
- - -
“{in 2020} . . . Latinos will turn out in record numbers to punish a
president who has said nothing but racist statements about them. They will vote to send Trump
a message — don't mess with Latinos.
- - -
“We are living in dire times and true supporters of democracy and
freedom, including Latinos, must rise to the challenge and protect our liberties.”
(Ref. 5)
Donald Trump – the Islamophobe
Donald Trump, from his first days in office has shown himself to be
biased against adherents of the Muslim faith. In early 2017, Donald Trump fired his Acting
Attorney General for refusing to enforce his executive order on immigration. The order
temporarily would have prevented the entry of anyone from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Trump and his supporters insisted that the order was valid. The Acting Attorney General
disagreed and said the order was religious discrimination because the intent behind it,
manifest in statements by Trump and his aides, was to exclude Muslims.
[6]
“A mountain of evidence shows Trump did this to target Islam.
“Trump’s executive order {didn’t} use the word Muslim, and it {didn’t}
apply to all Muslim countries. . . .
- - -
“. . . {The Acting Attorney General} rejected the order based on
‘repeated comments from Mr. Trump and his advisers about barring Muslims from entering
the United States.’ [Emphasis mine]
“. . . The record of anti-Muslim demagoguery behind this order {was}
overwhelming. . . .
“Dec. 7, 2015: Following the terror attack in San Bernardino,
California, Trump call{ed} for a ‘complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United
States.’ . . .
“Dec. 8, 2015: Trump . . . {said} even supposedly innocent
Muslims {were} guilty of protecting terrorists. He {escalated} his threats, falsely accusing
Muslims of failing to report the San Bernardino plot . . .
- - -
“June 13: In a speech responding to the terror attack in Orlando,
Florida, Trump pledges to ‘suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven
history of terrorism against the United States, Europe, or our allies.’ . . . Trump suggests
that Muslims from other countries are still a problem: ‘Each year, the United States
permanently admits more than 100,000 immigrants from the Middle East, and many more from
Muslim countries outside the Middle East.’ He also adds a new rationale for excluding Muslims:
that ‘they’re trying to take over our children and convince them how wonderful ISIS is and
how wonderful Islam is.’
- - -
“July 27: At a press conference, Trump repeats that Muslim neighbors
and congregants are responsible for terrorism: ‘I think that the people in the community know
what’s going on, whether it’s in a mosque or it’s in the community. And they have to report
these people.’ . . .
“Aug. 15: Trump extends his proposed crackdown. ‘In addition to
screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups,’ he says, ‘we must also
screen out any … who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.’ This clause
taps into a misconception that Muslims who revere religious law, unlike Christians who do
the same, can’t accept pluralism. By making such reverence disqualifying, Trump is able
to exclude many more Muslims.
- - -
“{Jan 27:} Trump issues his order. It suspends ‘entry into the
United States of aliens’ from countries in which “a foreign terrorist organization has a
significant presence.’ In practice, this means seven Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. . . .
- - -
“No principled person, looking at this record, would tolerate, much
less defend, a Trump-initiated ban on migration from Muslim countries. The temporary character
of the ban, the avoidance of explicit references to Islam or Christianity, and the omission
of other Muslim countries don’t excuse the obvious animus behind the order.
“In every way, Trump has targeted Muslims as a class. He has rejected
the distinction between Islam and radical Islam . . . He has assigned all Muslims the burden
of proving they’re not radical, since ‘there’s no way to tell.’ He has held all Muslims
responsible for terror plots that go unreported. He has added rationales—Sharia, sexism,
conversion—for excluding Muslims without regard to terrorism. He has proposed better treatment
for persecuted Christians but not for persecuted Shiites. He has never conceded that a ban
based on religion is wrong, nor has he retracted it. He has said his current approach is an
expansion of it.
“Anyone who thinks Muslims would be the sole casualty of
unchecked Trumpism is naïve. Throughout his crusade against Islam, Trump has dismissed the
Constitution as a politically correct impediment to national survival. Nor does he respect
the Geneva Conventions” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 6)
Remember, this was written in January of 2017, when Donald Trump
was just beginning.
Donald Trump – the Homophobe
“In February {of 2017}, the Trump Administration rescinded protections
allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. In May, President Trump
signed an executive order directing his Attorney General to support and defend religious-freedom
laws {to allow denial of services to gays, transgenders, etc.} . . . In July, Trump tweeted
out a ban on transgender service members. {In October, the} Attorney General . . . issued
detailed guidelines based on Trump’s religious-freedom executive order and, separately,
instructed U.S. Attorneys to stop interpreting federal law as protecting transgender employees
from discrimination on the basis of sex. This timeline is probably missing something;
reversals in L.G.B.T. rights have been unremitting. [Emphasis mine]
“. . . a strategy of homophobia has proved irresistible to Trump . . .
“In the nostalgic campaign that got him elected, Trump promised to take
his voters back to an imaginary past in which they felt better, more secure, and generally more
great than they do in the present. Nothing communicates Trump’s commitment to the past
as effectively as reversals of L.G.B.T. civil-rights progress—arguably the most rapid social
change in American history. [Emphasis mine] Supreme Court decisions in 2013 and 2015
granting equal status to same-sex marriages were rightly framed as breakthroughs . . . “
(Ref. 7)
Just half-way through his first year in office, “President Donald
Trump issued a series of tweets that announced a ban on transgender people serving in the
military, reversing U.S. policy on the matter. This abrupt policy shift affected thousands
of transgender troops in the military.
