Very glad to see Mr Blow is still carrying on at the Times. There is no greater tool to drive people from liberalism than the utter nonsense put out in his columns, this one being a perfect example. Mr Blow is all about race but fails to understand that it's becoming a non-issue in the minds of more and more voters - too much emphasis on a subject weakens its impact. Trump is gaining, Charles Blow is diminishing.
3
During the primaries and Presidential race Trump had the distinction of being the most liked Presidential contender among Neo Nazis and Klan sympathizers since the days of George Wallace. Now why do you suppose that was the case? That first message of Obama coming from Kenya set the tone. Trump is a fluent speaker of dog whistles for White Supremacists.
5
Simple. If one does not state clearly and publicly that the premise of White Supremacists, that whites are superior to 'others', then one is, ipso facto, a White Supremacist.
1
Perhaps the best answer to racism is simple: everyone is racist, everyone is tribal, everyone prefers their tribe. If you think this isn't true, then explain Rwanda to me.
Perhaps the next best answer to racism is also simple: quit talking about racism.
I borrowed this one from Morgan Freeman, who made that brilliant, simple statement on 60 Minutes several years ago. Freeman showed his intelligence when he told Mike Wallace, "Don't think of me as a black man - think of me as a man".
WALLACE: How are we going to get rid of racism until …?
FREEMAN: Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I’m saying?
7
Trump's the problem? He been in office for what 8 months? Obama was the most powerful man in the world for eight years and a super majority for two. Keep blaming others and rationalizing failure and let's have the same conversation after four year's of president Warren. It won;t change. Progressive San Francisco will still force African Americans, at a pace that the Klan would be embarrassed by, yet is that racism? Obama did not want send his children to public "diverse schools", like most progressive whites, is that racism? What's going on now is more of a class issue and and the democrats in particular have tried to ignore that drug deaths in the poor white community are killing more people than black street gangs in the black community and the numbers are appalling on both fronts ( what's the total for both annually 50k , 60k? a Vietnam every year. , yet both are largely ignored for some strange reason, That is why people hate the media. and hustlers like Blow with a forum that is wasted on childish venting.
4
I'm no fan of Trump but this is sloppy writing. You say without quoting that Trump said that Obama's memoir must have been written by a white man. This is smoking -gun material but not important enough to quote? Now I'm wondering what Trumps's exact words were.
1
Why should the "walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, tweets like a duck" principle not apply to Trump?
4
The fact that there's a debate about whether Trump is a white supremacist is both silly and insulting. A white supremacist simply believes any white man is better than any black man, thus Trump's constant lies and rants about President Obama. No one but a white supremacist would favorably compare Trump to Obama. That's the nature of racism. It flies in the face of all logic and facts. White supremacists pretend to believe that the lowliest white man is still better than the highest, most educated, community-minded black man. This is both untrue and irrational, but they have to tell themselves this to keep the racial dogma alive. If Trump was not a white man would he have been able to live a life of dishonesty, greed, corruption, selfishness, defrauding and cheating workers, contractors, and the government, and still be successful? Of course not.
Is Trump a white supremacist? Is the sky blue?
6
For those of us on the receiving end, racism is like obscenity - you know it when you see it. Of course Trump is a white supremacist, and as a natural consequence of that fact is a racist is well. Never mind the 20,000 racist statements he's made to date, nor the fact that he openly sides with the KKK and would be Nazi's. The disgusting manner in which he consistently tried and still tries to denigrate Barack Obama should be all the proof that anyone needs. But here's the problem with this - what Charles says is absolutely correct about drawing equivalences between racists and their opponents is absolutely correct but I will take it one step further. If you actually fail to see how Trump's moronic and insulting behavior puts him in the same camp with David Duke, then you might as well put a white sheet over your head.
4
When the Times publish nonsense like this, it just reinforces the belief that the Times is just another political commentary tabloid, not a news source, so mired in bias that it is incapable of presenting anything but its own opinion. Readers like myself who for their entire lives relied on the NYT as an unbiased source have already abandoned it. Failing subscriptions and increasing debit should be a warning that all is not well and the fact that the WSJ, which does more to provide news as opposed to political commentary is doing better should be showing the Times the way to save itself.
We will all miss the Times, but the Times we will miss has already departed.
2
The term "white supremacist" suggests something more than racist. White supremacists aren't just prejudiced. They are actively hateful, and they openly express their hatred. They don't just oppose special treatment for blacks. They believe that blacks are a burden on whites and so they demand vengeful mistreatment of blacks. If you ask a white supremacist if he hates blacks, the answer is yes.
Boilerplate racism is a lot different from white supremacy. One of the most obvious differences is that racists tend to deny their racism. You can fill in the blanks regarding the differences between racism and white supremacy. And an honest response to the question posed here is obvious to me. Trump is a racist. He is not a white supremacist.
1
Trump may not be a white supremacist, but, to borrow a joke from Dave Chappelle, he likes to wear a white supremacist's uniform. Wearing a white supremacist's uniform (with the birtherism, the attack on a Mexican American judge, the call for a Muslim ban, and on and on) got him elected. Which tells us that many of his voters and his media supporters and his GOP backers like to put on the white supremacist uniform too. So, in the end it doesn't matter whether in his heart of hearts he is a white supremacist. He has made the uniform fashionable again as a first step toward making America great again. He has put the uniform to more effective use than anyone since George Wallace. And many a mainstream news person and pundit (not only on Fox News) let him get away with it, and continue to let him get away with it. Mr. Blow, you can't even go on TV to make your argument without having to debate someone who says, "oh, no. That's not a white supremacist uniform. The fact that you point out that it looks just like one is proof that you are playing the race card and dividing the nation you should be trying to unify."
2
Trump isn't a white supremacist because his pathology is totally centered on himself and his fragile ego. His insatiable need for attention and adoration steered him to waffle on the Alt-right crowd because they voted for him. He could never really renounce them because he desperately clings to anyone who is "nice" to him. He was raised to be a racist, however, which is a different thing altogether. There is much evidence, throughout his life, of his views on black and brown people, going back to the '70's. Trump is simply a disgusting, deplorable, hateful, unredeemable human being and we must do what we can to
manage our outrage on his ascendancy to the presidency.
1
Is trump a white supremacist? That would imply that he could actually articulate a position, or at least demonstrate a commitment to an ideology other than self aggrandizement. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, trump's passions are limited to the mirror. He uses the passions of others like a carpenter uses tools that he plucks from a tool box to create, repair or demolish. Denounce Nazis? He can't quite muster that one without caveats. But he needed white supremacists. He used their passion to buoy his own interests. Dangle a DACA deal with Democrats because it makes him seem compassionate, but he leaves it to others to do the heavy lifting. trump promised his followers that he would "repeal and replace", "build the wall", "bring back coal jobs", "lock her up", on and on.. Those promises require real effort and dedication. trump is lazy, and can't be bothered with the details.
Fortunately for the American people, trump hasn't the will, drive or wherewithal to follow through with these pledges. Even the heinous goals of white supremacy require a certain amount of passions and dedication to an ideal. As those who have tried to place him squarely in their corner are learning, trump is a shapeshifter, chameleon, liar, con man and much more. He will do and say anything to advance his self serving motives. These are dangerous traits that should not be minimized or ignored.
But is trump a white supremacist? It's probably not worth his time and effort.
2
Duhhh.
Dan Kravitz
2
As David Roth wrote in his great recent examination of Trump in The Baffler magazine, "Is Trump a racist? Yes, because that’s a default setting for stupid people." Trump is not your classic white supremacist in the mold of Richard Spencer, who has taken time to concoct complex theories explaining the racial hierarchies that he believes rule the universe. Donald Trump approaches it much more simply. He has little regard for other human beings generally; those that are the most different from him, according to the common genetic parameters he recognizes, gender and race, mean the least to him. Which is why African Americans and women are always targets of particularly brutal treatment. If you don't look like what little Donnie sees in the mirror each morning, you don't rate. He doesn't always know why, it just feels right to operate that way. And if people who whoop and cheer for him at rallies really believe this stuff, well there must be something to it, thinks little Donnie; there's certainly little reason to kick up a fuss about it.
2
This is one 69 year old white guy who grew up in the old Jim Crow south who recognizes racism and white supremacy when he sees it. Ms. Hill you are correct and I commend you for calling out the truth for all to hear. Thank You.
7
Well of course he's a white supremacist. One simple little bit of proof. On occasion he has used the term: "the blacks" in referring to African Americans. I have never heard anyone who had any respect for African Americans or at least considered them as equals, to refer to them that way. It is a term used by whites in the 1860's and by the so called upper classes today and indicates their true feelings about African Americans.
So don't kid yourself. Trump is a racist and most definitely a White Supremacist. But he's got a lot of closet supremacists in this country who support him and elected him so he's not alone. There are many many Nazi and KKK sympathizers out there, and he returns their support, in case you haven't noticed.
5
Well, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
QED.
2
Racist, white supremacist, absolutely. This is the essence of Trump's appeal. The two people in my life who voted for Trump are racists through and through (and admit it) (relatives).
1
Trump is a racist. I don't know that he is given enough thought to the topic to declare him a white supremacist. If he was honest he would probably shrug yes.
He doesn't believe that non-Anglo-Saxon non-Christians are as American as WASPs. He made that clear by suggesting that Judge Curiale--Indiana born Judge Curiale--needed to recuse himself. He wasn't American enough.
He wanted the Central Park kids executed, even though the crime itself (heinous and shocking as it was) was not a capital offense. Since no newspaper, not even the NY Post, would publish his rant in their Op-Ed pages, he took out a full-page ad. When the young men were exonerated he did not give in. His racism doesn't care about justice. He is a disgrace.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and socializes with other ducks...
2
And how about the comment about people dumping ESPN. Not true. He lies even about the small stuff and must be called on each and every lie. He can't tell the truth about the sun rising in the east . . . . .
From the Borowitz Report:
Upbraiding the ESPN anchor Jemele Hill for calling Donald Trump a “white supremacist,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that “no one has done more than President Trump to prove that white people are not superior.”
“It’s grossly unfair that Ms. Hill sought to portray Donald Trump as an upholder of white supremacy, when everything he says or does directly undermines that whole concept,” Sanders said. “Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump is on some mission to make white people look good hasn’t been paying attention.”
Sanders urged the ESPN anchor to “do her homework” on Trump before making baseless allegations. “Read his tweets,” she said. “Listen to his speeches. If you still think Donald Trump is trying to prove that white people are superior, I tip my hat to you.”
Ending on a personal note, Sanders said that she was “a hundred-per-cent sure” that her boss is not a white supremacist. “Donald Trump cannot even spell the word ‘supremacist,’ ” she said.
1
Of course Donald Trump is a white supremacist -- does he have to say so expressly for us to reach that conclusion? If there is one enduring principle that has defined his public life, it is racism, from housing discrimination in Trump-owned apartments to his promotion of birtherism to his condemnation of nonwhite peoples during the campaign.
Blow seems to think that to be considered a white supremacist, one must embrace an ideology that says black people are inherently inferior. This is one aspect of white supremacy, but it is not the only one. The essence is actually the belief that the interests, desires and prejudices of white people must be placed above those of other races. By this standard Trump -- with his open and thinly-veiled, false suggestions that whites are discriminated against, and essentially that nonwhites need to be put in their place -- certainly qualifies as a white supremacist.
1
What group, hasn't Donald Trump attacked? Trump even insults fellow, old, white men, from John McCain to Pope Francis. Trump appears to be a very miserable, bitter human being, who hates just about everything, iincluding his job. It seems at this point, with all of Trump's venomous outbursts and erratic tirades, that even Trump himself, is trying to show everyone, just how really unfit he is to be president.
1
The definition of racism is judging human beings based on the color of their skin. The opposite of racism is to judge human beings on the content of their character. The media (NYT included), the entertainment industry, and the Democratic party seem to have abandoned color blind as a goal in favor of affirmative action. That is, by definition, racism.
2
I doubt Trump can maintain any single idea or position for more than a few minutes unless he is continually reminded by talking heads, tweets, and three word slogans like Build A Wall. But his father was arrested at a KKK rally, and those two discriminated against minorities in housing for years, and he is currently surrounded by white supremacists- big businessmen and career Republican political operatives- and actions speak louder than words. So, if the shoe fits....
I live Mr. Blow's writing. As far as i am concerned, he is one of the best writers The Times has. Unfortunately this time his column is just too long. H4e should just have said "Yes." That would have been correct and as compact as possible.
Trump is really too self involved to have enough space in his consciousness to think about any group enough to despise them. he will say or do anything that gets people - any people, even the most reprehensible - cheering for in in large numbers. he may appear to be a white supremacist, but like everything else about him, it's an illusion. he us for Trump... and everything else is tactics. very changeable tactics.
he believes in nothing except himself.
only 6 months in and he is already by any measure the worst president we've ever had, including the dead ones.
If tweets were a fireable offense, we would have a new president
Sorry Mr. Blow, Trump isn't a white supremacist.
In a nation where the vast majority of people, and an even larger percentage of power brokers and decision makers are in fact white, One might easily mistake the average white person's indifference for malice, insofar as the everyday lives of minorities are concerned. But this is hardly white supremacy.
Trump and his election represent a return to the natural order of things, as difficult as it is for Mr. Blow to accept. He should likewise learn to accept them as the inevitable reaction to Obama's 8 year-long affirmative action Presidency. Elections have consequences. Remember that quote?
1
Read the brilliant piece by Ta-Nehisi-Coates in the Atlantic. He'll settle the question for you:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-pre...
1
This Trump presidency is hurting this country in deep and divisive ways and we have no way to get him out. Let's say that every poster agrees that Trump is a white supremacist. So what? He is still President and we can't get rid of him. He is willing to say whatever is needed to get votes, or whatever it is he wants. This willingness to say anything has brought some very ugly things to the surface and there is a sort of stamp of approval from the president. At first I thought 45 was awful but now I think he is dangerous to us, our country, and our way of life. It is like a bad dream of our worst angels.
2
Trump is merely speaking truth to power, except for the truth...and the power.
During the election campaign when supporters of Hillary and others labeled Donald Trump a "racist" but it did not stick to well to win the election, however since the election, which is nearing a year, "White Supremacist" has been the "fall to label"for a long time, but for what purpose?
He is still President, and even if he was a "White Supremacist" this is not an impeachable offense, nor does it qualify as breaking any laws, but can be taken as a weak argument seeking some sort of justification; but then again, justification for what purpose?
When people make weak arguments to find support for one cause or another, perhaps it only weakens their cause they are seeking more support for by detracting media time away from that cause or muddling the waters in a sense.
he is a Trump supremacist hence he is a white supremacist because he is white. the man is a shell, he has no substance/thoughts/morals of his own. he does whatever was he last 'advisor' is telling him. he didn't even realize the ramifications of his DACA decision so he is going back on it. he will do and/or say whatever gets him the most: money, attention, "win", adulation of the crowd - whatever he can get in that moment. he is not a white supremacist in the sense that he has these feelings/thoughts on his own but he is a white supremacist because of the actions he takes (probably on the advice of his advisors like Bannon and Sessions who really are white supremacists) because he knows his white supremacist base supports him to do these things and he is sooo desperate for support right now because he's losing it so fast on all other sides.
It really doesn't matter if Trump is a white supremacist or not. The fact is and have always been that There is an inherent bias against people of color, and this have been demonstrated time and time again. We can start with the constitution of the United States, which in my view was not written to accommodate black and brown folk. Think of it this way, if a black man in an open carry state was observed walking down the street with a gun, loaded or not, he will be shot by the police, and no one can argure otherwise. So, we as black folks have no rights that we can hang our collected hats on. And it will be several generations before this attitude changes.
1
I don't see why a white billionaire would have a heartfelt leaning towards white supremacy. With his wealth and upbringing, there seems little reason to harbor distaste for blacks, especially since it is quite obvious that he harbors a distaste for anybody or group that challenges him personally, politically, and commercially, for starters.
My experience with heartfelt white supremacists is that they covet the perceived power and respect their skin color awards them, regardless of their intellect, education, employment, prison record etc., over the whole universe of blacks. That artificial superiority has been hard to give up. In the old segregated south it had to be a mild rush for some down and out white person to be welcomed without question at restaurants, hotels, swimming pools, and movie theaters, while the most esteemed blacks were promptly advised to get off the premises, or else.
Since Trump considers himself to be superior to most of the human race, skin color is just a trifling matter. But for an ambitious, amoral, politician, white supremacy has always had a strong sympathetic following, ready to respond to the right dog whistle. Trump fine tuned that whistle, and now he has the honor of being the best president amorality, racism, mendacity, and Putin could buy.
There's an old saying, "if you have to lie to make your point, your point is probably wrong". Okay, maybe that is not an old saying, but it should be.
President Trump has NEVER drawn "equivalencies between white supremacists and (all) those who oppose them". That would be this "I think white supremacists and those who oppose them are similar". Find me that quote and I'll vote Democrat in 2020. But, of course, you can't.
President Trump was asked who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville. He said there is blame both against the (legally permitted) white supremacists as well as the people who showed up with baseball bats intent on attacking them. (Even the link provided by Mr Blow is very clear that President Trump is referring specifically to the violent Antifa gang.) In normal times, this would be an obvious observation. But then, these aren't normal times.
The protest in Charlottesville was under a permit, supported by the Federal Courts and secured via the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union no less. This is the same right to protest that protects Black Lives Matters and protected Martin Luther King's protests in the 60s. Once again, I am shocked at those here who wish to eradicate these rights today, by suggesting violent attacks against protesters under legal permit is acceptable. Today their cause is not yours, but what about tomorrow? And you dare to quote Niemöller? Hypocrites.
1
a few days ago, Jope Biden offered an article on his views of "American values" and whether they were lost or not. I made a comment about his ideas and the Times chose NOT to print it. Perhaps this will suffer the same fate.
The values that we once thought were common may have just been an imaginary set that over time simply vanished for lack of use. Of those who you would think shared values with a large part of the world -=-the Catholic church--trashed the values that it spent 2000 years teaching. The abuse of boys mainly, but girls as well, said something aboaut values. The fact that a police officer told a person at a traffic stop that "they only shot black eople certainly says a lot about values, especially when it comes to protecting those you get paid to protect. It seems clear that trump lacks any value system, and he is certainly the product of his and later generations. Yes, he should be keelhauled for his attitudes, but what of the 300 million +? What we largely here about American values is really more hearsay than anything else. No man can know what another is thinking and American values seemed to have done est in the 40's, 50's and some of the 60's when we seemed to be at our hypocritical best. we simply didn't talk about stuff while we were doing it and acted as though it wasn't happening. Should we go back to "better" times?
A much more important question isn't whether or not Trump is a White Supremacist; but to what extent is our country? Now that we have elected such a person, does any other reason really add up as much?
2
Some months ago I saw a video of Trump speaking from the dais at a fundraising dinner. He specifically discussed equality and declared that he was superior to other people. I have no idea how this particular clip could be found, but someone must know, and bringing it to light would make clear that Trump does believe himself a superior being. My deepest believe is that all humans are equal. Why? Because no one knows the future!
6
Yes.
13
Is Trump a white supremacist? Is the Pope Catholic? Does it get dark at night? Does a bear poop in the woods?
24
No. He is over his head.
2
Bannon likes the Russians because he sees them (erroneously) as the last great white Christian hope. But I don't think Trump has the scope to be white supremacist. He's a Trumpsupremicist. But when Mueller gets through with them (Bannon and Trump) they will have to deal with Bubba in big peoples jail. My Steve and Trump'll have to turn to the AB for solace.
1
Don't fool yourself. Trump grew up in a KKK home. Fred Trump was arrested in NYC on a Nazi parade.
By his own actions, Trump has demonstrated he is an enthusiastic white supremacist. Quite insulting to the general white population even with half-a-brain.
Trump surrounded himself with like minded people and started rolling back the progresses made by a half-black President. Jeff Sessions used to be a celebrated eugenics proponent. They firmly believe in ethnic cleansing. Similar to Bannon and others who lamented that the great achievers in the Silicon Valley are barbarians.
So, again, don't be fooled with intellectual arguments.
13
Anyone who hasn't come to the "white supremacist " president question since the beginning....has not paid attention! I think its safe to say he is definitely a white supremacist among many other vile things.
15
As viewed by his words and actions, Trump is a bigoted white man who believes he and other white people are superior to black people. Therefore he is absolutely a white supremacist.
14
Yes, Trump is a white supremacists. He is racists. And, he enables racists and supremacists. He also encourages, enables and promotes violence. He is dangerous because of that.
Both Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Donald Trump have committed actual real fire-able offences (this last week) as well by the way.
10
There is no question that Trump capitalized on the backlash of the anti-Obama racist right. It doesn't matter if he is a genuine authentic card carrying white supremacist. He tapped into what those people believe and gave voice to a racism that Republicans have been dancing around for decades. That's enough for me.
13
"It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power." — Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic Monthly.
9
Good luck finding a couple of hundred thousand people in the US who would define themselves as white supremacist.
Memo to Trump haters - it is columns like this and the Emmy travesty that will get reelected.
6
i thought all whites were supremacists and racists but the very definition of the concepts.i can't wait to no longer be in charge.let's see how the new boss does.
Why all the semantic hand wringing? if it walks like a duck...
6
the smoking gun that tops the rest would be his wavering on klan support the week before the texas primary, winning which was his only hope to get ted cruz out of the race early, and then a week after winning it - and only then - distancing himself.
given the failures of the bush administrations it is entirely possible that Obama would have been elected if he had been white. in fact had he been white his margin of victory would have been wider, and his administration would have had greater success because the republicans would not have been able to marshal the anti black white supremacist elements of the party to oppose him and put a republican majority in the house and senate. one big elements of the white supremacist opposition to Obama was trumps birther campaign. the complete lack of evidence to support trumps claims, and the absolute proof of Obama's right to be president is prima facie proof that trump is indeed a racist and white supremacist. there is also the historical evidence showing that he is a racist and white supremacist. the numerous judgements against him as a landlord trying to keep his properties white leaves no doubt that he is a card carrying, dyed in the wool racist and white supremacist.
6
I'm always amazed by the cult of personality Trump still engenders among his base. Insult him, point out his many obvious flaws, and it is as though you are insulting everyone who voted for him. I've never felt that way about anyone who isn't family. Kind of sick when you think about it, to treat a complete stranger as an extension of your own ego.
10
Once again I must urge you to keep writing. Few people are writing clearly about this situation and this horrible person. Fortunately, your writing is the exception!
8
Of course Trump is a white supremacist. He is white, and thinks he is superior to everyone else. The more you are like him, the more superior he will consider you.
Most people would normally see through such an obvious sheen over human failure at its worst, but these are not normal times.
6
More and more I am leaning towards the idea that Trump is a white supremacist. This is something more than his usual "I am the center of the universe" nonsense.
4
The question of whether Trump is a white supremacist obscures the more important fact: Donald Trump is, unequivocally, a white racist. From his statement regarding Judge Curiel, to his tweet telling millions of his supporters that racist lie that black people kill 81% of white murder victims, the truth is inarguable.
Ultimately, the "white supremacist" question is about a distinction without a difference -- Trump is a racist, and that is really all that matters.
5
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in his article, “The First White President,” written in “The Atlantic,” “It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact…Trumps’ “ideology is white supremacy….Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican ‘rapists.’... In Trump, white supremacists see one of their own. Only grudgingly did Trump denounce the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, one of its former grand wizards—and after the clashes between white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia...Duke in turn praised Trump’s contentious claim that ‘both sides’ were responsible for the violence….Trump is the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch…But that is the point of white supremacy—to ensure that that which all others achieve maximal effort, white people (particularly white men) achieve with minimal qualification.”
Not only does he surrounds himself with white supremacist (Steve Bannon), so are his heroes. One being Andrew Jackson, the architect of the genocidal campaign known as the “Trail of Tears” that forcefully removed Native people from their lands and destroying civilianization’s that existed thousands of years before the European arrival.
He is a white supremacist in a white supremacist society elected by 58% of white America who adopted his white supremacist’s views.
5
There is self-serving guile in every step this man makes. His modus-operandi is guided by the reptilian part of his brain. He will use any tool available to make himself impregnable. He has no permanent allies, only a set of smiling sycophants who hope to gain from the tone he has set. he will change political parties at will, change positions when cornered, and he always -so far- manages to avoid the shrapnel that would have torn other less-adept politicians to shreds. If he were a white-supremicist, he would not have Ben Carson as a secretary of something and if he were a male supremacist, he would not have Betsy DeVos as a secretary of something. These labels don't fit this guy. He is far more dangerous than those labels.
1
If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. I have no doubt that #45 is a Trump-supremacist more than anything, but as such his ideology is defined as white supremacist. There is no action he's publically taken that shows him to be a man of deep intellect and well thought out core beliefs, but he'll do anything that makes his infant self happy and the center of attention. It is all part of his malignant narcissism.
4
Donald Trump is always careful to give himself some plausible deniability when he pushes his unsavory agenda. He does it with innuendo, asking questions that have the impact of accusations (e.g., was he born in in Kenya?), and making contradictory statements interspersed amongst his dominant narrative. For this reason, we can never say with certainty that he is a racist or white nationalist.
That is not important. What is demonstrable and damning is that Donald Trump uses the bully pulpit of the presidency to act as a rabble rouser and apologist for racists, white nationalists, and anti-Islamic bigots. The proof is that these people praise him for his words and his discriminatory deeds while noting that he is helping them advance their cause with impunity. Compared to that, the question of Donald Trump’s true beliefs regarding race, religion or ethnicity hardly matter.
1
Trump is certainly a failure as a person, and a "not to be believed, condoned, or emulated" white man-boy. Typical of someone who "got above his raisin'" and yet, it may be that Trump family experience that jaded a small boy so ferociously that it arrested development.
Is Trump a white supremacist? Well, his track record at home in New York makes it pretty clear that he is terrified of the nonwhite poor, whom he sees as intrinsically disorderly and threatening, and he believes that they should be kept firmly under control even if they can't be pushed completely out of sight.
Huckabee Sanders explained, “When the president gets hit, he’s going to hit back harder.”
It's one thing to hit back. It's quite another to say, as childish bullies, including Trump, do that anyone who criticizes them is unskilled, untalented, failing in their profession and physically unattractive.
By the way, not only does Trump lie reflexively and support white supremacists, but he has small hands and a lousy golf swing, and he smells bad.
1
Trump's behavior shows racism, but it is a little hard to say exactly what kind of racist he is. I would not be surprised if in his heart of hearts he thinks blacks are intellectually inferior to whites, but equally likely he has never thought about it for more than a few seconds. His sympathy for white supremacists might be nothing more than political self interest coupled with an utter indifference to blacks or anyone other than himself.
I suspect he is a Trump Supremacist. No one is nearly as great as him; no one deserves much of anything besides him; and no one will get much help from him.
1
Previously the term of white supremacist was the ultimate pejorative label. #45 is much worse, he is "trump" - the denier of facts, logic, empathy.
Note the words of his mignons - let Trump be trump.
#45 is the antichrist.
1
Trump is a Trump supremacist. He only relates to those that are like him, and who agree with him. He's white, so he's a white supremacist, because he doesn't care about anyone else. He's rich, so he only cares about other rich people (even though his wealth is inherited and not earned). He's not as smart as he thinks he is, and is attracted to others who share his shallow, poorly considered opinions. And he's impulsive, so he disdains people who exercise tact and reason. It is sad that so many Americans seem to share his warped views.
2
Mr. Trump is more an opportunist than white supremacist.
That said, he does foment racial division, embrace white privilege and encourage white supremacy. Does that make him, himself a white supremacist? Not entirely, but he most certainly was born into office on the shoulders of white supremacists and racists.
Mr. Trump belongs solely to the party of one: himself.
1
Trump does appear to have an Archie Bunker bigot mentality. Surely it has been seen and recorded plus he has inspired, at his rallies, a host of haters wearing many stripes. From Klu Kluxers to race baiters to misogynists, deplorables all.
He never faults himself for anything - always blames someone else, ergo immigrants, Mexicans, judges, the justice system, Obama (he's jealous). He wavers in opinions, remains unclear, uneducated, shifty and committed to lying if it favors him. He likes tyrants and has no value system from what we can discern. It's all about him and feathering his nest. He's nothing but trouble for our country and whether he's a white supremacist or not doesn't matter at this point. America will suffer the consequences since we elected him.
I agree immediately with Charles Blow on a gut level. Once the wrenched gut has calmed, the intellect takes over & the two are in solid unity. We remain in the same racist precinct since the time of the colonists, with slavery of Africans and destruction of indigenous peoples.
The extra-judicial killings of African-American boys & men is a continuing scandal since mostly white grand juries are presented with barely enough evidence to indict. The UK abolished its grand jury system in 1933, followed by several of its former colonies. Why aren't we willing to go the one sensible step that would abolish that same grand jury system here? Simple. Our grand juries are one of the most powerful tools our legal system has to punish people with dark skins and other minorities.
Is Donald Trump a white supremacist? Look at his Attorney General, the Republican Party, Tea Party, KKK, neo-Nazi and alt-right groups & Trump's own business dealings. Yes, and again yes, Donald Trump is a white supremacist - in short, a racist.
2
Does Trump himself have strong white supremacist beliefs or is he merely cynically pandering to his racist, misogynistic base? The latter is almost worse than the former.
2
The Jury is in on this point. Trump, Sessions, and Pence are all racists. What else does America need to see, Trump, Sessions and Pence with their white hoods burning a cross? The real question is how does the rest of us who are not White defend our rights? Trump defenders never address his racism, they just deflect or say well it is all circumstantial.
5
Big Fan, Mr. Blow - please keep up the good work and fight.
Its funny you should mention the Milwaukee thing.
I wrote about it for counterpunch - b/c it was particularly disgusting and at the same time indicative of ...well...who was laughably running for office then, and his contempt for the African American community.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/06/disaster-in-detroit-fear-of-a-bl...
All the best,
David NYC
1
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in his article, “The First White President,” written in “The Atlantic,” “It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact…Trumps’ “ideology is white supremacy….Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican ‘rapists.’... In Trump, white supremacists see one of their own. Only grudgingly did Trump denounce the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, one of its former grand wizards—and after the clashes between white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia...Duke in turn praised Trump’s contentious claim that ‘both sides’ were responsible for the violence….Trump is the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch…But that is the point of white supremacy—to ensure that that which all others achieve maximal effort, white people (particularly white men) achieve with minimal qualification.”
Not only does he surrounds himself with white supremacist (Steve Bannon), so are his heroes. One being Andrew Jackson, the architect of the genocidal campaign known as the “Trail of Tears” that forcefully removed Native people from their lands and destroying civilianization’s that existed thousands of years before the European arrival.
Trump is a white supremacist in a white supremacist society elected by 58% of white America who adopted his white supremacist’s views.
8
Can you imagine this hypocrite demanding anyone "Apologize for untruth!"
3
When Trump called neo--nazis, the KKK or White supremacists "bad dudes" that was not a criticism That was a compliment.
5
Actually, he's a Trump Supremacist who exploited White Supremacy to get elected.
2
Come on. Of course he is sullied by the white supremacist support he receives. KKK, Violent Neo-Nazi torch holders, and affiliation with Steve Bannon. Who proudly gave white supremacists a platform. It's well known at this point Mr. Trump has sided with a movement "shot through with racism and anti-Semitism,” That gif tweet of him hitting a golf ball right into Hillary Clinton's back as she bordered her plane was from an anti-Semitic website.
I can't seem to find any of my posts here today but this is factual. And my last
effort to state a point of fact.
2
Mr. Blow needs to consider all circumstantial evidences through Trump's behavior.
He was found guilty of not renting his apartments to people of color. He made relentless (and stupid) efforts to delegitimize Obama. Countless times he has described attendees at his rallies (almost 100% white) as "beautiful people". He projected his bias when he questioned
the judge with root in Mexico.
Trump is with white supremacists if he is not against them. Thus far, he has failed to show that he is genuinely against them.
By his behavior, if not by direct actions or statements, therefore, Trump is white supremacist.
4
I feel very strongly about what Mr. Blow has written but I couldn't possibly comment about it better that Gemli, Eisenberg and Socrates. Well done!
2
YES. That is all that is needed in reply to Blow's headlined question: "Is Trump a White Supremacist." Yes.
2
Early on in his real estate career, Donald Trump and his father routinely wrote a "C" on applications for apartments - warning landlords that the prospective tenants were 'colored' and - therefore - not to be rented to. He took this case to court and was basically laughed out of the room.
Donald Trump also told his casino managers that he did not want black employees to handle money and that he wanted them in the background, not visible to paying (and white) patrons of his casinos.
Then there's the whole Birther Lie....insisting that a black man was not an American, did not get good grades from a prestigious university and could not have written his autobiography.
"Is Trump a White Supremacist?"
Yes.
Full stop.
NOT my president
5
Of course Trump is a white supremacist.
What exactly does he have to do before his apologists admit the obvious?
- Wear a white hood while driving around in his golf cart?
- Nominate Richard Spencer for the Supreme Court so "both sides" are represented?
- Proudly traffic in racist conspiracy theories to undermine the nation's first Black President? Well, we know the answer to that one.
It took a while before Trump was routinely called a liar by mainstream journalists. Most may be too cautious to use the apt but incendiary label "white supremacist" any time soon.
The authors of history books will not be as reticent.
2
If all actual white supremacists who voted in the last election were counted, what percentage would Trump have gotten?
I'd say, in the eyes of those marching with torches and shouting Nazi slogans, Trump is seen as on their side.
If you define white supremacists broadly, as whites who think they are superior to blacks, most whites fall into that category. Polls show that whites think it is the fault of blacks that they tend to be poor. Bad values, and all that. What they are saying is that whites are superior. Most whites are not overtly racist, but most are closet racists. Trump is one of the many.
1
To use the GOP'ers' for Dem whining, now who's the "snowflake"? With his campaign quote of "where's my black guy" and Charlottesville saga, etc., Trump should understand why Jemele Hill's type of response isn't surprising rather than just clobber her.
1
"This question is almost unanswerable in the absolute, but there is mounting circumstantial evidence pointing in a most disquieting direction."
Um, okay. Perhaps Mr. Blow doesn't want to go down the same road as Ms. Hill, and I completely get that. So I'll answer it: Yes, Donald Trump is a white supremacist.
Look at his history of statements and actions: discrimination against people of color in his properties, championing the execution of young black men falsely accused of a crime (even after every idiot knew they were not guilty). and the long, long string of statements that would not surprise anyone if they came out of the mouth of David Duke. All of this is there and in the public record.
But what did it for me was the collection of quotes where Trump is asked in interviews what he thinks is the reason for his success. Again and again, Trump says "it's the genes. I've got great genes." He believes, and has stated clearly again and again, that his success and his intelligence is due to good genes.
Well, that's eugenics. Scientifically, it's hogwash, but that's what eugenics is all about. The foundation of Trump's worldview - how he sees himself and understands his role in the world - is a discredited, white racist pseudo-scientific theory about genetics from the late 18th century.
Yes, he's a white supremacist. And let's add, like pretty much every other white president we've ever had. Maybe we should talk about the impact of that sometime....
1
Ta-Nehisi Coates in his article, “The First White President,” published in “The Atlantic,” writes, “It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact…Trumps’ “ideology is white supremacy….Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican ‘rapists.’…In Trump, white supremacists see one of their own. Only grudgingly did Trump denounce the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, one of its former grand wizards—and after the clashes between white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia...Duke in turn praised Trump’s contentious claim that ‘both sides’ were responsible for the violence….Trump is the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch…But that is the point of white supremacy—to ensure that that which all others achieve maximal effort, white people (particularly white men) achieve with minimal qualification.”
In addition those who he surrounds himself with, such as Steve Bannon, look at his heroes. One being Andrew Jackson, the architect of the genocidal campaign known as the “Trail of Tears” that forcefully removed Native people from their lands and destroying civilianization’s that existed thousands of years before the European arrival.
He is a white supremacist in a white supremacist society elected by 58% of white America who adopted his white supremacist’s views.
1
Hey. Trump pals around with white supremacists, and still frequently calls the executive editor of Breitbart, who General Kelly banished from the White House.
Bannon helped Trump get elected:
“We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon told journalist Sarah Posner with pride when she interviewed him at the GOP convention in July.
Under Bannon's leadership,"the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an “eclectic mix of renegades.”
Ben Shapiro, who eventually left Breitbart, wrote “with Bannon embracing Trump...now Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website... pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”
Shapiro described the alt-right as a “movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism,” and Breitbart News as “a party organ, a pathetic cog in the Trump-Media Complex and a gathering place for white nationalists.”
He received anti-Semitic tweets from the site, one said "Into the gas chamber the 4 of you."
2
Ask the Central Park Five this question. Ask those who filed a lawsuit against his real estate company.
If Trump and Trumpism are not White Male Privilege gone amok and unchecked, I don't know what is. And if with that, you still do not denounce Nazis?
Yes, Mr. Blow, he is, until proven otherwise. He should not have the privilege to escape the label, while wallowing in their support. It is sick.
1
And then there is all the talk about the confederate statues 'preserving history and culture'. If so, then why not put incriptions on these monuments identifying them as anti-constitutional, treasonous, traitors, and criminals. If the South REALLY wants statues that speak to their history and culture, they should begin erecting monuments everywhere of slaves working to make the South great . . . hopefully not again! Slaves built the pre-Civil War economy of the South and not one word of thanks.
2
Yet another article/Op-ed throwing the "white supremacy" label around without even try to define it. Please tell me what it means!!
1
I have known a lot of people in film and television production. They work all the time. They make decent money. They also get burnt out pretty quickly and usually end their careers with a little bit of bitterness.
I mention this because there HAS to be production person associated with the Apprentice, who is sick of a life in television production and wants to go out with a bang.
Where are you, person who has access to the off camera, hot mic stuff from the Apprentice, where Trump uses the N-word and blathers on as his true self.
Trump's father was a Klansman. Both Donald and his father were found guilty of racial bias and discrimination.
He has not changed. He is a white supremacists and bigot and should be removed from office by every legal means.
My personal hope is that karma comes back and gets him and the Mueller investigation destroys the entire Trump empire, as they are found to be conduits for organized crime money laundering.
The entire Republican Party, by the way, is a racist organization.
3
Trump is not a white supremacist. He is a donaldtrumpacist! To be a white supremacist Trump would need to need to consider the value of other people, in this case, other white people. He would need to have a sense of group identity. As an extreme narcissist, all other people are irrelevant to him. His identity, image, and desires are the only things that motivate him. He has no desire to be identified with a group. White supremacists are simply useful pawns in his self aggrandizement. He built his base on white supremacists not because he is one them but because they were willing to feed his insatiable ego.
2
Yes. He is.
2
America was founded by wealthy slave driving, white supremacists. True or false?
3
Trump repeatedly talks about how good his family's genes are. I think he's a classic supremacist.
1
I don't think Trump is a 'white supremacist' on the level of the Klan, but I think he is enough of a racist to not care to understand the horrors of what the KKK and Neo Nazis are, and that is the crux of this. The fact that he could outright say that the Neo Nazis and White Supremacists were the same as those with other beliefs tells the tale, because what Trump is leaving out if what the KKK and Neo Nazis and the like do with their beliefs, that these are not people with fringe beliefs but people with a track record of violence and killing as well, and that tells of a blindness to what they stand for, and racism is the likely cause, that he doesn't want to know. Given the racism he grew up with, Trump's father was notorious for racially discriminatory practices, it is natural to him. I don't think Trump looks at a black or brown face and says "they are inferior", I think the problem is he looks at a black or brown face and either ignores the meaning, or uses it, as in his lies about Mexican immigrants being criminals.
The only kind of superiority Trump espouses is class superiority, he rails against afffirmative action, but is fine that he and his kids got into elite schools, not because they were the best of the best, but because money and influence bought their way in. As Colin Powell said about the Trumps of the world, they get upset that there is affirmative action, unless it benefits the well off through things like legacy admits and wealth.
While Trump is certainly a white supremacist--How do we know what anybody is except by word and action?--intellectually and physically he daily smashes the myth of white supremacy. How the bigots of American must envy the Russians for having a leader who can take his shirt off in public and sound intelligent.
1
I like white males and I am happy to be one. I also prefer European culture.
If people like Mr Blow feel justified in attacking white males, I feel equally justified in holding my beliefs without apologies.
2
You realize that you had nothing to do with being born a white male? Sorry, but you can't put that on your list of "accomplisments."
1
Maybe not a white supremacist, but certainly the biggest opportunist around. As for “the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,” a lot of truth there and I've lived considerably longer than Jemele Hill has.
1
Probably, although he's more of a symptom than a disease. Mr. Trump reminds me of my dead dad, God rest his tortured soul. A money-worshipping, misogynistic, virulently racist, narcissistic, barrel-chested mass of the worst form of white "supremacy." Just like a lot of other people I know. And the nation and world still belong to them, no matter how much reactionary rebels like me and my black, red and tan buddies crab about it. https://soundcloud.com/biff-thuringer/white-mans-world
The Donald could be described as an elitist white supremacist who cast dispersions not only on anyone who is not white, but also is female, gay, disabled, poor, transgendered, and not rich. Racism, bigotry, prejudice, and hate are the badges he espouses.
2
What would anyone call someone who condones violence at this rallies, speaks of "good people" when referring to a White Supremacist march? Of course, one should never lay the Sins of the father at the foot of the child. But, one should neither forget an apple does not fall far from it's tree. Trump Snr was arrested at brawl at a KKK rally in NY in 1927. I'm sure he was just an innocent bystander!!! Just saying.
2
Jared Kushner, who happens to be jewish is married to the mans daughter, his visibility and participation in the white house give strong indication as to the nature of our president in regard to this inquiry.
2
Whether Trump starts a nuclear war because of North Korea does not depend on how much of a racist he is.
How soon he can be impeached and removed from office probably doesn't either.
2
A white supremacist? Some days yes, some days no. Depending on his mood and which he judges to be to his advantage on that day.
A cuckoo clock? Decidedly yes. Full blown. 24/7.
2
What ultimately matters is his actions. He is clearly acting to support white supremacy.
2
If it walks, talks and acts like a duck . . .
See Ta-Nehisi Coates's recent piece in the Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-pre....
1
I don't pretend to know what Trump, in his heart of hearts, really thinks. But white supremacists certainly seem to see themselves reflected in him.
As an old white guy, I 100% agree with Ms. Hill. Enough said.
1
Known by the company he keeps:
First: himself
Second: television about himself.
Third: mobs fueled by grievance and racial animus
Fourth: Fantastical self-justification and false accusations.