“Trump’s announcement came just over a year after former President
Barack Obama’s then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter lifted a ban on transgender military
service — a move that allowed active-duty troops to come out of the closet as transgender
people.
- - -
“Trump’s tweets . . seemed to catch the Pentagon off guard,
coming more than an hour before the Defense Department released its own brief statement
on the matter, in which it referred ‘all questions about the President's statements to
the White House.’
- - -
“Lawmakers — including Republicans — blasted Trump’s sudden
policy reversal.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 8)
Donald Trump – the Anti-Union President
“Opposition to Republican President Donald Trump’s executive orders
trashing the nation’s two million federal workers is mounting. Thirteen more unions
went to court on June 13 {2018} to sue to overturn them, and 21 House Republicans wrote to
Trump to ask him to dump his own edicts. [emphasis mine]
“But in an indication of how much most of the GOP now kowtows to its
White House occupant, leaders of the House GOP’s right-wing majority derided the 21 as captives
of the feds and their unions.
“Trump’s three orders, issued last month, would let bosses judge
workers unsatisfactory and give them only 30 days to shape up or be fired, would order federal
worker union reps to meet with bosses and solve grievances or bargain contracts on their own
time and their own dime, and would ‘streamline’ those contracts by constricting what the
unions can bargain about.
“One {executive order} carries out a favorite House GOP cause:
Repeal of the civil service law that orders government pay to federal union shop stewards
for ‘official time’ spent handling bargaining and grievances.
“The two largest federal worker unions, the Government Employees
(AFGE) and the Treasury Employees (NTEU), previously challenged two Trump orders in U.S.
District Court in D.C. The 13 others, including the Teamsters, the Seafarers, the Machinists
and the National Education Association, represent 322,000 workers combined. They want the
judges to declare all three orders illegal.
“ ‘Defendant Trump has no authority to issue these executive orders
either from the Constitution or from Congress,’ the unions’ latest lawsuit says. ‘To the
extent the president has such authority, portions of the orders are plainly unlawful, as
they conflict with – or seek to impermissibly rewrite – portions of’ federal civil service
law, without a congressional OK.
“ ‘This is a democracy, not a monarchy with a king who can
unilaterally eliminate the rights of Congress and federal works,’ said {the} Secretary-Treasurer
of the Professional and Technical Engineers, one of the 13 unions in the new Federal Workers
Alliance.
“ ‘Trump seeks nothing more than full authority to fire anyone who
disagrees with him or challenges his ideology,’ added {the} president of the National
Federation of Federal Employees/IAM. He added Trump seeks ‘to install a culture of fear
in the executive branch.’
- - -
“. . . lawmakers said Trump’s orders would leave federal workers
open to discrimination, favoritism, unfair treatment and sexual harassment on the job.”
(Ref. 9)
As it has turned out, it didn’t take the courts very long to
reject Trump’s attempts to turn back the clock on long-standing laws and precedents
concerning unions and federal employees. “Federal labor organizations won a major battle
against President Donald Trump with a U.S. District Court ruling overturning major sections
of executive orders that substantially undermined government unions.”
(Ref. 10) As of this date, the final outcome in this fight has yet to
be determined.
Donald Trump
Put in plain and simple words: Donald Trump is undeniably a loud-mouthed
egotist, an unrepentant racist, a misogynist – a denigrator of women, a male chauvinist, a
race-baiting xenophobic bigot, a disparager of people of the Islamic faith, a hater of people
from Arab/Islamic countries, a detractor of Hispanics from Central America, and an anti-union
autocrat. He uses racist tropes and racial language for political gain. He uses this as a weapon
to divide our nation against itself. Consequently, he has deepened the country’s divide along
ethnic, racial, political, philosophical, educational and geographic lines. Donald Trump is the
great American divider – certainly, not a uniter. He has deluded himself into believing that he
has “friendly” relationships with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un of North Korea - this belief
lacks reality, His rhetoric has proven to be divisive, contemptible, and un-presidential. It has
been abundantly clear that our president has little respect for anyone but himself. On top of
all that, he is either too stupid to realize that his words and actions have clearly fostered
this perception, or else he is too egotistical to give a damn!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
- Trump tells Omar, Tlaib, others to ‘go back’ where they came from,
World Israel News,
15 July 2019.
- House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets with support from only 4 Republicans,
Christal Hayes, Jason Lalljee, Sarah Elbeshbishi, USA Today, 17 July 2019.
- Trump’s rhetoric soiling ‘Old Glory’ anew, Jeff Robbins, Boston Herald, 23 July 2019.
- Our President Has Always Degraded Women — And We’ve Always Let Him, Jill Filipovic,
Time, 5 December 2017.
- We're seeing the most anti-Latino administration in US history, Mario T. García,
National Catholic Reporter, 14 February 2018.
- Of Course It’s a Muslim Ban, William Saletan, Slate, 31 January 2017.
- How Trump Uses “Religious Liberty” to Attack L.G.B.T. Rights, Masha Gessen,
USA Today, 11 October 2017.
- Trump Bans Transgender People Serving in the Military, Adam Edelman,
NBC News,
26 July 2017.
- Opposition to Trump anti-worker exec orders mounts, Mark Gruenberg,
People’s World,
15 June 2018.
- Questions remain after court rejects action by Trump against federal unions.
Will he obey?,
Joe Davidson, The Washington Post, 29 August 2018.
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