White icing on that mess , every day.
Why must we report the obvious about this man ? Disturbed, dishonest, and yes fully invested in white supremacy that keeps him in power.
Donald Trump is a Trump supremacist. Anything else follows that.
1
Trump is is the kind of guy that had he been born 100 years earlier he would have dodged the Confederate army, sold whips to plantation owners, bad food to the Confederate military, secrets to the Union, and later manufactured and sold white sheet outfits to the KKK. Technically not a racist by thought or even necessarily by word, but a coward, bully and racist by deed. The worst kind of human being. That's our president.
2
“[trump] is slow to condemn [and offend]… white supremacists. What does that say about him?” ---- it says he’s at best an opportunist, at worst a true racist, and definitely a coward.
Is Trump a White Supremacist - Yes.
Is ISIS a terrorist organization - Yes.
Is the Pope a religious leader - Yes.
Is Narendra Modi a Hindu Nationalist - Yes.
Is there documented evidence for police brutality against African Americans - Yes,
Will the Federal Reserve start unwinding its asset purchase - Yes.
Was Obama a decent and articulate leader - Yes.
etc etc.
5
We are measured by the company we keep. Trump's close buddy Bannon is a white supremacist, ergo, Trump is a white supremacist. So was his father Fred, who has been documented as a sympathizer with the KKK. Apple fell right under the tree.
2
Why is there outrage?many of trumps supporters wear their racism on their sleeves ...and on their hoods
3
Donald Trump is a supremacist's supremacist. He is supreme, period.
What is it about Trump that isn't the greatest of the great and so he attracts supremacists to the max... Heaven help U.S.
3
Richard Luettgen writes:"Well, if Barack Obama hadn’t been black, he never would have been elected, either. America in a pre-Trump state of mind doesn’t elect a young, less-than-one-term U.S. senator with no national or global credentials UNLESS it wishes to finally put the color-line behind us in the presidency." Absurd. Obama won because he wasn't Republican, a brand George W. Bush had trashed to the limit. Hilary would have won, Biden would have won, any non-Republican with minimal name recognition would have won. As for Richard on ESPN and Hill: when you have no case to argue, go for personal insults and sarcasm, the first refuge of intellectual four-flusher.
4
Being from Canada, you may not be clear on our system here. Prior to the general election there is a Primary. In 2008 that was primarily between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's generally well understood here in the US that if Barack were white he would have never beaten Hillary in the '08 Primary. He would have simply been another John Edwards, without the hidden baggage of course. The lie at the time from the left was "we are over with Hillary" "we want something new" "we are moving in a new direction". Anything to explain away the real reason for their obsession with their new Obama toy. Any question of whether Barack won because he is black was answered when the Democrats ran Hillary in 2016.
I'm not sure whether he is a white supremacist, but there's plenty of proof that he gravely mistreated many black men, women and children for many years in has role as enforcer for the Trump apartment empire. And he also mistreated many, many, non-white Hispanic workers for his businesses, a number of whom sued him for paying egregiously low wages. His mistreatment of women should come as no surprise to those who heard him say - on television - how he took advantage of women who probably thought they were just talking to a celebrity who might help them get a job. Fat chance there.
He thinks of himself, first and foremost, as he did when he lied to his draft board to get out of military service in Nam, saying that he had a bad heel multiple times. No matter to him that someone else had to go in his place. He lied to our government, so it was easy after that to lie to everyone else. I honesty don't know whether he's a white supremacist, but I know that he's a really bad man.
1
First, did Bill Clinton or Mitt Romney serve in Vietnam? Maybe they didn't have to lie, but do you really believe there was no self interest involved in their draft evasion? As for Trump's alleged racism as a landlord or condo manager - could it be that his tenants/customers were the ones calling the shots? Is refusing to rent to someone "gravely mistreating" them? Were Bill Clinton, Anthony Wiener, even JFK always perfect gentlemen?
The short answer: Yes.
3
As I have often said, racist is as racist does.
DJT, as his father before him, did racist things.
Similarly, WS is as WS does. If WS equate the actions of anti-WS protesters with WS actions, or use those actions to just their own, ipsi facto....
1
Yes, Trump supporters here will make claims that are themselves racist to the core. For instance, they will say that the nature of the present president's character is the same sort of outrage as the color of the previous president's skin.
"... is Trump in fact a white supremacist who has surrounded himself with white supremacists and whose party courted white supremacists?"
Yes, Trump has surrounded himself with, panders to, takes advice from, and is pathologically unable to behave morally vis-a-vis white supremacists like Bannon, Miller, Gorka, and Spencer among others.
And, yes, he has thereby quietly and indisputably joined the white supremacy crowd. In short, if you talk like one and act like one then you are one.
As studies show, the principal motivation for Trump's relatively well-off voters was racial resentment. And Trump was their man.
3
As radicalized as the fast-shrinking ESPN was becoming, it was inevitable that it would place political officers or commissars in important positions. I imagine that soon not-so-funny politicals will be members of discussion panels, just as they were added to military groups throughout Soviet history.
These people will be the ones who can't tell a touchdown from a grand slam but at whose jokes EVERY one will laugh. Ms. Hill isn't the only one because all the athletes attacking our customs and culture will need people to defend them.
Jemele Hill represents not only Charles' politics, but the extremists at the head of ESPN and Disney-ABC itself. ESPN always simply fires people who make similar comments but from the political Right perspective.
Even as ESPN fires more and more sports people, these political officers will have a broader and wider progressive impact on the self-imploding ESPN.
2
No, the President is too self centered to hold an idealist position.
1
White supremacist or not - what matters is he gives them voice, a platform and encourages them. He is more than okay with prejudice, racism, misogyny even violence and hate to get what he desires. Personal gratification is number one on his agenda and everything is grist for this mill alone.
5
There is no doubt in my mind that Trump is a white supremacist. His entire reason for being as president is to make sure the white power structure stays intact. That self-proclaimed white supremacists see one of their own in Trump only adds to the litany of evidence against him. I would extend this criticism to the party he ran on. Mr. Blow, you are in my view too forgiving when you say "the Republican Party clearly stands for more than white supremacy and the promotion of that intellectually fallacious concept." In its present form, that party is deeply invested in maintaining the white power structure. Scratch the surface of its policies and you will find that interest laid bare.
4
If you are the hands down favorite candidate for the KKK and White Supremacists and Nationalists then, "YES" you are one too.
If they believe in him and thinks he is for them then I believe it too
I don't listen to Donald Trump, I pay attention to what he has done. And what he has done is self deal, and remove protections for workers and consumers. His administration's goal is to tear down the institutions that Make America Great and he is making profits while doing it.
Every article, every comment should focus on who is hurt and how he or his family benefits...
5
The answer if yes. Trump is a white supremacist. But, he is also an ignorant, lazy thinker and a Charlatan. He does not get the ludicrousness of hiring people who are Jewish to many of his most critical cabinet positions, belittling minority communities and denigrating women while at the same time supporting Bannon, Gorka and their white supremacist tribe. His daughter and son in law are Jewish and he still has no clue. Does it matter that everyone knows he is white supremacist? That is the real question that should be debated.
4
When was the last time Blow wrote about something other than the evils of Donald Trump? Trump has become an obsession with him.
Maybe it's time for a vacation, Charles.
1
I don't think Trump is thoughtful enough to be a white supremacist. He just reacts to what gets applause. White supremacists are in the audience and applaud? He gives them what they want and doesn't think about the morality. He is just a buffoon who only cares about ego gratification.
3
"Obama’s memoir was too well-written for him to have written it, that it must have been written by a white man." This statement says it all. A black man couldn't possibly be that intelligent. He clearly believes white men to be superior.
7
Said the man who never reads and uses his native language abominably. (I agree Suzanne)
Thanks, Charles Blow, for continuing to raise important questions.
If President Trump (1) Does something constructive about those who were sheltered by DACA; (2) Acts to encourage Congress to improve the Affordable Care Act rather than trying to dismantle it; (3) Provides Congress a framework for equitable tax relief for middle America; (4) Encourages employment by supporting a comprehensive act to improve our deteriorating infrastructure, including dams and highways, and (5) Strengthens our national security by strongly endorsing improvement in our use of the internet...
Then I will begin applauding him for acting presidential.
To be white in America is tantamount to being a racist. there is simply no way short of changing skin pigment to avoid the privileges that come with being white. There is simply no way to choose not to be followed in department stores to make sure you aren't stealing something. Likewise there is no way to be not passed over in favor of a less qualified white applicant for a job. Finally, there is no way to avoid not being stopped by police for driving your car at night in a predominately white neighborhood in which you own a home, or for driving a car that is deemed too expensive for your position in society. All these privileges come with being white. White Americans live in a society tilted to give them advantages whether they notice them or not, and most white Americans take them as their due.
9
First, I'm pretty sure white teenagers are followed around in dept stores all the time. I know from personal experience that older people are passed over for less qualified but YOUNGER people, including less qualified YOUNGER African American people all the time. If you deny this, you are truly living in a dream world. I would suggest you leave your gated community and visit mobile home parks and homeless shelters all over this country to see how "privileged" white people are.
Ms. Hill's statement was spot on. The president is a white supremacist. He sides with Nazis in his actions and his speech. For that alone he can be criticized.
5
Your President Trump attacked both sides at Charlottesville because BOTH sides were responsible for violence.
On the first night, a Friday, when only the Aryans and white nationalists were present, there was no violence. Within minutes of paid Antifa rioters showing up on Saturday with their faces covered - like the KKK used to do - we had violence.
When you decide facts based on your politics, joe, you end up married to a violent crew that will be counting deaths soon enough.
3
Trump is a racist for sure.
5
I agree with everything you say here, Mr. Blow, except one. You say that in Trump's eyes, Obama was illegitimate and inferior. Illegitimate (to Trump) because he was black, yes, but inferior? Trump never thought of Obama as inferior, and that was the problem. Trump evidently has a MASSIVE inferiority complex with regard to Obama. Obama is handsome, slim, intelligent, smooth, funny, etc. Trump is an obese orange clown. Trump wants to deligitimize Obama precisely because he knows what a superior man Obama was (and is), and Trump just can't stand it, stupid lump that he is.
9
Obama is a liar who deliberately betrayed working class Americans in many ways, which is a big part of the reason Trump won the election.
So, who else here has had the 'Blow Second Censor' remove your comment after they say that they published it? They really work on keeping this guy seem relevant.
1
If he looks, walks, tweets and quacks like a white supremacist....
4
To Blow and the NYT, Ben Carson is a white supremacist. So how do we even start to take this rag seriously?
5
I only just saw the Trump re-tweet of the photoshopped golf ball hit off Trump’s driver purporting to slam Hillary Clinton in the back causing her to fall down in the plane.
How in God’s name can anyone think this is at all funny? The owners of this adolescent social media site Twitter should NEVER have allowed that tweet (and two dozen other by the same woman hater “MAGA 5.0”) up for public viewing.
As a 68 y/o woman I am so terribly appalled at my country that I want to crawl away and just die. I can’t even imagine how Mrs. Clinton begins to feel.
In 20/20 hindsight how I wish she had told lil donny to “Back off” when he was literally snorting and breathing down the back of her neck during the second debate.
This enfant terrible has now been normalized by GOP Senators Lindsay Graham and Dean Heller who are most probably going to Repeal and Replace the ACA with an even more horrible bill...and the Arizona Governor is backing it too which means mealy-mouthed Flake and McCain will vote yes also.
I hate my country with all the hatred I can muster. What the HELL have I worked for in my life? It all means nothing.
11
Nicely said I agree with you 100%
3
Trump is no more and no less racist than any other 70 year old white billionaire.What President Trump is attempting to implement is a policy of economic Nationalism that can lift up every American Citizen that is working or wants to be working. That includes Black people as well as Hispanics,Asians,poor Whites etc... Quite frankly this drum beat of labeling Trump a "White Supremacist" is tiresome. It actually serves the purpose of more tightly tethering to President Trump certain elements in our electorate of an unsavory nature.Those who agree with your argument did not vote for Trump in the first place. The fact of the matter is that Trump's populist America First message is scary to many establishment limousine liberal types because it resonates with so many in our country. We do have a problem where our manufacturing has been hollowed out creating poverty where previously there was wealth. Economic Nationalism created a thriving middle class in this country after World War 2. America First is NOT White supremacy but a rising tide that can float all boats regardless of race,color,creed or ethnicity.
4
Trump refused to rent his properties to African Americans. He promoted the birther lie about Obama. He's a racist and not-so-very-closeted white supremacist. Enjoy your (access to) health care if Trump and the health industry owned Repubs get their way. And I have this nice bridge to sell you....
1
Obviously you have not read Thomas Piketty's books, especially "Capital in the 21st Century." He makes mincemeat of the "rising tide lifts all boats" economic theory, otherwise know as "trickle down economics."
I do not believe that many of us share your views, and optimism.
Additionally, that "rising tide" in a sense exempts many persons of color, particularly those south of our border as exhibited by his pardon of another nativist, Sheriff Joe whose "brown people roundups" targeted one particular group of people, and they were not pasty Northern European white people.
Trump masterfully worked his con artistry on many, and it appears you may have succumbed to the con.
1
Trump is a white supremisist is what I believe. There are videos of him thruout his life talking about superior genes. And he believes he possesses those genes. Yes, Republicans have used racism and sexism to get their candidates elected, they would not have been elected without their racist dog whistles. Hillary beat Bernie despite his sexist dog whistles. Overwhelming Republicans are racist users. And sexist. Once one understands the dog whistles it is quite apparent.
4
Racial bias is not a binary choice. I'll admit that I am not as perfectly even handed as I'd like to be. Arguing if Trump is racist is similarly difficult. I will say this, by most metrics Trump is a jerk. Isn't that enough?
i'm not sure that trump is a white supremacist, but he is a trump supremacist.
2
I think Trump is to white supremacists what Barbra Streisand is to gay men.
I wonder how many white supremacists' kids will be Trump this Halloween. Scary.
Here a racist there a racist everywhere a racist racist....and so it goes.
If everyone were honest with themselves, they would realize there is some inborn racist in all of us....can you do that ...be honest!!
Trump says things without thinking. He has at times appeared to be a racist. Jemele Hill and Michael Smith lean toward racism; at times it appears they do not like white people at all. The mayors and governors who think it is ok to protect people who are not legal citizens and by being here are breaking the law are showing a bias against our citizenry. People chanting, waving signs and flags, getting arrested...overboard!! Even B. Obama at times sounded like he did not like white people. Lets face it; nobody in the country can say they have never felt a twinge or hint of hate towards another person who is somehow different.
The trick to it is to catch yourself; you must realize we are all human and deserve to be treated the same. We have grown to immediately think that people are different; the first reaction from where we have all come. The solution is to think about it first, realize that where we have come from may be wrong; and look to where we are going and KNOW that equality for all is the ONLY answer....so next time you feel that twinge...stop and think...I promise it will not hurt one bit!!
3
To say that race influenced the 2008 election because many people voted for Obama in part to put the color line behind us --out of anti-racism- - is not, contrary to a number of posts here, to say that the elector as l outcome was racist.
Anti-racism is not racism any more than anti-Communism was Communist or anti-Nazism Nazi.
1
HE disproves the " theory " of White Supremacy, daily. Seriously.
3
Neo-Nazism, White Supremacism, anti-Semitism, hatred of immigrants and foreigners, all the forces that drew Trump's fans to his sides....and it they are wrong from any moral perspective and must be condemned as such. Trump is following the dictator's playbook: racial hater-mongering, xenophobia, complete disregard for the law, attacking the media as liars for reporting the truth. There is nothing new here it has all been tried and done before. The Anne Frank Center has even compared Trump's behavior to that of Adolf Hitler. Trump admires dictators and thinks that he is one.
The events in Charlottesville as seen by Trump diagnose the seriousness of the problem. The real question is where do we go from here. How can we unite this nation in the fight against everything Trump stands for? The Republican leadership bears full responsibility for supporting Trump in his boundless efforts to deconstruct American democracy and defile all that American soldiers have fought and died for.
2
Yes.
1
If you embrace and encourage members of the Klan and Nazis what else do you expect to be labelled? If you refuse to remotely recognize the inequality of the justice and social systems and champion the removal of any possibility than non-whites be treated as equal citizens (not servants of the rich) what kind of remotely positive label could we possibly use? Why is it shockingck to call a greedy rich self-worshiping ignoramus a racist when he clearly is? The thing that offends him the most about "political correctness" is being told to stop using the "N" word as frequently as he did in the past. Just ask Tom Arnold (if he isn't quivering in his lawyers shadows).
2
Pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a heinous criminal who bragged about his sweltering "concentration camp," mostly for hispanics of course. Appointing that "good ole boy," Jeff Sessions, Attorney General, who couldn't hide his gleeful fruition when announcing DACA's demise. Praising Charlottsville neonazi terrorists then, and again recently. Trying frantically to erase Obama's legacy. Hey, if it looks like a duck...
5
There is an important distinction to be made between actual white racism, i.e. the belief that people of races other than "Caucasian" are somehow genetically inferior, and the aversion that many people have towards cultural phenomena like "rap" music and the hostile, transgressional posturing that has unfortunately come to be associated with people of African descent. Trump and many who think of themselves as white supremacists may well be merely reacting against "ghetto culture", so this is really "culture war" rather than actual racism.
2
This is a wonderful article. I have strongly suspected Trump's white supremacist
attitudes since his butler of 17 years was outed for his violent racism in May 2016. One does not keep that kind of personal employee unless their values (or lack of) are aligned.
3
In the sense that Trump is white and views himself as supreme it's a no-brainer. In the sense that you become the company you keep, he's a no-brainer.
1
I completely agree with the conclusion that Trump either is in fact a white supremacist under the skin (or quite overtly, based on his public statements) or a fan and defender, and I, too, can't see any difference between the two. And Trump isn't alone among prominent politicians. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is another obvious and unabashed white supremacist, as are former White House strategic adviser Stephen Bannon and current White House adviser Stephen Miller. Alabama Senate candidate and former judge Roy Moore is another obvious white supremacist, and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama is another. Clearly, ex-Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona is another. The list could go on and on and on.
8
In other words, anyone who disagrees with you and who doesn't hate white people is a white supremacist. Got it.
2
If he's not he's doing a great imitation of one, or a wannabe white supremacist. I think that Trump is malicious. I think that he's self centered, more so than most people. I think that he is the most unqualified person to hold public office in modern times. But I'm not sure he has any principles other than making money and making himself look good.
Trump is the logical end to what started when the GOP took in the Dixiecrats over 50 years ago. He is the logical outcome to having a Nixon in office, a Reagan, a Clinton, and a W. He is the public servant who serves only himself. And the current GOP is a party that is so far removed from being human that robots would have more compassion than they do. But I don't think that Trump is a real white supremacist. David Duke is. Our current Attorney General may be. Trump, no. He's not organized enough in word or thought.
1
Of course, he's of course he's a white supremacist how could anyone doubt it?
5
This is from the documentary on James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro. We are well past time for facing ourselves. My only hope is that we don't succeed in further ruining this country before we face ourselves. Or, more likely, if we face ourselves.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." James Baldwin, NYTimes Book Review 1962
6
Mr. Blow is far too generous when he writes, "Also, while the Republican Party clearly stands for more than white supremacy and the promotion of that intellectually fallacious concept, the party has often turned a blind eye to the racists in its midst and done far too little to extricate them."
The Republican Party has not just been a passive, reluctant politic beneficiary of the votes and support of racists. The party has followed a consistent, relentless, blatant strategy to attract racists into its column for fifty years. From NIxon's Southern Strategy through Reagan's welfare queens through George H.W. Bush's Willie Horton ad to today's embrace of publicly unapologetic white supremacists, the Republican Party has actively, cynically and immorally courted, stoked, exploited, welcomed and served racists.
In those simpler times before the summer of 2015, the GOP just used dogwhistles, innuendo and loaded terms to get their racist message out to their audience. Trump uses a bullhorn. The dogwhistles versus bullhorn issue is the GOP's only problem with Trump's appeals to racists.
The GOP's problem with the bullhorn is one of strategy, not of substance. The GOP fully supports winning the votes of racists, by both rhetoric and policy. And, its membership, leadership, voters and actions reflect it.
5
"There's no evidence!" The Trump supporters love to use this line even when it's blatantly untrue.
"No evidence that Trump is racist" despite DOJ investigations that concluded he was racist in his business practices, his accusations against the Central Park Five, his constant racist remarks quoted ad nauseum.
"No evidence that Trump is connected to Russia" despite the lies, the obstruction, the clandestine meeting with his family and advisors, his constant admiration of Putin and repetition of Kremlin talking points.
You can't talk to people who deliberately ignore reality.
6
I do think that Trump identifies as a white person as well as a person born with privileges that others have not. The privileges are entirely due to his having been born into a family which could bequeath him with millions of dollars to go into business, however. He is above average smart but not really intelligent. He is taller than average with gives him some advantages in social interactions. He gets other people's attention when he wants. He is charming enough to convince others that he can do what he claims, and has used it to get himself into myriad disappointing agreements for lack of performance by his side of the agreements. What has enabled him to succeed was the millions of dollars he had. Now people like Trump who have benefitted from luck rather than personal accomplishments are truly privileged and they often assure themselves of the dependability of future success by a rather unreasonable conviction that they are naturally endowed with talents which are evidenced by their privileges rather than accomplishments. I think that he does think of himself as superior but it's more based upon a sense that he is special and highly talented rather than because he is a white man. He looks upon those who are not rich as being his inferiors, as lacking the talents which he enjoys, regardless of racial appearances, but it results in a great similarity between his view of humanity and those of white supremacists because such a high proportion of minorities are poorer.
3
Mr. Blow - With all due respect, Trump & his admin have denounced white supremacists many times in the past. Maybe not exactly in the way that you would like, but he has denounced them. I propose that you can't hear it because of your own bias, which we all have in one form or another.
A similar situation is the relationship between Antifa and the leadership on the left and in the Democratic party. I don't hear the left denouncing Antifa, who are just as dangerous as white extremists. That does not mean that the left supports Antifa but they need to affirmatively distance themselves from them, in the same way we expect the Republicans and Trump administration to do. I offer that there has been more denunciation from the right of white supremacists than from the left of extremists.
9
frances,
In what world do you equate Anti-fascists with the Alt-Rigts of the Klan, the Nazi's, the Nationalist and Republicans in general?!
Tell me, how many people have antifa killed this year?
0.
Zilch.
Nada.
None.
Tell me frances, how many have the alt-Reich killed this year?
28 in the US and Canada.
Over 100 severely injured in only these 9 months. They have publicly announced the probability of more.
Shall we count the bomb threats frances? Over 40, with 1 failed attempt.
How about the torch marches. How about the terrorism of our churches and synagogues.
Yeah, the concept that these two groups are even remotely alike is preposterous.
Shall we now discuss their respective history's?
The Klan alone in their 150yr existence have over 3000 deaths attributed to them. Centuries of institutionalized racism and terrorism.
Yet frances schuchman thinks anti-fascist and self avowed fascist are the same.
By the by frances, Democrats have disavowed antifa. Publicly.
Just as antifa has said publicly they are not associated with nor part of the Democratic Party. They are for the most part Anarchists. They find Dems to be almost as bad as Republicans.
Educational link if needed.
https://antifainternational.tumblr.com/
5
Good rebuttal Dobby's sock. I am not trying to claim that they are moral equivalents. What I stand by is that Trump has denounced white supremacists, Nazis, etc. I was a strong Hillary supporter and I am no fan of Trump. But I will call it as I see it. Even Bannon on 60 minutes disavowed white supremacists in a believable manner, basically saying they added no value to the Trump brand.
On a slightly different but related note, I would like to open up space in the public square for Trump to change. I am not naive, if he changes it will be because it is in his own self-interest. He is adaptable. Yes, he has made egregious remarks in the past and there is no forgetting that. But we may have this man for 2 terms. I say open the space up to allow him to change.
Thank you Charles M. Blow. I read every one of your columns and I thank you for being a consistent voice of resistance against the Trump Regime.
11
One of the moral arguments for electing candidate Trump was that he was a business man, not a politician. Ironically, how many businesses today would allow their CEO to speak and behave as Trump does without being held to account?
Shame on us all if, as a society, we refuse to accept racism in our board rooms but continue to permit it in our Oval Office.
7
It is fascinating to see commentators of all races parsing, explaining, denying, confirming and or excusing Trump's behavior and statements about race. To me, it's all unnecessary because there's a really, really simple test here to determine if he is: call it the "If Obama said it" test. The fact is, if President Obama had said one tenth of the derogatory things Donald Trump had said about blacks, democrats, liberals, Antifa and the BLM movement, etc., but said them about white Republicans and members of the so-called "alt-right," movement, he would have been pilloried by Dems AND Republicans and impeached within a matter of weeks of his first utterances. Those of us who knew about Trump during his years in NYC knew full well that he was a detestable - nay deplorable - human being and heard him repeatedly make openly racist remarks. Is DT a white supremacist? Is the sky blue?
8
Obama DID dish working class whites. What was that "clinging to their bibles and guns" comment, if not bashing? And Hillary called white Americans deplorable, but NYT and its readers were perfectly happy with that characterization.
1
Twitter and tweets reinforce hyperbole, since number of words are limited.
A rational, authentic discussion of white supremacy would look at definition of the term, perspective of the person using the term, etymology, and history. This requires lots of words. Twitter diminishes our intelligence.
I maintain that no person in America is untouched by the emotional stimulus/response of race. Americans are raised in a racially unequal, divisive society.
As we gain more distance and perspective, we will come to realize that Trump's reactive election was an example of white backlash in the context of demographic change.
His attack on our first black president is evidence of his racism, whether he is conscious of it or not. His courting of white supremacists makes him at least a fellow traveler. His appointment of an AG who is trying to implement voter suppression based on race argues that he is, in fact, a supporter of white "traditionalism and heritage." Ergo, yes, the default position is that Trump is a white supremacist. He must prove otherwise.
Hill was as courageous in calling out Trump, as Anita Hill was in testifying against Clarence Thomas. Prejudice is no respecter of skin color, but whites have never stopped enabling and enforcing racism. It is time to admit that black lives matter as much as white lives, and that skin color distinctions are the refuge of the ignorant and brutal members of our species.
3
It almost doesn't matter whether Trump is a white supremacist because he's exhibited so many religious, racial, ethnic and gender-based prejudices to date that to itemize each one and catalogue the evidence is exhausting, and we've long ago passed the point of knowing what we need to know about him.
With his animus towards Mexicans, Muslims, women, inner-city African Americans (the only African Americans, to hear him talk), gay people (whom he'd deny workplace discrimination protections), transgender people (whom he'd bar from military service), what's one more thing on the ever-growing list? The man is simply a hater.
Yet he contends he's the least prejudiced person. How can he do what he does, yet hold this self-image? Well, I bet if someone came right out and asked him, he might say "I'm not a bigot, but I play one on TV."
5
Here's my two cents: I don't think the main motivation behind Trump's support of white supremacy is pure racism. I think that he is a man who has absolutely zero sense of honor and zero sense of integrity, and his motivation behind everything he does is to survive and thrive (as he perceives it) by any means necessary, no matter how cheap the shot, or disgusting the statement. The racism is in there, of course, but not nearly in the same capacity as the narcissism. I think his internal logic here is "Why would I go against my own people? That's going against myself, and I want myself to win." Everything always comes back to "Will this help me personally?" In his eyes, supporting any race/gender other than his own is detrimental to his own personal success, so he doesn't do it.
4
I wonder why so many people, many poor and of color, voted for him.
Of course, he is a white supremacist! And he certainly is a racist. That can be the only reason he continued to insist that Obama was not born in the US. Big Daddy Fred taught his little boy well!
6
Blow is one of the biggest recipients of Racism. It pays his mortgage.
He loves Racism. Blacks are every bit as Racist as Whites, until someone has the courage to say it, nothing changes. Thats bad for Blacks because on their own they made their community a "failed" one. Thats to bad.
By the way, Black males don't resist the Police, its just plain stupid.
7
Its profitable. But there is racism out there that needs to go. But as long as they hold on to the crutch, they will never move forward. Time to grow up
If you ask him he will tell you "he is the least white supremacist person in the world".
Nah!
3
To Richard Luettgen:
If it talks like a white supremacist, approves of white supremacists, acts like a white supremacist, has white supremacist support, chances are it's a white supremacist!
27
There are many ideas upon which reasonable people can disagree. When an idea is so pernicious and destructive to democracy and the body politic, people have no choice but to divide into camps. Usually the pernicious idea is held by a small group of true believers, at least initially. If I personally am not a member of the Nazi party, but I support what Nazis say and defend what violence Nazis do which is in clear violation of the law, what does it matter than I am not a member of the Nazi party? It is a distinction without a difference.
Most of the country finds Nazi positions and activities abhorrent, and are not only not members of the Nazi party, but actively opposed to their every activity, accurately viewing them as a threat to any form of democracy we might have. When a group or idea is threatening to the best foundations of the country, active opposition is the only option.
If the President of the United States does not oppose white supremacy, he is not with the majority of the country, nor is he upholding his oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It doesn't matter whether or not he says, "I'm with them."
12
Of course Trump is a white supremacist!
11
For me, all doubt ceased when one of Trump's first acts as President was to invite Ted Nugent for a White House visit. Ted Nugent is the guy who called President Obama a "subhuman mongrel". Yes, subhuman. That is clearly the rhetoric of white supremacy, of the master race, of genocide. And Trump has him in to the White House.
16
Thanks for the reminder. I did not know that he has such an opinion.
Once you descend into madness, you have lost the ball game. This is madness.
7
Throwback
“This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” President Andrew Johnson
7
Thank you for invoking the pivotal nitwit that slowed American progress for generations. Buchanan is remembered as the worst president for being an incompetent. Johnson was a drunk and instead fixing the rift cause by the Civil War by get the losers to shut an and get inline, he gave them enough leeway to think they're hideous monument still belong here now.
What year was that?
Trump has given ample proof that he not only caters to white supremacists
he does, in fact, believe in the notion of inherent, genetic superiority.
There are many videos of him espousing, in an imbecilic manner, his pseudo
scientific belief that genes determine intelligence and status.
He has never been dumb enough to articulate who specifically he considers
superior except himself.
6
There is some evidence of genetic variance connected to intelligence, in addition to an adequate education etc.
I agree with Charles that the Republican Party has traditionally courted bigots, racists, xenophobes and misogynists and now they have the master of all in Trump. Trump continues to find come equivalency in the protesters in Charlottesville as if those protesting against white supremacy are the same as those advocating for it. Trump is either a white supremacist or stupid. It is unclear which is correct.
6
Trump is a lot of things, almost all of them bad.
but he is not stupid.
for example, insisting for years that Barack Obama was not born in the USA got Trump ink and kept his name alive and his ugly puss in the press, exactly as he intended.
what he actually believed, if anything, was beside the point and outside the strategic bounds of his birther campaign which was, of course, all about himself, using Obama as a prop.
Look at what Trump does not what he voices or how you wish him to be. That is how he must be judged. He, like all of us arrived into this world with just enough information in the form of DNA to stay alive with help from others and to build that marvelous structure called a brain. He alone is responsible for providing and keeping beliefs and information stored there. He alone is responsible for his actions. Of course he is a white supremacist; not even a close call. He is many things.
7
In my opinion, yes, and a misogynist as well. All the wrong ingredients for a person in any US public office.
7
The problem is not Trump, it's the USA political and electoral system that enables racism and prejudice to govern. Americans, do as the Germans did: rather than blaming a racist egomaniac ask yourselves what's wrong with you and your country. How is it possible that a Constitution that you misconceive as some sort of Bible, and your electoral system preventing many fellow citizens from voting enabled such a person to be your commander in chief. At present your country is no more than a white supremacist establishment.
9
What one person calls "white supremacy" another calls "political correctness gone mad." Our society has become so dominated by PC that prevents free expression and criticism that would benefit its recipients that we now live in a fascism directed by affirmative action. The thuggery that some protected groups indulge in behind the screen of political correctness, something that anyone of any origin who lives in Chicago may see continually with our unstoppable black-on-black homicide epidemic, is another ugly outgrowth of political correctness. An ideological shift from the extreme PC that emerged from Obama, though he himself did nothing to curtail the violence of black people against each other in his former city, is what we are seeing. Demonstrators in Missouri appear to be restrained in their reaction to a highly unpopular court verdict, because they know perhaps that this current president will not countenance their past expressions of rage.
7
^ Part of the problem.
Fairness for all is not 'PC gone mad.' It's a tired argument. Try to come up with something more intelligent, if you can.
(Oops! Guess that makes me a PC thug...)
1
Stunning that this should even be a question in the 21st century.
The arc of history bends toward.............racism?
4
Yes.
The problem with calling Donald Trump a White Supremacist is that it supposes considerably more fellow-feeling than I think he possesses.
2
Surely this is a rhetorical question. Yes. Trump is racist, and mysoginistic, and nativist.
6
That Trump was selected after lying continually about the Central Park Five and Obama's birthplace says something about the lack of veracity that too many whites will accept in order to malign people of color. He uses the very same language that white supremacists use to recruit people into their movements pretending that decrying civil war monuments is the same as destroying all of US history. His selection of Bannon, Miller, Sessions and the pardon of Arpaio says that we are in a time where it is worst to be called a racist than to actually behave as a racist.
Trump is clearly a white supremacist. Why this is even something we have to pretend isn't true defies reality. Most of his words, actions and policies reinforces his obvious support of white supremacy. The question becomes why are so many whites loathe to recognize this truth?
It may be because unless it shows up wearing a hood or emblazoned in a swastika, too many whites don’t know what “white supremacy” is or how it operates. According to the new Ipsos Poll for Reuters and the University of Virginia, although only 11% support white supremacy (meaning over 10% of the people of our country support it outright)—over 35% hold white supremacist views when they aren’t labeled as “white supremacy.”
So, the way Donald Trump behaves IS white supremacy but whites refuse to acknowledge it because so many hold similar views.
7
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. As a white man, DJT lacks both written and oral communication skills. He is even unable to deliver the speeches written for him with any semblance of fluency.
5
Trump is nothing, a man devoid of ideas or morals. He is and is not a white supremacist, depending on what fills his need at a given moment. He is the least of men.
7
@Richard Luettgen:
As a person of color, I remember Obama's Election in 2008 quite differently.
The first I had heard of him was from enthusiastic White people. For most Black people, he was not even on the Radar.
White people praised Obama for not having any connections to slavery and the civil rights movement. They said he had clean features and did not use "Negro dialect," unlike most other Blacks they said.
They were quite busy high-fiving themselves and patting themselves on the back for having moved past the color line by electing him, and openly declared, (without any input or imprimatur whatsoever from African-Americans), that we were now a Post-Racial America.
Even prominent Blacks like Cornell West and Tavis Smiley were critical of Obama. Blacks accepted him as their only chance to see someone who resembled them get a shot at The Presidency. They supported him when they saw him get "The Black Treatment", from a Congress that declared they would neither "Gee nor Haw," for America's First Black President and it's been downhill ever since, which brings us to Mr. Trump.
Yes, I believe he is a White Supremacist. However, if you don't wish to believe me, just ask David Duke. He would tell you openly and fervently that he is their President and they are squarely behind him and his agenda. In fact, he already did declare that at the "Unite the Right Rally", in Charlottesville, VA.
6
It's hard to say what he is, because on the one hand he appears to be very close with his daughter and son-in-law who are Jewish, he seems to be a big supporter of Israel, and at the moment he is supporting the idea of helping Dreamers even if it is just a political maneuver.
On the other hand he manages to insult people of pretty much every race, creed, color and religion, he has a history of bigotry in business, and keeps reaffirming the false equivalency of what happened in Charlottesville.
Whether he is a white supremacist or not, it's such an embarrassment that this manchild who posts offensive messages about Hillary Clinton one day and will address the UN the next is actually our president.
With any luck and a much better turnout in the next election he won't serve another term and we'll be done with him.
3
Huckabee Sanders who day in and day out lies and defends the lies of Trump and his cronies called for the firing of someone who told the truth. Whether we can know if Trump is a White supremacist or an anti-Semite we know he panders to those who are. We know he attacks Black people in way he does not attack White people. Why does the Press bother to send people to Sanders' briefings?
4
This white guy will answer it. Yes, Trump is a white supremacist. There is no doubt in my mind. If society wasn't against it in this day and age, Trump would have these folks up on the podium with him. I have been around enough of his type to know the hidden signals. The answer is a resounding, Yes.
3
As the saying goes, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it IS a duck!
2
To me, quibbling over the issue of whether or not Trump's a white supremacist bigot, or a racist, or a misogynist. is to quibble over the issue of whether or not he's an incurious, loutish boor. There is a mountain of evidence, and it's clearly before all to see. The jury has been in for a long time, and it you're still wondering, then you're simply not thinking clearly.
6
I am not a Trump supporter, except when he does constructive things, more like an independent, than a hard-nosed Republican. However, it seems to me that using roughly the same criteria of this editorial, Louis Farrakhan could be called a black supremacist. And why should one be worse than the other? Mr. Blow, would you like to address the issue of whether Farrakhan is a black supremacist?
7
Trump does not believe in the rule of law. He believes as president he gets to make all of the decisions, and the rest of us are supposed to show loyalty by praising him and his decisions. He does not believe in checks and balances, and has proved this by firing Comey, but more importantly by pardoning Arpaio for contempt of court, a direct attack on the power of the judiciary.
Any little things trump does that may seem "independent" do not cancel the that he poses to the Constitution of the United States. He thinks he is independent of the rule of law. That's a bad thing.
Do not try to normalize Trump. There is nothing normal about his conduct as president.
1
Farrakhan could never have been elected president. Yet here we are with Trump.
That's the difference.
4
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck - it's probably a duck.
1
And we reach a milestone on the way to... whet, exactly? Now that Trump is a white supremacist, what's next? Is it time to tar Pelosi and Schumer for their disquieting meeting with him in the White House? Come to think of it, should the name "White House" be changed, or should the building be repainted a more representative color? The house itself is one giant Dog Whistle. And then there are the White Sox, the White Pages, snow--the list goes on. Please, Mr. Blow, another lens, another thought, another anything would be preferable to your divisive drumroll.
3
Please stop pretending that identity politics was invented by minorities because they wanted to be abused by white people. It's a completely anti-historical.
The historical documents show it was white men that decided that the color of your skin determined whether you were free or a slave, that the color of your skin decided which water fountain you were allowed to drink at, etc.
Those laws were written by whites. Identity politics was invented by whites.
People that refuse to give up racism keep turning history on its head.
I am proud of western civilization for trying to end ten thousand years of slavery and my ancestors role in ending it, as well as many other awesome Americans of all kinds (with far more varied ancestry than many would care to admit) and the the rest of the world have done.
But I also take responsibility for the evils that my ancestors engaged in, because being an adult means taking responsibility for mistakes and trying to rectify them.
Turning history upside down to protect your fragile ego is pathetic. The left is trying to end identity politics, but they can't as long as you keep using their fight against it as an excuse to keep it going.
Stop lying to yourself
1
Trump panders to White supremacists because they support him in sufficient numbers to gain the presidency and maintain political power. If Black supremacists could and would provide that kind of support, Trump would pander to them too.
1
if it walks like a duck...
2
ANY white man the Democrats had nominated in 2016 would have beaten Trump. That reveals a lot about the racism and misogyny in this country.
5
Pretty much any person other than Clinton would have beaten Trump. That says a lot about Clinton and the Democratic Party.
I voted for Obama, though I wish I didn't because he governed like Clinton would have, and I voted for Jill Stein, a woman, stop telling me Clinton lost because she's a woman. Elizabeth Warren would have had 60% of the vote versus Trump, because she knows how to make a case for the policies of the left, instead of constantly telling the left to give up and retreat and give up our principles get compromise for the sake of compromise.
Clinton was the second lowest polling candidate in presidential polling history and the Democratic Party thought she was the "safe" candidate. It was a complete misreading of history. The Democratic Party threw this election to Trump, and instead of trying to figure out what they did wrong, Hillary and the Democrats are blaming everyone else.
Like Republicans, you refuse to take responsibility for what you have wrought.
I'm Jewish and there is nothing that has come out of Trump's mouth that is any more offensive or inflammatory than what Al Sharpton has said about Jews, Asians and whites. And he's called a civil rights leader-despite inciting violence that has killed HIspanics (Freddy's Fashion Mart), Jews and whites (Crown Heights) and incited anti-Asian violence (LA riots to Ferguson last year) through his extortionist anti-Asian boycott. White supremacy has a definition and Trump doesn't really meet it. Does he have a pro-white bias? Sure, but the democratic party has a pro-black and Muslim bias. This isn't harmless either but since the author of these piece benefits from the Democratic/leftist racial biases there are never any articles discussing the harms of It to others.
9
A column of so called Christians marched down the street with torches chanting "Jews will not replace us,"and Trump said some of them were "fine people." Which person in that column was a fine person?
You are free to criticize what other politicians do, but that does not excuse what Trump does. Trump and his supporters are responsible for their actions.
9
What bothers me most in this discussion is the presumption that white supremacists are always motivated by hate and that white supremacy always manifests as hateful speech and actions. Yes, there are those red-faced, shouting mobs that need to be opposed at every turn. But, perhaps more sinister because they go unnoticed, are those who would never join a rally but nonetheless pity, patronize, and otherwise subjugate non-whites because "those people" are inferior and pitiable. Please keep in mind that white supremacists have black "friends", sire black children, hire black employees, "love" their Jewish accountant and their Mexican groundskeeper. They may never turn to violence and they may vehemently deny their white supremacy, but they will never countenance a world where "those people" are equal.
Is Donald Trump a white supremacist? Without a doubt.
3
As in WW 2, from the pope to FDR and certainly to other democracies of the world, if one is silent to known atrocities, he is abetting it. Silence is just as lethal as the massacre of millions of innocent people.
Trump will not ever come out and say he is a White Supremacist, but it is clear through his defense of these thugs and his past actions as a business man that he is indeed a racist. And his brand of "silence" is feeding and exacerbating this movement. The green light is on, and for now it is stuck there. I do believe also - and this is just conjecture on my part - that if his son-in-law and daughter were not Jewish, he would target, albeit insidiously, this "non-Christian" religious group also. And that is in spite of his personal relationship with Bibi.
But I think we need to carry this one step further. And that is our Republican-led Congress. They are just as complicit in the resurgence of racism and bigotry as their so-called leader. As their president, they are too cowardly to stand up firmly against neo-Nazi's and company. Votes and power, power and votes. These are the driving forces.
3
It's convenient for Blow to not define "white supremacist". If he did try to define it he would be in a lose-lose situation.
Too broad of a definition and pretty much anyone who is white would be included. Absurd.
Too narrow and his claims of Trump and his cabinet being white supremacists would also seem ridiculous.
5
The white supremacists I am talking about are defined like this:
1. They are under the illusion you can tell something about someone character by looking at their outer appearance.
2. They think they are superior to other people because of their outer appearance.
3. They seek out groups that agree with this self delusion.
4. They know that community norms (political correctness) has turned against these delusions, so they speak in innuendo and code, not realizing the rest of us still hear loud and clear exactly what they really mean and, again, are fooling only themselves. (Trump recites their code from memory, while he needs a teleprompter to denounce them.)
5. The ones who believe they are above the law (because many of them are high up in law enforcement and rot the apples from the top down) engage in acts of terror, like church burnings, beatings, and murder.
6. They ally themselves with enemies of the United States, like the Confederacy, the Nazis, and the Klu Klux Klan.
Anti fascists like the protesters against White Supremacists, or soldiers that fought the Nazis in WWII are not "just as bad." I may disagree with their tactics but they are on the right side of history.
Whether Trump is a white supremacist himself is moot. He uses racism knowingly, and this was obvious throughout the primary and election campaigns. Yet he still became president. What does this say about us?
4
Discussion of whether or not Trump is a racist or white supremacist misses the point. Who cares what he really believes? It's what he does that matters and in that, he has and does leverage his followers' racist and white supremacist attitudes to acquire power.
2
I have a question.
Why do we accept the premise (of this debate) that a person can do racist acts -- including of speech -- and not BE racist?
It is obvious to me from his deeds that Donald Trump is racist and a white supremacist.
However, it's normal to hear arguments about whether so-and-so is really racist just because he did or said something racist. Why?
3
Once again I think we need to define what a 'white supremacist' is, or any other racial 'ranking' system.
The real 'racists' seem to me to be the ones who attempt to find some sort of scientific basis for declaring ethnic superiority. The ideas they came up with were various, and all proven to be wrong.
Certainly there remain those who in the face of scientific evidence disproving their ethnic ideas, will still run out 'scientific racist' theory.
Is Trump a 'scientific racist', or does he tacitly agree with those who still adhere to the disproven 19th century theories of 'racial' ranking?
I suspect he is.
And it's chilling, infuriating, scary. Racists are rarely rehabilitated, but a racist president, in this day & age, very backward step for humanity & the USA. Trump is a bad hombre.
1
Trump certainly has courted and continues to court the white supremacist vote. Whether he is actually racist himself or not makes no difference, the result is the same.
2
Mr. Blow, you are truly one of my absolute favorites, but this far down the Trump-hole, HOW IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION? WHY ARE WE STILL ASKING THIS QUESTION IN SEPTEMBER 2017? OF COURSE HE IS!!!
You write, "He questioned whether Obama had actually attended his prestigious colleges and insisted that Obama’s memoir was too well-written for him to have written it, that it must have been written by a white man. Is Trump patriarchal and misogynistic? Definitely. But, what of white supremacy?" When Trump said that Obama's memoir was too well-written to have written it and must have been written by a white man, that demonstrates implied superiority/supremacy right there: White=better, a black man couldn't have written this. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands more examples just like this one.
I suppose I'm just surprised that with everything that has gone on, all of the deep dives into Trump's pre-candidate/president life, there is any question at all about whether he believes white people are supreme/superior to other races. It seems as clear as day to me that he does.
4
Yes. In word and deed.
1
Trump was hired by Putin to create divisions in and weaken the United States. Racism is the most practical way to do that. The Russian government has repeatedly used racist slurs and innuendo to rile up voters in certain states that are economically disadvantaged and susceptible to emotional manipulation. We have no leader at this time to pull us together as a country and Trump has done everything possible to divide us. Have to wonder at our condition at the end of his presidency.
1
I'll repeat my response to his tweet:
"ESPN apologize? Maybe after you, Andrew Jackson?
Remember your BIRTHER hunt?
Central Park 5? Not renting to blacks?"
3
Donald Trump is in no way a white supremacist and has condemned this group and their activities dozens of times. What proof do you have that he is a white supremacist? Has he attended any meetings, been involved in any demonstrations, been seen with any of their leaders? Until you have evidence of any of things, he is definitely not a white supremacist. Nice try though.
3
He had to read his condemnation of White Supremacists off a teleprompter in his "presidential" voice, but he can rant in fluent white supremacist code.
That is all the proof I need.
2
This kind of gaslighting beyond tiresome and is dangerous. He's "condemned" anti-Semitism ludicrously slowly, unconvincingly and, in every instance, only after having been cajoled by his aides, pleaded with by by the public or forced by political necessity. At his Phoenix rally he loudly complained about having to do so and attempted to mock those who had pleaded with him to use the bully pulpit to do so. Clearly, he didn't want to alienate his base. On multiple occasions now he's tried to make and equivalency between neo-Nazis and those who oppose them.
Why does David Duke love this president? The National Policy Institute, Richard Spencer's "Hail Trump" organization? The KKK? The Daily Stormer, the most popular neo-Nazi website? Why do the armed white nationalists who showed up in Charlottesville and killed a counterprotestor support this president? These are the people who showed up in a group armed with assault rifles outside of a synagogue on a Saturday morning.
Whether this president has "attended any meetings" is shameful dissembling. He empowers violent hate groups to his own cynical advantage and theirs. He's done more to aid and abet racists and anti-semitic fringe groups enter the mainstream than any president in history, or any president heretofore imaginable. His motivations don't matter; the results of his actions do, and in this case they are undeniable, now matter how his sycophants disgracefully try to spin the narrative.
1
I love your description of Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a "lie-generator"! I wish the Times would always use that description when mentioning her in any and every article.
3
Jemele Hill should be commended for her courage. Sarah Sanders is contemptible.
Of course Trump is a white supremacist and a woman hater and a liar.
What are his good points?
6
While I share Blow's conclusion, it must also be said that above all, Trump is a Trump supremacist.
1
These intellectual gymnastics remind me of the extreme talk show element, which painted Barak Obama as an America-hating-communist-radical-muslim-terrorist-sympathizer, except the radical conservatives provided better evidence than Blow did. Thanks NYT for feeding the fear-mongering divide destroying our country.
6
Trump was one of the people accusing Obama of being a Kenyan America-hating-communist-radical-muslim-terrorist-sympathizer, He went on TV to do it.
What more proof do you need?
2
This is a guy who has the best words, the best brain, the best genes.
In his own telling, the cream of the white race.
Yikes.
2
The challenge with Trump is that because he lacks any actual integrity, any real coherence in the workings of his consciousness, he can be a white supremacist and not. He can have jewish people in his family and repeat anti-semetic tropes. He can undermine DACA and promise to restore it. He can be a bully and victim. Once you give up any semblance of coherence, it become impossibles to fit into a category - and - it's impossible to evade a label too. Given his attacking Obama over his birth certificate, inviting Bannon into the administration, hiring Sessions, his response to Charlottesville, his attacking a US Federal judge for his Mexican heritage, his efforts to ban and wall away brown immigrants, he is white supremacist until proven otherwise, and given his wild inconsistency, it is impossible to prove otherwise.
1
Love. Thank you.
Mr Blow
Yet again, you have carefully articulated your case; the only people who can continue to claim trump is not a white supremacist are those choosing to remain willfully ignorant.
Those of you continuing to support this abhorrent president: silence is compliance- we see you. We will not forget
1
To paraphrase Homer Simpson: "He's not not a white supremacist."
2
I had a rather vigorous argument with a friend last night about the nature of Trump supporters. I had recently called out a former friend for their racism and now I am a complete pariah. I'm not the one using the "n" word and then crying "why did Max call me a racist?" Guess what folks, if you support Trump you are racist. Period. End of story. There is no grey area anymore. The solution is simple. Stop being racist. It isn't hard. I promise. Look at other people and see that they are human beings, just like you. And before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, hating racists is justifiable, being racist is not. Any other position is ignorant equivocation.
5
My take is that Mr. Trump is a "supremacist" -- look for example at his constant use of superlatives to describe the mundane -- who happens to be white.
Some of his best friends are Blacks, Jews, Asians. Russians even.
No, he will not condemn white supremacists, racists, anti-Semites, xenophobes, or "social justice warriors" for the simple reason that one day he may need them. Or needs them now. Its just business, nothing more.
He is a person without a moral compass. There is no good nor bad.
You know the old saying, "if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck....".
Is this even a question?
1
Yes he is. Just like his father before him.
4
Does Mr. Blow have the ability to talk or write about anything other than his obsession with the notion that Trump is a white supremacist? On the flip side, it seems quite apparent that Mr. Blow's own views on race make him very much a person who favors one over the other.
4
Yes, he is.
1
I guess there is a need to construct a false barrier and make it about better then/less then. What Trump supporters can't seem to stomach is that they are not inherently "better" then anyone else. And they (and their leader) keep lashing out, towards blacks, hispanics, woman, Muslims, Jews, liberals, etc. to try to find one that sticks. Most Americans are sick to death of hearing about it. These people, and the man who rose from the cesspool to harness their grievances are boring and ignorant. And they have degraded themselves and all of America.
2
The acorn did not fall far from the tree.
1
I am still waiting for POTUS Trump to apologize to Obama.
2
Quite frankly, there is no political future for a political party which engages in this rhetoric. In the short span of 6 months we have gone from "Trump is a Russia sympathizer" to "Trump is a fascist Nazi". Both are patently absurd on their face. Debate him in the arena of ideas instead of engaging in these increasingly hysterical attacks. This is exactly what pushed millions of reasonable Americans to support him in 2016 and is paving the way for his victory in 2020.
4
There is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that says the Trump campaign either colluded with Russia. Many people have been executed on less circumstantial evidence. (Most of them minorities) The Russia thing is not over just because Trump did more terrible things.
Then a bunch of Neo Nazis, carry torches yelling "blood and soil" a pre WWII Nazi slogan, and "Jews will not replace us" And Trump says "some of them are fine people." That makes him a Nazi sympathizer and he still probably colluded with the Russians.
It is really not absurd to think that the son of a KKK member is racist or that someone who borrows from the Russians and works closely with Russian felons owes them big favors.
We have lots of evidence.
I'm still waiting for NYT to run a series about the millions of "privileged, white supremacists" in TX and FL who are living in their 15 year old cars now that their mobile homes have been destroyed by hurricanes. For some reason, neither NYT nor its readers seem to have much to say on the subject.
3
Millions? And every one of them white?
Exaggerate much?
2
I won't argue with people about whether the President is a racist or white supremacist. I can't get into his mind (THANK GOODNESS!), so I don't know exactly what he thinks. However, it is beyond any argument that he enables and actively courts the support of racists, bigots, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, folks like David Duke and folks with a whole slew of other ugly and disgusting biases and prejudices. People can continue to argue whether the President is one of those people, but it's telling that whenever I've asked what the difference is between the President and those people, his defenders suddenly don't want to talk about it.
In the time since the civil rights era, racism has become more genteel and subtle. No more "n" word. No more Amos and Andy dialogue jokes. No more big rolling eyes or blackface in the movies. Watermelon jokes are still around but heard less frequently.
But the racist sentiment has only been disguised, not eradicated. And it has been given a new rationale. There is a sense of grievance that blacks and latinos have been given an unfair advantage in the government handout gravy train. What radical populists really want is affirmative action for rednecks. They feel it's their turn now. Hey, it's only fair.
1
Oh yes. The right seems to split its time 50/50, between insulting victims of actual oppression (calling them "snowflakes" or worse) and crying about how they are victimized, because they can't victimize people anymore.
It's pathetic.
1
There is a new trend in this country that started during the last decade and has really accelerated in the last year. That trend is identity politics and the labeling of people you disagree with in the most hateful manner possible. It got traction initially during the Obama administration where if you disagreed with anything Obama did, then you were a racist. When Hillary was running for President, then those who did not support her were misogynists or deplorable.
>
Now that Trump has been elected, we see every conservative or even those who simple refuse to identify as Leftists being labeled as fascists, white supremacists, neo-Nazi, and so forth. This is nothing more than an utterly predictable smear tactic. In fact, many wondered what non-Leftists would be called after the age of Obama with many betting on misogynists. Evidently neo-Nazi, fascist , and white supremacist, won out.
>
What is so disturbing about this is first how those making these charges have no clue as to what it really entails to be a Nazi, Fascist, or white supremacist. Secondly, they fail to understand how hateful and bigoted these charges are for they are made without understanding much about the person being charged and/or are made simply because they disagree with those on the Left. How can these endless and mindless charges be considered as any sort of constructive dialog? They can't and those making these claims have become what they accuse others of being.
2
If it speaks like a duck, tweets like a duck and surrounds himself with like minded ducks then .......
White supremacy is only the tip of this iceberg. Armbands are out – hats made in China and sold by Trump are in. Hail Trump. Clicking of the heels is optional. I wonder if there is a contract with a factory in China to manufacture white hoods for sale here. You know the kind Trump’s father wore when he was arrested by the cops at a KKK rally.
2
djt is not a full blown white supremacist, as he is not a fully developed in many (most) areas of his personality. He's a pathological liar, a narcissist, a racist, a cheat and basically amoral. Those traits truly overshadow his sympathies for white supremacy. But, they don't and we shouldn't forgive his support for white supremacy movements and people.
1
Trump has to carefully read a speech that denounces white supremacists, Neo Nazis, and the KKK.
But, the next day he erupts in anger, and, off the top of his head, spews all their talking points from memory.
He talks about a column of white men carrying torches in the direction of a black church, telling Jews will not replace us, and says some of them are fine people.
I'm pretty sure he's a white supremacist.
2
Here is what I see - an old privledged rich white guy who has had racial indiscretions in his past and is actively talking about and putting policies in place that are discriminatory against the 'other' (those with different skin tones than white). Call it what you want but in my books if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
Unfortunely Trump is a reflection of America - the good, bad and ugly parts.
And the hit Hillary with a golf ball changed the conversation for me. I din't think it could take yet another twist down the dark path to . . . where are we going with this? Beyond juvenile and casual viciousness. How does this mentally ill and morally defective racist - even given those qualities - think that this is something that the president of the United States should do. Really, where are we going with this? Why is this man still in the White House?
White Supremacy, believing that whites are superior, is the logical extension of President Trump's actions.
2
Not complicated. He is a hero of racists and he makes no effort to separate himself from that, as he rather easily could do. He is a racist.
If I hear one more phrase similar to "impossible to know what's in someone's heart" I might scream. We know exactly what's in what passes for a heart with COTUS (clown). He shouts it on Twitter, hires other racists, creates policies that are racist and xenophobic and has for years. He is most likely a white supremacist. Everything he says and does supports this assertion. Why are people so reluctant to voice this? He's not Voldemort (nod to J.K. Rowling). He can be named for what he is. He's shown us for years exactly who he is. Let's believe him and work hard to sweep him and his fellow racists out of office. Go Mueller!!! And thank you Mr. Blow for speaking truth to power.
2
DJT made his affinity for white supremacists obvious when he made fast friends with Bannon & appointed Bannon to 1 of the most privileged positions in the WH, only ousting him under enormous pressure. DJ Trump failed to unequivocally condemn white supremacists who brawled, battered & even mowed down pedestrians, murdering one, at Charlottesville, while defiantly flying Hitler's flag. Trump accepted the accolades of Duke for these feats of abject moral turpitude. Furthermore, as devout Orthodox Jews, Trump's other closest advisors & in-laws adhere to an oddly obsessively literalist Scriptural interpretation that encourages them to regard their own small community as superior to others -- including other Jewish communities. None of this can be wished away. Trump's personal history & even his often invoked admiration for Putin, a paranoid white supremacist Russophile who promotes & exploits hatred of 'inferior' types (including Ukrainians, the Obamas, women as a category, gays, Asians, anyone who disagrees with him) reveal what his own ideological lodestars are. Trump is not an egalitarian. He does not believe someone who has chosen a life that does not revolve around amassing immense wealth by hook or by crook is his equal or deserving of his respect. He refuses to listen to anyone's expert inputs. The only reason he went along with Chuck & Nancy was to win over some Dems in case there's an impeachment vote. The man lies all the time, so judge him by results -- not photo-ops.
Please, please, please keep up this kind of over the top race baiting until the 2018 elections are over.
2
Is Trump a white supremacist? One second...it's coming in clearer...why yes. Yes, he is.
- Astronaut Currently in Orbit
Mr. Blow,
Instead of your repeated diatribes against the monstrosity known as President Donald John Trump—
Should you not devote at least one (and hopefully more) column to reviewing what you as a columnist said or did during the campaign—particularly during the Democratic Primaries—that allowed Trump to gain the Oval Office?
3
All Blow's articles can be summed up quickly:
If you disagreed with Obama in any way, shape or form you were racist.
If you voted for Obama twice and then for Trump, you are racist AND a White Supremacist AND misogynist.
If you're white and voted for Hillary, at the very least you must feel white guilt.
If you didn't especially care for one or more of Michelle Obama's outfits, you were racist.
If you ever draw attention to the high crime rate in Chicago, you are racist.
If you voted for Trump you are a Nazi who demands death of all non-whites.
If you want school choice you are racist.
Stay tuned for Blow's next articles: "It's Guaranteed that Snow White was a White Supremacist", and "Bing Crosby was Obviously a Nazi for Singing 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' ".
Hey Blow, my neighbor has a Samoyed dog. Therefore, must it be a White Supremacist?
Blow's world is indeed Black or White. And you're racist, you just don't realize it yet.
Yo, Chuck, you might want to lay off a little. But the paycheck is too good, right?
8
Mr. Blow is beyond partisan...he reminds me of Keith Olberman prior to his departure from MSNBC. What is this Ad Hominem drivel doing in the NYT?
7
This should not be hard, Mr. Blow! Whether white supremacy, immigration, environment, or other it's silly to try and determine the "deep down he believes..." There is no "deep down" with this man. There are no core values. There is no there there.
6
The truth is I'd have more respect for Trump's integrity if he would just admit his preference for the white race. Furthermore, I would imagine the people who openly profess to being white supremacists would also respect him more. As it is, I have to wonder how they can support this closeted coward at all.
Then we have all those folks in the middle. The ones who voted for him but can't see the forest for the trees. Somebody sold a lot of blinders before the last election.
One day he's a white supremacist. The next he's a liberal Democrat. The man is looking for appreciation wherever he can get it.
3
He has never been (or accepted by anyone as) a liberal Democrat. He poses and contributes to various parties. His home is the Republican Party.
President Trump is not a white supremacist and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous. He has both Jews and blacks in his cabinet and he has employed both groups within his companies. No one ever asked if President Obama was against white people even though he was a supporter of Black Lives Matter.
Can Mr. Trump help it if a few kooks from the white supremacy movement have supported him? He has condemned these groups over and over again. What about antifa? Why hasn't the left come out against these dangerous groups? They have been demonstrating at college campuses and even in St. Louis where they are destroying private property of owners of mom and pop stores. Why are the Democrats remaining silent against this violence. They need to start speaking up against these criminal acts.
Mr. Trump is definitely not a white supremacist and this is such a ridiculous question. This is so funny that I am still laughing.
3
I've been waiting for an opportunity to say this for a long time. Donald Trump is the personification of white male priviledge. Think about it. Who, other than a white male in the United States could get away with, well, being him without being censored? I will say his though, at least now the jig is up. More than a few white men are genuinely embarrassed by "him" the Donald.
2
We don't know if Trump. in his heart of hearts is a white supremacist. We can only judge him by his words and actions and then draw conclusions based on probability.
I think Trump is a venal, ignorant and dishonest person who feels like he needs to keep the white supremacist vote. He found, by accident almost, that they like him, support him and he mirrors many of their beliefs.
The better question to ask, to get at the crux of it is: Would Trump own slaves if it were not illegal? The answer sadly is, based on all the evidence before me, yes. Trump, if it were legal, would own slaves to run his empire of golf courses, hotels and other holdings...and reduce is overhead and thereby increase his income. So, yes, he is a white supremacist. Of course he is.
1
I can only answer the question in the headline with two words: "No kidding."
1
Charles Blow seems not to have notice that Donald Trump’s trashes all his opponents, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. However, Trump didn’t claim his Republican primary rival Ben Carson didn’t write his own books or that Carson was not a natural-born citizen, and Carson like Barrack Obama is African American.
Trump didn’t promote the “birther conspiracy” because Barrack Obama is black. He promoted the conspiracy because he discovered answering talk show questions about the issue got him attention. Had he been around when Chester A. Author was running for president in 1880, he would have added his voice to those who claimed Author was born in Canada.
Virtually all political memoirs—except poorly written one—are ghost written. Hillary Clinton is a prolific author because she employs teams of writers. Ulysses S. Grant “Personal Memoirs,” and Barrack Obama’s “Dreams of My Father” are considered exceptions. But Trump did not allege Obama’s book was ghostwritten because he’s a white supremacist who thinks Obama’s black ancestry makes him genetically incapable of writing a book. He alleged Obama’s book was ghostwritten because his own book—“Art of the Deal”—was ghostwritten. It had nothing to do with race. Trump doesn’t claim Toni Morrison’s novels are ghostwritten because she’s not a political opponents.
3
so where's ann coulter, richard spencer, and the rest of the alt-right free speech "advocates" in defense of ms. hill?
Trump is essentially an absurd admixture of Archie Bunker, Rodney Dangerfield, and Silvio Berlusconi. He may have Mussolini-like aspirations at times but, fortunately, he lacks the focus to achieve that dark vision.
All of this would be comical if he was just your friend's grandpa spouting nonsense in a living room somewhere, but we're the ones in the living room, watching the news and seeing our nation's supposed ideals defiled day after day after day.
1
Is Trump a white supremacist? No, but he plays one in the White House - for self-serving, power-maintaining reasons. Reasons that are even more immoral than were he to be a true believer.
1
How do you possibly account for Trump's leading the birther crusade with no evidence whatsoever? His motivation was surely to dog whistle to fellow white supremacists. What other possible motive?
5
All Trump supporters of any race or ethnic origin are superior to any Trump opponent.
1
Trump is a narcissist and egotist, who admires "winners" and despises" losers" and mindlessly attacks anyone who criticizes him. He has no political or philosophical principles.
The Left's promotion of a divisive form of identity politics, pitting every possible minority against a "mainstream America", has reinforced the identification of those demonized for their identity, i.e. whites as whites, men as men, etc..Trump was smart enough to see that and capitalize on it.
This has now become a vicious circle: the more the Lefttist elites demonize "mainstream America" as "undesirables", the more it solidifies the latter's identification and the more defensive it gets.
Psychology 101. Why doesn't the Left get it?
3
45 surrounds himself with a roster of unsavories. Notable mention are the Domionist, a cultish following that includes Pence, Bannon, Conway and DeVoe amongst others. Their Council For National Policy and 7 Mountains of transformation through societal change harbor ill waves for those not cut from the same cloth.
Time to shine the light of these spiritual warriors and their seven deadly sins.
1
Trump and his supporters want to have it both ways. They want to be able to stand defiantly for “our culture” and then take great umbrage at being called out for being supremacists for “our culture.” Trump and his apologists love to decry political correctness, yet they have an endless barrage of euphemisms for white supremacy mean to soften white supremacy. They want to return to the days that would “Make America Great Again” without ever saying which days. They want to embrace the idea that “very fine people” would chant “Jews will never replace us” and “blood and soil.” Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. You cannot be the King of the Birthers and then feign outrage and demand an apology when your naked racism is called out.
Trump exposed his true colors on this topic years ago when he tried to tap into racism and xenophobia by claiming Barack Obama was not born in America. Anyone who tries to exploit favor, or tap fear from white supremacists or racists is guilty of something sinister.
This white supremacy label is nonsense. Like the charge of racism, it is bandied around with carefree abandon. I see all the leftist social justice warriors waging a siege against us white people. They do this mostly by obscene, belittling comments.
I am white and never in my life wanted to dominate other races. And I don't think that it applies to a large majority of white people.
I assure you that the Left will not succeed in trying to demolish the race that I belong to. I am proud to be white and will die as such.
.
3
The republican party has been nurturing racism for decades and Trump is the fruit of that tree! Trump is a white supremacist as are Mitch McConnel, (who said "One of my proudest moments was when I told Obama, 'You will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy'), and many other republican leaders. Trump and the white republicans are obsessed with tearing down every single accomplishment of President Obama. Not all Trump supporters are white supremacists but it is easy to find a Trump supporter who is a white supremacist!
1
To be sure, Trump has been nailed dead-to-rights on his ignorance, and his offensiveness.
Except among their like-minded ilk, when was the last time anyone was ever knew of a White Supremacist that was neither ignorant OR offensive?
Trump says the reason the grieving Gold Star mother stood by her husband as he eloquently expressed the families feelings about the loss of their son was because she was... Muslim. He says Judge Muriel cannot decide his case without prejudice is because the Judge is... of Mexican heritage. He accused our first black President of being Kenyan because he was... Black.
A white supremacist believes that people who are not white display inferior traits and inferior attributes and inferior performance compared to themselves. They need to know only one fact about a person - that they are not white - to come to those conclusions. They don't even have to have met the person so judged.
As to Donald Trump, If it walks like a duck...
1
Is saying that Hill's comment were a "fireable offense" the same as calling on ESPN to fire her? I'm guessing Blow would say yes, but to me it's not so clear.
After reading the title of this piece, I was hardly surprise by Blow's conclusion at the end of it. Seems he could have deleted the 90% in the middle and saved us all precious minutes that were better spent elsewhere.
4
Yes.
Thank you Mr. Blow for your continuing efforts to elegantly articulate this hideous situation that worsens daily by the infantile actions of the provocateur
in chief.
2
Thank you Mr. Blow for your continuing efforts to inelegantly blow away reality.
Being a white supremacist means feeling intellectually superior because you belong to the white/Caucasian race. That definition fits like a glove to Trump and examples of his white superiority complex are all over Twitter. I also met plenty of white people feeling they are not racist but clearly feel superior because they are white. It's about time to become honest about that.
1
Perhaps it's true.
Clearly, white supremacists recognize him as one of their own since they give him their enthusiastic support. I think that removes all doubt about who he is.
1
I don't doubt that Mr. Trump is quite comfortable with white sumpremacists. He has resisted time and again clear opportunities to reject the support of the David Duke clique, so unquestionably that particular stench does not offend Mr. Trump. Too he has a number of associates old and new that have patent racist tendencies. As for the GOP, they keep slapping a new coat of paint on it, but underneath we all know it is the same old fears of otherness that have never gone away. Indeed with the popularity of Mr. Trump many are scraping away the paint to reveal the true nature of the Republican party. But is Mr. Trump himself a white supremacist? I have my doubts, not because I believe in some better nature hidden beneath the sprayed-on-tan and gold-plated soul. Put simply Mr. Trump doesn't believe in anything except himself. To that all important end he will use any means and go to any lengths. He will make deals with our nation's enemies, demean and mock individuals and crucify other cultures on the alter of Trump. But he doesn't care about the aspirations of David Duke anymore than he cares about people in this country not having health care. For bad and for worse Trump cares about Trump.
1
Yes.
- Astronaut Currently in Orbit
It's funny that Trump denies he's a white Supremacist. This is something you'd think he'd be proud of having wooed them throughout the campaign and into his presidency. Other than the one black guy behind him at campaign rallies the crowds seem to be uniformly white. Isn't that what he wants? If not the he really should stop berating everyone who falls outside the demographics of his base.
As Trump admitted during an early part of his campaign, he will say whatever seems to please his audience so he can be admired.
To Trump, everyone is inferior to him, though blacks and women are especially inferior. He lives with a grading system of inferiority.
Another term that has lost all meaning thanks to its absurd repetition and use against people for any and all reason. Trump has won AWARDS for helping the African-American community for crying out loud. Charles has lost all credibility and is now just a stammering angry typist with little to add to the conversation.
2
I continue to find Mr. Blow's perspective the perspective of someone clearly in a hysteria bubble. "Circumstantial" evidence that Trump is a white supremacist? And Mr. Blow presents it, and we sit here scratching our heads thinking, "Is that all you've got?"
Mr. Blow never liked Mr. Trump. A lot of people don't. Trump's mistake regarding Charlottesville was in noting the truth that the violence that occurred involved TWO parties. Given the car ramming into the crowd, it showed Mr. Trump's lack of political savvy and a certain lack of sensitivity at that moment, true. But the left's ongoing narrative that Trump is a white supremacist is fueled to a large extent on ignoring little truths. One hears it over and over from our media: "Trump equated those protesting AGAINST the KKK/Nazis with the KKK/Nazis." Well, no, he did not, not on an ideological level. He noted the willingness and the apparent premeditated intention from elements of both sides to rumble.
As such, Mr. Blow presents his political bias. He's willing to exclude, even twist, the little truths lurking in the background in order to make his case against Trump.
And it's a widespread phenomenon, this "equating" business. As one example, how does the view that illegal immigration needs to be curbed become the basis for the claim that someone with that view is obviously shamefully anti-immigrant, racist, and xenophobic? Answer: You think like Mr. Blow.
2
Trump's actions speak for themselves. I believe he's a racist. I agree with Jemele Hill. He's the worst president in my lifetime.
3
He's a garden-variety sociopath; calling him a white supremacist would imply that he has some sort of philosophical code other than expediency and narcissism. Let's not make him more than he actually is.
3
"That's my black guy?"
Enabling and being enabled by white supremacists, makes you only one thing: a white supremacist.
Parsing whether Trump is "a fan" of or "himself is" a white supremacist, is irrelevant. Being one, makes you the other. And he is! (both!)
And if Hill is guilty of "hyperbole" on Twitter, one can only try to imagine what Trump's Twittering might be called.
2
You columnists are a funny lot. You keep trying to figure out and nail down a man baby who is whatever he wants to be any time.
Trump is not "this" or "that". He has no morals, principles or scruples. He is all about himself at every waking moment.
He is clearly a narcissist, but assigning him a label based on a belief system is a useless discussion.
1
The "people who oppose them" are violent anarchists / communists. They have produced violence at various events around the country (for example the recent violence in Massachusetts, Washington and California). ANTIFA seems to cause violence everywhere they go. The white supremacists / Nazis are evil and should be driven out by proving their philosophy to be wrong and bad. However, is it not true that both groups are bad? Can we not denounce both groups and not be racist?
1
We may have crossed the threshold of giving White Supremacists too much credit and too much currency. Trump is a profoundly ignorant, self-centered, and insecure, adoration-seeking human being. He has failed to shed, through anything resembling a process of maturation, the vestiges of racism he was born into. But to turn that into a conflagration of Trump, White Nationalism, White Supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Klansmen is a major mistake.
It's already too late. Through news and editorial coverage, those words have become normalized in ways that would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago. For many Americans, there is no untapped wellspring of outrage to summon.
1
Trump is whatever the particular moment or time of day, or person he is trying to engage with. I personally believe he was born with IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder0, a textbook case if you look at his earlier years from a young age. Also, these type of people often have Sociopathic tendencies (lying, no conscience by cruelty, and sexual promiscuity). That is why people shouldn't even discuss him in any other terms, as he can't change, won't change, and trying to decide if he is this or that, going to be rational, etc. is a waste of time.
1
Is a politician whose central campaign tenet was to remove people of color from our country a white supremacist? Yes, undoubtedly. Is a president who is obsessed with building a budget-busting wall several thousand miles long to keep non-white people out of our country a white supremacist? Yes, he certainly is. If a president is the first to be openly admired by racist hate groups, does that earn him the title of white supremacist in-chief? Sadly and embarrassingly, yes. Believe what you see, people. And note who and which party stands by without a word of condemnation and vote accordingly.
2
The answer is yes, without doubt. There is no "either/or" in the matter. Once you placate or pander to white supremacists, you are one of them, complicit in their immorality and an aide in their goal of eradicating certain people from the earth. Of course, that doesn't meant that all Republicans are white supremacists, but clearly Trump is a supporter of white supremacists.
1
After deep deliberation, Mr. Charles Blow has reluctantly concluded--based on a careful and indeed painstaking analysis of all available evidence--that Donald Trump is either a white supremacist or defender of white supremacists.
At long last, the president has apparently lost the confidence of this esteemed columnist. While absolutely shocking, it is indeed sobering. The world will never be the same.
Will someone please tell me which of these things Trump said shows support for white supremacists is factually incorrect:
Aug 12
- "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry [pause] and violence on many sides, many sides"
- "...the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now"
- "We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad."
Aug 14
- "To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable."
- "...we condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America."
- "We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence."
- "Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
- "We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution."
Aug 15
- "Well I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family and this country...The driver of the car is a murderer. What he did was a horrible, horrible, inexcusable thing."
2
Sorry but facts will not change NYT mind it's made up and full of hatred of deplorables
2
Thank you Charles.
When I saw the movie IT- I could not get Trump out of my mind everyone I saw the evil and KILLER clown.
Your wonderful piece is missing one necessary point.
The reaction to Jemele Hill's tweet was over the top because she's a black woman. And how dare a person who is both black and a woman criticize a white male president.
And for the record, I'm white.
4
White Supremacists are what they are because of paranoia. They are afraid of everyone around them that isn't just like themselves. The actual symptom is the sense that everyone is out to get them. The fear was inherited from evolution and is thus unconscious. And Trump is the most paranoid President in our lifetimes, way more so than the next most paranoid President, Richard. M. Nixon.
1
The initials G.O.P. once stood for "Grand Old Party". Or originally
"Gallant Old Party".
Now....from the Top down those initials indicate a
Gang Of Perpetrators.
1
Mr. Blow, you nail it squarely. Whether the Oaf in Office is, in his heart of hearts (I'll concede only for purposes of discussion that he has one) a white supremacist is a minor existential digression if, in all that he says and does, he supports white supremacy. Which he does. Therefore, he IS a white supremacist. QED
2
If Trump is not a white supremacist, why does he use a white power hand gesture when he speaks?
1
Ms. Hill told the truth and that's all there is to it. Of course, the CEO of ESPN is an old white guy, so let's see what he does.
1
Except if your name is Clinton!
Only joking! We know there are numerous exceptions! Those born on the wrong side of the bell curve, fit nicely. He hates them too, ,but they make perfect .... on a string.
1
If his hateful, 7 year long racist slur campaign against President Obama wasn't enough, his playing dumb about David Duke's endorsement is all I need to know about Donald J Trump.
1
Yeh, right...and Plessy vs Ferguson wasn't a racist SCOTUS decision. American racism is alive and well and living in the Oval Office.
1
I am not sure which is more abhorrent: that Trump is a white supremacist or that he needs applause so badly he is willing to consort with them.
1
It's more simple than that. Trump wants to be adored and revered. Those who happen to worship the ground he walks on are white supremacists. Therefore, he caters to them. If black people were obsessed with him, trust me he'd be all about Black Lives Matter.
1
When all is said and done, it is the American people who are putting up with Trump (and the GOP) are the ones who may be the white supremacists deep down.
This man is an abomination yet he is president. Think about it.
1
The Republican Party is responsible for Donald Trump and can get rid of him anytime they want to. Yet they don't. Think about it.
I really thought the headline question was sarcastic. Are we nit-picking while Rome burns?
Trump is a Trump Supremacist and simply gloms on to who or whatever idea he thinks will spread his particular brand. He views any criticism of him as being a mortal personal attack and lashes back with the fervor and emotional maturity of a three-year-old who responds to taunts..."Oh, yeah? Well...you're a doodyhead!!!!" He knows how to dish it out but not how to take it. I don't know why evangelicals had such a problem with Obama...he was the epitome of turning the other cheek. The question really is whether Trump has the emotional maturity and stability to be allowed to handle the levers of power. And increasingly, the answer to that is emphatically no. The white supremacist thing is a feature, not a bug.
1
The basic problem with this piece is that Blow makes declarations about Trump that he simply made up, and then based on these made up declarations he concludes that Trump is a "fan" and "defender" of white supremacists.
For starters he alleges that Trump claimed that Obama's memoir was too well-written for him to have written it, "that it must have been written by a white man". Now anyone who checks the link to that 'statement" will see that Trump actually said the very opposite about Obama and his writing skills. He said that Obama's first book was genius, on par with Hemingway, and that Obama wrote that book. The 2nd book however is quite average and it was on that 2nd book that he claimed was written by an "average' person, Bill Ayers was his guess, and not by Obama. (Was Blow to lazy to actually read the artilce he linked to, or is it such a foregone conclusion in his head that Trump could not have said that Obama wrote a book that was genius that anything to the opposite did not register in his head").
He then goes on to declare that Trump is a fan of white supremacists, which once more is simply a deceleration Blow made up. And its the same for the deceleration that Trump is a "defender" of white supremacists. To argue that Antifa was also guilty of violence was not a defense of the violence on the side of the white supremacists or of their ideology.
So the basis for Blow's "conclusion' is nothing more than "facts' he made up.
2
Trump's father was arrested during a KKK riot, an event reported in national media. Trump said it never happened.
David Duke openly supports Trump. Trump says he knows nothing about Duke.
Nazis and white supremacists clog Trump's rallies. Trump accepts their cheers and support.
Aristotle said, "Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids."
Trump is a white supremacist.
2
Of course trump is a white supremacist. All of his life his actions have supported that assertion. Like all other white supremacists, trump believes himself to be superior because of the color of his skin since he has no personal achievements to support being superior to anyone or anything.
I honestly do not think he's a white supremacist. I think he's an......incomist.
He judges you on how much money you have. If you're black or hispanic and you have millions of dollars.....of course he'll be your friend. In a way, that's worse than being a white supremacist because fewer people meet your approval and criteria.
I don't think he's a misogynist, either. (Everything is not misogyny these days, people.) A misogynist would not have his daughter as his constant business companion and favorite child.
He's a chauvinist. He thinks that women--except his daughter--are only useful for one thing, and we all know what that is.
Does this make him a less disreputable or more likeable person?
Not a chance.
Nor does this change his qualifications for the office?
No, because he never had any.
I really don't understand why people are still struggling with this. Enough of his public record has been scrutinized closely enough by now that there's plenty of direct and circumstantial evidence - including words quoted from his own mouth - that he is a white supremacist (i.e. he believes that white people on a whole are better than non-whites).
He says he is "proud to have that German blood, there's no question about it," calling German blood "great stuff." He says "I’m a gene believer. Do you believe in the gene thing? I mean I do. I have great genes and all that stuff, which I’m a believer in." He hired at least one actual Nazi (see Seb Gorka's public pride in his Vitezi Rend medal, which was awarded only to Hungarians who served the Nazis) and plenty of near-Nazis (Miller, Bannon). He's argued publicly that "a Mexican" is not qualified to sit in judgment of him. He's been documented discriminating in business against people of color, he rose in politics on the repulsive strength of the racist birther story, and he called for the execution of five innocent young black men. He thinks people who march with Nazis and Klansmen (i.e. Nazis and Klansmen) are "very fine people."
Now, there's no question that he's hiding the racism, or trying to. Maybe even from himself. Like most Klansmen, he wears a hood. But are we still pretending that this guy believes that all men are created equal? Because, to quote Trump: "All men are created equal? Well, it's not true!"
1
Sued by the Dept. of Justice during his younger years for refusing to rent apartments to blacks. Literally stalking the first black president as to his legitimacy or intelligence for the position. His presidential campaign supported by the KKK. Black protesters repeatedly roughed up at rallies.
His inner circle has included apparent white supremacists preferring to be labeled ethno-nationalists, one of whom was on the White House National Security Council, despite admittedly providing a web forum for white supremacists to post, comment and feel welcome.
This is a president who was visibly angry about counter-protesters reacting against the KKK, violent Neo-Nazis and Loyal White Knights in Virginia.
You'll notice they don't wear hoods anymore. Empowered, they're showing their faces.
Significantly, Mr. Trump was briefed in May by the FBI & DHS who told him
“We assess lone actors and small cells within the white supremacist extremist movement likely will continue to pose a threat of lethal violence over the next year.”
2
Let's look at Donald's research interests. "I would have to research those groups" before commenting on them. Research the Ku Klux Klan? Sure.
But no research necessary on the Central Park Five. Once they were exonerated for crimes they didn't commit, Donald excoriated them in a full page ad in the Times. What was their crime? Breathing while black?
2
The irony of Fox News:
http://www.salon.com/2017/09/14/sean-hannity-tells-all-white-panel-we-ar...
"Joined by an all-white panel, Sean Hannity told his Fox News audience Wednesday night that they’re not racist, in response to ESPN commentator Jemele Hill’s scathing remarks against President Donald Trump.
Hannity’s panel included Gina Loudon, a self-described psychology expert who was a Tea Party founder; Danielle McLaughlin, a liberal commentator; and Tomi Lahren."
Three bleach blondes who know Hill is the real racist, not Trump. Like a SNL skit....
It is impossible for me to believe Trump is not a white supremacist, given his early-and-often denigration of our first black president, his pledge to erase every hint of Obama's legacy from the history books, his regular demonization of groups with brown skin, his protestations against the removal of Confederate monuments as attacks on "our heritage."
But whatever is in his heart, he has without doubt given white supremacy the presidential stamp of approval. He looks at a sea of Nazi-flag wavers in Charlottesville wearing T-shirts "peacefully" proclaiming their white superiority and sees "good people" protesting the removal of a "beautiful" monument. And he repeatedly uses the violence of tiny groups advocating "direct action" against fascism in our country to invalidate the cause of those huge numbers peacefully demonstrating against racial hatred.
More tellingly, when called on to denounce white supremacy he either deflects the question or grudgingly reads a canned response, obviously forced on him, from a teleprompter. We have watched our president's defense of white supremacist protestors in words and body language revealing a personal defensiveness of a cause he calls "our heritage." But we have yet to hear any remotely sincere denouncement of the banner of white superiority they wave or of the racial and Semitic hatred they chant.
And that silence tells us more about what's in our president's heart than anything he has said.
1
He is an -ist of anyone who is not like him or betrays him. Maybe he is simply an egotistical, fragile, misanthropist.
Also, Trump's father Fred was arrested at a KKK rally in NY. Look it up. Also, Trump and father were sued for discriminating against African Americans when renting apartments. If not a White Supremacist, then surely a bigoted racist. In addition, Trump is an inept, incompetent President who has now put the lie to the myth he carefully cultivated that he was a savvy, smart, sophisticated deal maker. He is going to go down as the worst president in history. Mark my words. One last thought -- he's a corrupt grifter who is more interested in putting a buck in his pocket than in doing what's best for this country. The whole family is on the take.
2
Mr Blow has it right once again in quoting Hill: "...the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,” that he hired and courted white supremacists, that “His rise is a direct result of white supremacy,” that “if he were not white, he never would have been elected."
Aristotle taught that if one acts habitually virtuously, one will eventually become virtuous. It is the force of habit that both shapes and reveals us. Or, to put it more simply, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.
Trump doesn't think blacks should live in his apartment buildings or handle his money. He has retweeted that minorities are responsible for 99% of all crime in NYC. He didn't think a Mexican judge could treat his case fairly. He questioned Obama's college credentials and demanded his transcripts. It is fair to say Trump thinks whites are superior based on his actions.
1
Trump's suggestion that there were some "very nice people" marching in Charlottesville with Neo-Nazis and white supremacists was a heinous Strike One. Suggesting that Confederate statuary is a sacred "heritage" was his stupid Strike Two. A GOP-led Congress requiring Trump's signature on legislation condemning white supremacists is the obvious Strike Three.
Three strikes and DNA test is finalized, it's a duck.
1
If it walks like a duck... Why question whether Trump is a racist- HE IS. The people who voted for him did so with racial malice. The true purpose of the republican party at this stage is to revoke all mention/memory of the black president and make life difficult for African-Americans,Hispanics and women in this country.
2
"Either Trump is himself a white supremacist or he is a fan and defender of white supremacists, and I quite honestly am unable to separate the two."
A distinction without a difference? That is the question.
The answer is elusive but it doesn't help that Trumps father had a history of race based wrong doings.
The pleasure Trump seems to take watching Nazi and KKK parades is not a good sign either.
1
First of all, thak you Jemele Hill for speaking the truth.
And she is right when she says that the GOP hsa done nothing to curb white supremacy.
Do not let the Grifter of the hook. Tell it like it is.
3
Mr. Blow is far too kind to Donald Trump. His column overlooks Trump's history of discriminating against blacks in his real estate businesses (including several consent orders) and Fred Trump's fathers participation in at least one Klu Klux Klan meeting.
Unless habitually discriminating against and slandering people of color can somehow be construed as something other than "white supremacy," it is clear from the facts of Trump's own life that -
Donald Trump undeniably is a white supremacist.
1
Never thought that this stigma would come to America where people from all races and colors moved in to make the World a better place.
Whites came from Europe later were Chinese which followed by other races. African Americans did not come by their own choice as we know.
Fred Trump Donald`s father as we all know joined KKK rally and was a product of "German Immigrants. "
President Trump was the person started the birther movement of our very popular President Barack Obama and tries to discredit him almost every single day. Also as we all know Trump refused to disavow David Duke`s racist comments.
If White Supremacist is a harsh term Donald Trump in another word is a racist bigot !
1
Is Trump a White Supremacist? No, no he is not.
3
Mr Blow - your articles are example of hate speech. You could choose to be fair, give him the flak where he deserves, but also commend him for his accomplishments. Instead, it's been a pattern in your article to use hateful words against Trump exposing the hatred you have against him, that delegitimizes your opinion of him.
5
As the Left increasingly built its policy proposals around " identity politics," and openly gloated over the future day that whites would, themselves, become a minority, is it any surprise that a "white identity movement" arose in response, culminating in the election of Donald Trump? I think some Leftist ruefully referred to the phenomenon as "whitelash."
The Left sowed the wind and has reaped the whirlwind. And the more that people like Charles Blow mindlessly excoriate Trump and his followers, the stronger that whirlwind will grow.
3
"I heard [President Obama] had terrible marks, and he ends up in Harvard. ... And a lot of people have said [Bill Ayers] wrote [Dreams From My father] ..." [Huffington Post, Sept.2016] Typical "alternate facts" from Mr. Trump: "I heard ...", "A lot of people said ... "
1
A bigot hates another group because of their skin color, ethnicity or religion. A white supremacist hates all non whites. Trump is not only a white supremacist, he is a white supremacist with power, great power. Make no mistake, the KKK could not have spread terror without the consent and participation of powerful men. Judges, sheriffs, business leaders were among the riders in the white robes.
The only silver lining I see is that the terror is clearly showing its face in news groups, religious groups and political groups. Now is the time for all people of good will to act and prevent the triumph of evil in our midst.
1
He's always been an obvious racist. Couldn't believe it when I saw Hill had "claimed" that he was a white supremacist. That's like"claiming" he's male, or American. How can there be any doubt?
1
Can anyone possibly imagine Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower after WWII making a speech in which they said that many fine people marched with those Nazis and there was violence on both sides?
1
White supremacists see Donald Trump as one of their own. By definition, they're experts in white supremacy. If they consider Trump a white supremacist, who are we to argue?
3
According to Ivanka's biography, Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside for years. Is there really anything to debate?
“the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,”
I don't know how old this guy is, but so what?
1
Of course Trump is a white supremacist. We are long past the time when political leaders could openly endorse "segregation forever." Even members of racist groups like the Nazis gathered in Charlotteville pretend to be interested only in white people's "rights." But you know that if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck.
Yes, Trump is a bigoted racist. White supremacist...? More than likely, but the narcissist is out for himself and what ever gives him an advantage.(i.e. base) Study Adolph's speeches, propaganda and rallies and you have the Trump 101 playbook. As a known and avowed liar extraordinaire, look at Trumps history and deeds, (or lack there of...) rather than what he says.
More curious to me is how they square their 1st amend. hate speech with now trying to silence Ms. Hills tweets?! (Not that is really surprises me. Projection much...?)
C'mon bootstrapping cornflakes, man up and acknowledge the tit-for-tat.
Welcome to the neo-PC speech you have ushered in. A polite society no longer exists.
...and the bully whines as he is punched in the nose.
2
The arc and trajectory of western is civilization, contrary to its espoused values of freedom and equality, is white supremacist and white nationalist. It is characterized by genocide, exploitation and enslavement of non-white peoples. Formerly excluded, non-whites have been engaged in a historic project for inclusion into a structure that will only accept them if they become deracinated emblems of diversity. That is what Obama was. If Trump and his supporters are white supremacists, they are only being true to themselves.
Always remember Trump was the original Birther who claimed to have sent his own "detectives" to Hawaii to find out the truth about Obama's birth.
7
The last sentence of your concise and accurate depiction of our unhinged "leader" is pitch perfect.
I would also point out that Miss Huckabee, wrapped tight as a sausage in her scripture, is just as bad,maybe even worse (although not nearly as dangerous, given her subsidiary position.)
She somehow feels it's OK to lie for and enable a malignant, racist, sociopath hate manger because she "reads scripture" before all her press events. The hypocrisy, should make anyone sick,
How convenient for he to have a distorted white male god that she can used to whitewash her shamelessness.
(At least The Mooch was authentic and true to himself. )
I would ask Miss Huckabee if the make-over and the 30 pieces of silver is worth it,
4
Is Trump a white supremacist? Don't know, don't really care. What is in his heart, I mean. What is definitely, undeniably true is that he has chosen the path of white supremacy to achieve power. It's his cynical bet that racism is the royal road to power in the US. So far, he seems to have tapped into something real.
I say, thank you Jemele Hill.
5
First and foremost, Trump is a Trump supremacist. As such, he believes everyone is inferior. He's also a belligerent bully, who will use any tactic he can to belittle, demean, and humiliate. Keep in mind, he's humiliated Jeff Sessions, Jeb Bush, and Mitch McConnell whenever he could. While he may be a white supremacist himself, he wouldn't hesitate to dump the white supremacist element of the Republican Party if doing so served his interests. In the sense of white supremacy as a theory or program, Trump likely is a believer only because he himself is white. He's no more loyal to the movement itself than he is to anything else.
1
DT has demonstrated his racism and bigotry over the years. Here are three examples though there are more: The family 's real estate company, which he headed, was sued by the justice department for deliberately barring African Americans from renting apartments,.
He took out a full page news paper ad calling for the death penalty for five Hispanic and African American boys --one just 13 years old--who were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park.. The Central Park Five were convicted and had served full sentences before the actual rapist confessed to the crime.
DT never apologized, and expressed anger when the city settled millions on the exonerated for wrongful conviction.
DT offered to pay the legal fees for a racist at one of his rallies who not only called an African American protester a racial slur, but accosted him.
So is it a pondersble question whether a person like DT, who By word and deed, has proved himself to be a racist and a bigot, a white supremacist? Or is it clear that there is no difference?
3
As a white-American, I am thoroughly disgusted and embarrassed at having to once again read about my African-American co-citizens, such as Mr Blow or Ms. Hill from ESPN as the only ones able to tell us about historic and current state of white superiority in the USA. When will we finally be able to read an editorial written by a white-American, in a mainstream publication such as the NYT, regarding the obvious facts about white superiority?(And Trump’s role in its continued propagation). Where does this unwillingness to confront this situation come from?
For all the conservatives that have already assumed my comment to be the usual criticism that they habitually ignore and dismiss, I imagine that you haven’t even begun to reflect on the implications of another article from last week's NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/politics/trump-tim-scott-charlotte...®ion=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine
Why was it Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator, that had to speak to the President on this matter? Is there not another Republican in the country capable of speaking to the President on this matter? Of course there isn’t. If there is a better example of white American blindness to racism, I haven’t seen it yet.
3
The GOP - and many other Americans - hide behind the SCOTUS decision that policy that is racist in its inception is outlawed and policy that is racist in outcome without intending to be is legal. (cf. Washington v. Davis, 1976). The GOP MO since that case has been to hide the racial animus and sculpt policy that does more or less the same thing.
Donald Trump was raised by a racist. He harbors disproven eugenic beliefs about human 'breeding'. His organizations have signed MULTIPLE consent decrees to stop discriminating against minorities. His worldview of 'winners' and 'losers' can lead to nothing other than a supremacist ideology...and his is not the more generic 'human supremacy' but the belief that his genes are superior to all others.
Does anyone really need more evidence?
2
Thank you Charles, for a 'spot on' article! And yes, Trump is a white supremacist. Years ago, for a school paper in sociology, I infiltrated the Neo-Nazis in Cicero, IL. These were guys who had come back from Viet Nam, with PTSD and all sorts of problems, stemming from abusive childhoods and horrific war experiences. They took to the Nazi dogma and truly believed that white people were superior to black/brown and Jewish people, because of false, made up genetic, physiological differences in body and mind. They truly believed that they were genetically superior to others, Aryan, if you will, and should rule the World. Sick, sick men who by the way, also treated women in the 'auxiliary' horribly. Trump, with his 'birther' theory, his discrimination in housing and his view on Obama, is truly a white supremacist; he fits the profile to a T.
1
Trump is not a white supremacist.
He is more aptly described as a non-apologist, which is precisely what this nation needs to move forward in a "post-racial" country that we supposedly aspire to become.
This isn't all that different for example, to the newest generations of Germans who grandparents were born after WWII. They understand their history, but they have no direct link to the Nazis or the crimes committed against humanity. They won't deny their past but you're not going to see them apologizing for it regardless. The same theory can be applied to the Japanese.
Trump comes across the same way. He's not a racist or a white supremacist. But don't expect him to bow his head in favor of affirmative action or to continue apologizing for the nation's sins.
2
Yes, Donald is a white supremacist whose goal and that of his cabinet is to return our country to a time when White women were kept under control by apron strings and racial minorities (primarily Black people) were kept in check beneath the White man's boot heel. The 2016 Republican campaign slogan should have been: "Anyone, As Long As He's White."
Who better to assist in reaching this goal than his fellow white supremacists vice president, Mike Pence, and attorney general, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. The only one missing from a prominent position on the roster of shame is Rudy Giuliani, and not for lack of trying.
3
Jemele Hill was only saying what millions of people both here and abroad think. DonaldTrump is not only a white supremacist, he is also one of the nastiest, most vindictive, ignorant, arrogant and irrational persons ever to inhabit the White House. There is nothing redeeming about the man, and believe me I have thought long and hard about this one. What bothers me even more, is that so many people actually voted for him despite his hateful and vile campaign. Actually, I think that many did so because they are just like him in how they see the world. Indeed, Trump and his deluded supporters represent the dark side of the American character which we are now witnessing in all of its ugliness. How this can be repaired and healed is anyone's guess, but you can be sure it won't come from the GOP side of the aisle.
3
If we can say if you are not completely opposed to white supremacy, you are quietly supporting it, why can't we also say that about the left's drift towards fascism? We have seen in the last two years:
Rioting to disrupt Trump's campaign.
Rioting to protest his election.
Democratic congresspersons taking over the floor.
BLM taking over political rallies based on race.
The beating and even torture of Trump supporters.
Attacks on supremacists and then the pretense that their marching started it.
The shooting of a congress-person.
The assassination of cops over race.
The attacks on colleges of conservative speakers.
Attacks on free speech on campus.
Vandalism of public statuary on racial grounds.
Almost everyone I've ever met in my life hates white-supremacists, who are relatively few in number, and that includes in the South. But, unfortunately, the fascists on the left are often treated by the media as if they are a righteous form of protest protected by the 1st amd. This is one way the Nazis gained power, by fighting those who many detested. MLK, Jr., Gandhi and others actual civil rights leaders are spinning in their graves.
Trump is called many things with which I agree. I didn't want him. But, personally, I do not think he's racist, although some are in his base and he isn't sufficiently vocal about it. Regardless, political moderation, democratic principles and decency demands calling out all fascists, right or left. Mr. Blow would gain credibility if he did so.
3
What US president has NOT, at least implicitly, supported white supremacy? Trump's main indiscretion is that he's so up front about it! But he certainly no aberration! White supremacy is in the DNA of this nation, which spent its formative years enslaving Africans and exterminating Native Americans. White supremacy is deeply embedded in the doctrine of American Exceptionalism, which is merely an update of the 19th century notion of "Manifest Destiny" -- and even Barack Obama had to profess fealty to this noxious creed. White supremacy is a built-in feature of the apparatus of capitalism, which is why the average black household has only 5% of the net wealth of the average white household. This list might be extended ad nauseam...
So if he is not a white supremacist, why does "Tom" Scott have to go to the White House and present what it is like to be Black in America to him? What is it he needs to learn? Why does Trump need a talking to about how Black Americans feel. Unless , of course, he has no idea whatsoever what equality is all about. My feeling is Senator Tim Scott had zero impact on a man who would use anyone, anytime to get what he wants. Senator Scott: Look around you when you go to work. How many of your colleagues only pay lip service to condemning what Trump says and does. He is certainly not your only student in need of Race Relations 101.
1
The simple and correct answer is YES.
I have no idea who Ms. Jemele Hill is as I do not watch ESPN ever. All her statements about the Donald and the Republican Party are true. We need to only look at history to find the truth in Ms. Hill's assertions.
Of course Trump and advisors are "offended" the "Who little old me?" trotted out at convenient times when accusations fly.
While it is also true that not All should be tainted with the brush of being racist or a White Supremacist, we have reached that point in time when we should just stop the pretending and being 'nice'.
Donald J. Trump (raised by his KKK father) built his entire political career on racism and White Supremacy. It IS the foundation of his entire campaign and Presidency. He used every innuendo, sound bite, dog whistle in the arsenal of the GOP playbook. To put it bluntly, Trump made sure that White America was his friend that he would would protect from the evil hordes. The 'They' take everything from you my white friends and 'I Alone" will get it back for you.
Trump promises that after he gets everything back, he will make sure that 'They' will never ever be able to take it from you again. I will suppress their vote, put them in jail, not allow them citizenship, keep them out of the country entirely.
I will make sure their jobs aren't coming back and they can't get an education.
I will use their bodies for military service then send them packing to I don't care where.
Any doubt? Nope not one bit.
2
Donald Trump is fundamentally a Donald Trump supremacist. Since he's white he is a white supremacist. He's a New York supremacist because he's from New York. And he's a Real Estate supremacist.
The only way he can maintain his illusion of supremacy is to assume everyone else is inferior. And, it seems vitally important to him to maintain that illusion. Whatever his father did to him, it was not good.
Of course the only person exactly like him is Donald Trump so that's the best person no matter what that person does or says. And what does Donald Trump fundamentally believe? Whatever Donald Trump says.
Simple.
1
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. You've earned the disrespect.
Welcome to America Mr. Trump - funny how we've been here your whole life but you're just now finding out about us.
2
@Richard Luettgen: "The presidential election of 2008 was all ABOUT skin color. The presidential election of 2016 was not." Really???
Then why did Trump campaign on a promise to remove every vestige of Obama's legacy from the history books? Why his hardly veiled dog whistles to white supremacists at his rallies? Why his "Know Nothing" response to a call to denounce David Duke?
You say Barack Obama's election must have been about color because he was less-than-a-one-term senator with no other qualifications. And what, pray tell, did Donald Trump bring to the table? Celebrity apprenticeship and blatant appeals to those who felt their white privilege compromised by a black president and a browning nation. What does that tell you about the role of color in the 2016 election?
5
If you move to support, comfort, and hire white supremacists, you are highly unlikely to oppose their abhorrent views. Any distinction between the supporter and the supremacist is irrelevant. The damage is done.
1
A reference to the very thorough Atlantic article, the First White president, is missing here. It is unfortunate as people need to consider the arguments in that article, which are much more complete and compelling than this very short article - not a criticism of Mr Blow, but a must reference for the NYTimes readers.
3
I agree. I was looking for this, too. Surprised not to see it.
The question and it's answer is but a small part of our problem with Trump. When we have a liar, cheat, thin skinned, self absorbed boob acting as our president, we have much bigger concerns than white supremacy. We are already in deep trouble in our relations with other countries. Trump's self absorption and need for attention has most sane people worried. For him to be a white supremacist would just add to the mess- of- a president we elected. But in the end, we are failing to deal with him. He has broken more laws and rules than any one can imagine and there is no end in sight. He now ignores court orders and there is still no reaction from our Congress or Senate. We know he is making money hand over fist while serving as our buffoon president. When will the Republicans take action? I wonder if it is already too late.
2
This article *is* the problem in America. Trump has been in the spotlight for over 35 years and while I have never liked his New York hubris and obnoxious ways he has NEVER shown an any actions or even tendencies towards white supremacy. Otherwise these instances would be played in a continuous loop at the NYT, CNN and the other distortion networks. There is no proof. Also, for the record there are less than 40,000 people in the US affiliated with white hate groups in the US.
What we are seeing here is a historic attempt by actors on the left to implement a Propaganda Model as defined by Noam Chomsky. A narrative hatched from within the DNC and other leftist elites to sway opinion and obfuscate the realities of the damage done to this country by the previous administration in the hope that voters in 2018 will be so confused that they will toss facts in favor of emotion. It's scary.
2
There's an old saying, "if you have to lie to make your point, your point is probably wrong". Okay, maybe that is not an old saying, but it should be.
President Trump has NEVER drawn "equivalencies between white supremacists and (all) those who oppose them". That would be this "I think white supremacists and those who oppose them are similar". Find me that quote and I'll vote Democrat in 2020. But, of course, you can't.
President Trump was asked who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville. He said there is blame both against the (legally permitted) white supremacists as well as the people who showed up with baseball bats intent on attacking them. (Even the link provided by Mr Blow is very clear that President Trump is referring specifically to the violent Antifa gang.) In normal times, this would be all but an obvious observation. But then, these aren't normal times.
The protest in Charlottesville was under a permit, supported by the Federal Courts and secured via the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union no less! This is the same right to protest that protects Black Lives Matters and protected Martin Luther King's protests in the 60s. Once again, I am shocked at those here who wish eradicate these rights today, by suggesting violent attacks against protesters under legal permit is acceptable. Today their cause is not yours, but what about tomorrow? And you dare to quote Niemöller?? Hypocrites.
2
Let's be crystal clear, Trump love him some Trump. Period. The Media needs to delve deeper into Narcissistic Personality Disorder and then you'll understand the 5 W's for everything the man does.
Whether Donald Trump is absolutely white supremacist or complicitly white supremacist in the end makes no difference. When you see a clear wrong you oppose it, period. You do not qualify, obfuscate, dilute, or distract, you draw a line and stand your ground. But Donald Trump has no line because he has no ground. He has only a grab bag of mirrors which he flings into the world of facts and events in the desperate hope of finding himself. But there is no self, and he keeps smashing mirrors to hide his emptiness. The last two mirrors will be Russia and white supremacy. Mueller will smash the one and all honorable Americans will have to smash the other.
Then only the emptiness will remain, and the embarrassment of all who supported it will be left with their own mirrors cringing in the eye of history.
1
How much better was the alternative?
Bryan,
Really? Really? Dislike, disagree -- fine. But please, not the Hillary hysteria. You are too smart for that.
Whether Trump is personally racist or is just doing it for political expediency, the bottom line is he is giving oxygen to White Supremacist groups. It's a very low bar to get over when you have to criticize Nazis, and yet Trump still has a problem sounding sincere. Maybe Trump can point out for us all the very fine people in the Tiki torch march in Charlottesville.
Trump supporters keep saying he denounced David Duke. Yes, only have he was forced to do so and seems bothered to even have to do it. It sure would be nice seeing a tweet from Trump criticizing White Supremacists in his usual style. I guess those kind of tweets only apply to Islamic extremists.
Ms. Hill's tweet brought political heat on her employer which these days gets you fired.
It's no different from a cop sending racist tweets in his private life and being fired for it.
1
Trump may not be a supremacist per se but he certainly sympathizes with them, having been raised by one. Trump's statements of insinuation and refusal to condemn those who practice it reveal the equivalency, he is one of them. A great many supremacists express support for fascism and violence as a means to achieve their goals. The question is, at what point will Trump call for the same from his minions, if he hasn't already with his suggestions of "Second Amendment remedies"? Trump isn't just a clown or an idiot or even a racist, he is dangerous and must be called out every moment of every day.
1
Finally! We are beyond the wondering about whether Trump inflames and courts white resentment.
Trump played with fire on many sides, on both sides, in a tower, and on a plane. He certainly staged that last flip-flop to showcase his visceral opposition to having to sign Congress' joint resolution on Charlottesville "condemning the violence and domestic terrorist attack".
Jemele Hill has moved beyond wondering about whether Trump is a white supremacist. As a result, the discussion is zeroing in.
The White House is panicking because they have to take his dog whistle. And the White Supremacist groups and the faction of Trump's base that revels in the moral outrage that Trump causes, they are waiting!
Trump is stuck in his own white castle, a fortress constructed on the nods and winks to the "haters" and "revelers". I salute Jemele Hill for her courage to state her opinion.
How long until Trump dares to step outside and face "Are you a white supremamcist, Mr President?" After all of Trump's previous inexcusable comments, Jemele Hill has doubled down on Trump for all of us.
Many of Trump's moderates are thinking foul, but too bad. Trump has been corralled, his move.
1
I am in nearly complete agreement with Jamele Hill's analyses here. I do, however, think that the the phrase "has done nothing but endorse/promote white supremacy” is not true of either of the two major parties. They do, however, almost universally *condone* white supremacy.
White supremacy is a half-millennium-old phenomenon, and needs to be ended. It is different from "white privilege" (which I believe is a 'soft euphemism' for systematic human rights violations of people of color, and different also from 'white nationalism', which I believe is a better term to use to describe an open 'white superiority stance'.
But all these terms refer to racism. Some people are more racist than others. But just as it is wrong and inaccurate to describe someone as "a criminal", the term "racist" should not be used as a noun to label a person (though sometimes it's almost unavoidable.
The Biblical phrase "by their fruits shall ye know them" seems to apply here. Trump brought together a coalition including white nationalists by "dog-whistling" (referring indirectly to) racial differences in a way designed to appeal to a mostly-latent racism in some, and explicit, open racism in others. But Trump is not the only one ... the Democrats' "southern strategy" and many "law and order" political platforms are consciously designed to accomplish the same thing.
Tragically, we are witnessing an upsurge and coalescence of white nationalism, conscious and unconscious. There are many causes.
Look, Trump called my people murderers and rapists, so I don't have a problem with Jemele Hill calling him a white supremacist. This may be the kindest thing we can say about him before this is over.
4
Not many lives matter to this guy. His motto seems to be: only some white lives matter and no other lives matter.
1
Although Jemele Hill statements were perfectly accurate, they were also quite mild. What about the Neo Nazis that he has given a nod and a wink to. How pathetic that the “Leader of the Free World” takes time out of his busy day, I mean of course watching Fox and Friends, to attack a sports journalist on a sports network. Donald Trump IS making history. Once again he shames this great country.
2
Is 45 a white supremacist? Hmm. There's little or no evidence that's he's not a racist going back to his slum-lord days in avoiding black tenants and a huge battery of nasty, ethnocentric remarks since then. Frankly, I seriously doubt if he has the capacity to embrace a philosophical position with the premise that the amount of melanin in one's skin is a function of inferiority or superiority. What emerges from hearing and watching this clown that he's only interested in his own personal adulation.
"(Trump) insisted that Obama’s memoir was too well-written for him to have written it... that it must have been written by a white man."
This outrageously racist statement attributed to Trump by Mr. Blow was accompanied by a link to the Huffington Post, which has a video of the interview in question along with the article. But nowhere is there any evidence that Trump said that "it must have been written by a white man". Can the NYT or any reader furnish a link which includes that comment?
1
Is Trump a White Supremacist? Well, I suppose that depends on how one defines the term, "White Supremacist".
Trump trashes all his political opponents, regardless of race, sex, religion or ethnicity. Some of his political opponents happen to be nonwhite. This doesn’t make Trump a white supremacist. It makes his a politicians who capitalizes on the news media’s thirst for controversy.
A white supremacist is a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have dominion over people of other races. If Charles Blow and Jemele Hill think Donald Trump is a white supremacist, they should cite specific example of policies he promotes that would give whites dominion over other races.
1
Why is this even a question?? Of course, he is a white supremist -- and 80 years ago, we would have called him a Nazi.
All one has to do to realize this is simply to listen to and look at him. He hates any and everyone who is not like himself -- i.e. a bully.
Yep -- he is, and always will remain a white supremist, in my book -- even if I am unanimous in this.
2
Trump family had a past lawsuit because of renting practices involving discriminatory renting practices towards people of color.
He has encouraged violence at his rally's which appear to be attended by white people.
He has made multiple speeches about Charlottesville where people with NAZI Flags and Confederate flags were thought to be good people even though a woman was murdered.
He treated President Obama terribly. Demanded a birth certificate because he thought he was born in Kenya. He acted out for many years about this issue. He continues to try to make him appear illegitimate by ending laws and regulations to ensure there is no "legacy".
How much proof is needed?
Such garbage, NYT. Trump represents the formerly "middle class" and the lefties don't like the middle class. In fact, their heros, Marx and Lenin, had a disdain for the middle class. Since the majority of the people in America are white; how can it be "racists" to elect a white president? The NYT and other alt-left "news" sources are again barking up the wrong tree. The true culprit of racism was our former president and his supporters-all too eager to disdain and foment hate against the majority in this country. Trump is the corrective measure we all need to advance an agenda that helps ALL peoples. The fact that he doesn't pander to minorities or other race-baiting techniques is his strength. Thank you President Trump!
2
Trump probably thinks that we did the Africans a favor by bringing them over here . . . and introducing them to cotton.
1
He's also a male supremacist, keep in mind. But first and foremost, Trump is a Trump supremacist.
2
Trump is a very wealthy white man who obviously believes that he is "superior" to everyone else. Therefore, he is more of a Trump supremacist than a white supremacist.
I believe that white voters elected Trump because they are sick and tired of being lectured by liberal elites who openly consider everyone other than white males to be victims. Mr. Blow is particularly egregious in this regard. I don’t recall him ever having a good thing to say about any white American. His lack of impartiality makes him is an excellent recruiter for the next round of Trump voters.
1
White Supremacist? Take a certain amount of gleeful, confident in Trump's constant signal during speeches, righthand three finger ALT-Right salute. WP wink wink. Check it out.
1
Agreed, Charles.
Catering to loyal Trump haters, feeding their obsessive hunger for raw rhetoric filled with accusations of white supremacy, column after column, is a practice of active racism.
3
In answer to your question, Mr. Blow: Trump thinks he's superior to everyone.
1
Donald Trump, I feel, is actually something possibly worse than a White Supremacist: A White Supremacist who doesn't realize he's a White Supremacist; through sheer ignorance and lack of empathy.
The president believes generally that certain races and ethnicities have traits that are inferior to whites.
The Left is coming completely unglued with Trump Derangement Syndrome. President Trump won the election fair and square, along with all the races afterwards that the Left was sure would undo the election. The Left invented a false fantasy that President Trump colluded with Russia, a tale that has been proven completely false. the violent fascist left bitterly clings to their failed ideology that will lead them to an even bigger wipeout in 2018 and 2020
4
He is a sociopath not a classic racist. His actions are transparently, predictably all about Donald. If he thought the "win" was to put up Swastikas next to the American Flag, he would. He would have just as much conviction about having DeRay McKesson as head of the DOE if he "showed loyalty" and created a win. He is a profoundly shallow man without even a hint a conviction. His religion is Donald; he conviction is Donald; his definition or loyalty is the one-way street of Donald; He is the Kim Jong-um of the United States.
I think he's more of a "Me" supremacist. His racism is just happenstantial.
But it seems to work well with his moral code.
Well Mr. Blow it's unfortunate that you have to dance around the perpetrators so I will name a name. Mitch McConnell is a racist supporter for sure if not one. McConnell was the one who sad he would make Obama a one term President and proceeded to turn every rock for fools and southern cliche's.
the United States is a racist country. Just read any article about Ken Burn and the Vietnam documentary. What's the take away: he didn't realize the destruction and horror that the 'other' experienced. That is racism and ignorance. They seem to be tenants of your society.
Yes, yes and oh, yes....
He entered the political arena with the ignorant and clearly racist 'birther' claims. He entered the presidential election by coming down the escalator with his divisive anti-immigration 'build a wall' rhetoric. His speech in Milwaukee was perhaps the most racist speech I've heard since the days of George Wallace. Anyone who was confused about his sympathies for white supremacist need only listen to him equivocate neo-Nazis with those that stand against them. You don't need to be black, Asian, Mexican, gay, Muslim, or the Color Purple to recognize that a reprehensible and clearly racist man is in the White House.
America, we can never let this happen again. A vote for this man was a vote tolerating his despicable behavior.
If it looks like a racist, talks like a racist, and walks like a racist; it probably is a racist.
2
Mr. Blow sees racism everywhere. President Trump isn't a racist. He's just a New York jerk real estate developer.
1
Trump is a hateful and self loathing man so he will lash out at any individual or group who he feels threatened by. It does not matter the color of their skin, their religion or their country of origin. It doesn't even matter if they are staunch supporters and faithful servants like Jeff Sessions or Gary Cohn. He is unable to control his rages.
Trump has named himself a racist. Only Nazis think Nazis are fine people. Trump makes no secret of his racist and fascist beliefs.
3
As a white and elderly woman, I do not see a single word that Jemele used in her tweets which was incorrect. He is a white supremist and has filled his government with those of like mind. I am ashamed that he is our President now and was absolutely floored that so many people of my ethic background were and are so bigoted and ignorant. Not that all of the people voting for him fit this description but the ones still standing by him certainly are.
7
This is PRECISELY why the far left is losing elections all over the country. If you disagree in ANY way with progressive dogma (and keep up with how it becomes more "progressive" by the day), then you're called evil-sounding names that presumably any "decent" person would condemn. The latest are "xenophobe", "neo-Nazi", "White Supremacist". These terms have somehow been redefined to fit anyone who has moderately conservative views on immigration, free speech, respect for history, etc.
This route leaves almost no room for compromise or debate - and alienates people who may not agree with Trump on many things...but cannot bring themselves into the ever left-moving democratic camp. We may not agree with Trump...but at least he's not calling us names and demonizing large swaths of the populace as racists.
What a shame.
5
Perhaps if you are a woman, an immigrant, disabled or many other things you might also feel that he's "calling us names"
1
I have to ask: Does it really matter whether Trump can be placed accurately in some category like White supremist? I suppose my dog is a spaniel supremist. Whatever you call it, everyone knows what he is.
2
THAT was a lot of words when "Bear / Catholic / woods / Pope" would have done.
2
So we're looking to answer whether Trump is a white supremacist by choosing either (1) yes or (2) functionally yes because he props up those who are white supremacists. Fine, but even asking that question seems to underscore that Trump doesn't even have a needle on his moral compass to begin with.
It's plain to see that he's a different type of monster than David Duke or Richard Spencer is. I almost wish Trump was a dyed-in-the-wool white supremacist. As John Goodman/Walter said in The Big Lebowski, "at least it's an ethos." Instead, we get an absurd and disgusting man of insatiable pride, anger, objectification, and entitlement. We can't quite tell whether he's a white supremacist because he has no thoughts or desires outside of a need to feed his ego and craving for admiration, and he's defended (time and again) his admirers who are white supremacists. I don't think that makes him a white supremacist, but something worse.
4
For me the real question is - why has the media allowed team Trump to control the talking points for the past two years. Any ludicrous allegation that Trump makes (from Obama wire tapping to the birther lie originated with Ms. Clinton and beyond) - the media runs with as if there may be some legitimate story beneath Trump's reflex, self deflect technique. And that is exactly what he is doing here with the statements by Ms. Hill. Why is it that Trump has been allowed to say the most racist, sexist, vulgar and criminal (in the case of his sexual assault tape) things and yet be "elected" President and legitimized by his worshippers whereas Ms. Hill - for commentating accurately and truthfully - about Mr. Trump is the subject of scrutiny. There is something more than a little unseemly about public figures, journalists and pundits scrutinizing an African American journalist who states her opinion based on the clearly stated facts known about Trump being attacked by - more white people. And no - it's not the same as Curt Schilling - as there is a moral and real difference between an "alt-right" sympathizer who embraces an ideology that would harm Ms. Hill - and Ms. Hill rejecting that ideology because it is violent, racist and terrifying
4
"Either Trump is himself a white supremacist or he is a fan and defender of white supremacists..." Or he couldn't care less either way about the daily experience and fate of anyone outside of himself and sees the white supremacy-racist angle as something he can play (a) for personal gain, (b) as a tribute to his mentors, and (c) as a way to garner much-needed approbation from a crowd that, while small, tends to shout its collective viewpoint.
2
Decades of loosely throwing the charge of racist, sexist, xenophobe, etc at anyone who disagrees with liberal/progressive orthodoxy has now boomeranged back at progressives. When everyone who disagrees with you is disparaged personally with these labels the labels seek having a meaning and people don't respond to your labeling because they feel you are labeling and attacking them
You should read the Boy Who Cried Wolf. It would be quite enlightening for you.
3
Sadly, he's worse. He's whatever people who adore him want him to be. That in itself is the face of megalomania
3
Most white supremacists think they are not that, and probably consider the KKK disreputable. They think the situation is more nuanced than it really is. Unlike, a lot of issues, in which there is little black and white, and only gray, belief in racial supremacy is binary. In retrospect, Trump's promotion of the birther movement was a 'dog whistle' heard, and probably embraced by his racist/white supremacist core supporters, as well as many other more socially acceptable, less 'deplorable' individuals. The latter group don't think they are white supremacists, but they do not express intolerance for it. They were not capable of the critical self-analysis that it would have taken to repudiate Trump, rationalizing their support for him by focusing on the negatives of Hilary. I see little evidence that this group of 'less deplorable' individuals has developed any insight, even when they witness the 'deplorable' statements made by this president.
1
Is Trump a racist, some other class of despicable? is the issue, but not really the most important one for the survival of the republic.
But the right wing is really vested in Trump not being called a racist, since it has talked itself into believing that the left only thinks racism is wrong. And it thinks it can react in faux outrage at the very thought that Trump is running interference for white supremacists out of racism, rather than allying with white supremacists out of political advantage.
Me, I think that there's a lack of value in probing exactly why Trump can't condemn Nazis as Nazis without diluting it with bothsidesisms. He's awful regardless. Let the historians psychoanalyze him.
1
It i walks like a duck. If it swims like a duck. It is a,,,
1
Hahahaha,
Laughable that this is even discussed. I am a 45 year old clean-cut white man. Every single self-described Republican I have ever met has been a racist (I guess they feel comfortable opening up with me). When are we going to be honest about this? Tax cuts, the freedom to exploit anything to make a buck, and white supremacy are the defining characteristics of Republican ideology. Denying this is the most durable form of political correctness around.
3
He believes in white supremacy but doesn't like being labeled as one though his words and actions do lead you to the conclusion that he is one.
2
Anyone else remember the statement from the 1970s....'if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem'?
1
Trump a white supremacist? How to cure a white supremacist?
I have no idea if Trump is a white supremacist. I am on better ground speculating about how to cure a white supremacist because apparently society when faced with a white supremacist can think of nothing better to do than point him out and marginalize him (strategy of isolation and reduction of power, similar to isolating an arrogant, self-regarding person and putting him his place).
My belief is white supremacy and arrogance, narcissism of all type is best approached by attempt to realize all talent of all type in society wherever it is so that accomplishment by every angle of society just makes all but the most resistant take pause and the most resistant are left quite harmless, just sad cases of extreme self-regard. I base this form of reasoning by reflecting on how a typical white supremacist responds to a strongly racist asian, whether this means a strong Chinese nationalist (Han) or a strongly insular Japanese and vice versa.
Each can hold the most odious views of the other but each if held in check by mutual economic accomplishment not to mention prevented from outbreak of actual violence cannot help but arrive at grudging respect of the other. Asians do not generally complain of white supremacy today and vice-versa. Actual, mutual accomplishment across the board seems to be the best cure. Or we can cynically manufacture perception of such by communication systems and hope at end such becomes reality.
What is in up his heart is beyond our power to know, but his well-documented actions and words, over many decades, have often been racist. To borrow a phrase from football's Bill Parcells, "you are what you record says you are."
2
Trump likes to whistle and doesn't care what dogs come running as long as they come.
5
"...in which Hill goes on to say that Trump is “the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,” that he hired and courted white supremacists, that “His rise is a direct result of white supremacy,” that “if he were not white, he never would have been elected.”
Brava Meleme Hill for speaking the truth. Surely no rational, well educated, and patriotic American could possibly disagree with her statements.
3
I find the mere fact that the question about Trump being a white supremacist is being asked almost as appalling as white supremacy itself. What has happened to our once-great nation? This is a man of insufferable ego who is turning the Presidency into a cauldron of hate and chaos based on the color of a person's skin or their ethnicity.
He is attempting to give legitimacy to racism, and he must be condemned for this. He has hung himself with his own words. His tweets are the work of a buffoon. No one in his administration seems to have the ability to say to him: No you can't do this. The answer to columnist Blow's question is a very strong yes.
4
As Dan Rather once famously testified during the Pentagon Papers mess, "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are, you've got a duck."
1
As the saying goes, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
Mr. Trump has supported racism all his life. It is documented fact that Trump was sued by the Federal Government for not renting to Blacks; https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race...
Even though the Central Park Five, Blacks and Hispanics were released after wrongfully being imprisoned, Trump still wanted them executed: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/opinion/why-trump-doubled-down-on-the...
In rally after rally, Trump continuously riles up his base with racist remarks and sentiments: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trumps-long-history-of-rac...
How much more evidence does one need? The plain TRUTH is, Mr. Trump IS A RACIST through and through. To deny this truth is to deny the obvious!
2
Trump and his "good brain" has a god complex, seeing himself superior to everyone else except, maybe his family. He seems to treat everyone outside his narrow white Protestant male category as an other who poses an existential threat to him.
He is the worst type of prejudiced individual because he is one who does not have the emotional or intellectual honesty or the mental wiring that allows for introspection to even consider the question or care.
2
Trump really wanted to thrash any of Obama deeds, he started by the dignity of the man. Too bad it is supposed to be attached to the function of POTUS
Blow's question may be valid but the more important question is this: Is Trump fit for office, given his failure to condemn racism?
1
Trump's actions are those of someone with an enormous inferiority complex. He is incapable of achieving what Obama had achieved (despite the fact that he started with an enormous financial advantage), and under all that vitriol, he knows it!
1
Race and religion has always been a part of American politics. From Catholics immigrating here from the 1800s to Muslims immigrating here now..Anti black of course have been the biggest drawer of votes in this country. Every politician understands what groups he needs to win and how to go about it. Trump is no different.
It does not matter what Trump "is." What matters is what Trump "does".
People are jumping the gun in advance of Trump doing anything that directly interferes with civil rights.
So far he is limiting his impact to shooting off his Twitter.
But what has he done legislatively to advance an agenda of white supremacy and white nationalism? Zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing.
The closest he has come to advancing that evil agenda of white supremacy is to hamper voting rights - but - but - but - is that Trump's agenda or the GOP/Republican agenda? Wasn't that evil agenda something that they worked night and day to accomplish waaa-aaay before Trump showed up?
Let's be honest and fair about this argument.
Separate Trump from the GOP/Republican agenda and see what's left to support a thesis that Trump is a white supremacist. Go ahead. I'll wait.
"Either Trump is himself a white supremacist or he is a fan and defender of white supremacists, and I quite honestly am unable to separate the two designations." Well, as James Whitcomb Riley said, "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."
The Republican Party of course has been cozening up to white supremacists at least as far back as Nixon and his Southern Strategy. The party is tainted, possibly forever. Their only salvation is to turn the nation into a white supremacist nation. Then they will be mainstream.
Yes, yes, yes, & yes.
1
Trump is the froth on the mob that supports him. He's not leading them...they are carrying him. Trump looks to see who supports him and sees racists and white supremacists. That is the actual reason Trump has difficulty with condemning them. He will not attack his base.
As for Trump himself...he believes in the superiority of only one person...Trump. The rest of us are graded on how well we bow and scrape before him. If Barack Obama started calling Trump a great president...you would see a huge turnaround in Trump's attitude towards Obama.
2
When you call Trump a white supremacist you dilute the meaning of a truly delusional ideology. For all of Trump's many faults, I sincerely doubt that he believes that the so-called white race is superior. He has done deals with many non whites for international hotels on equal footing - Vancouver, Panama, etc.
There are other signs of Trump's racist and anti-Semitic views. During the campaign, he retweeted an image of Hillary Clinton with a slogan inside a six sided star (the shape of the Star of David) sitting on a pile of cash. This cartoon originally came from a white supremacist site.
Just yesterday, he retweeted a video of him hitting (what appeared to be) Hillary Clinton with a golf ball. This is bad enough, but it came from a Twitter user with the handle "@Fuctupmind". (Don't know if The NY Times allows this language, but it was a retweet from the President of the United States.) Mr. Trump knew, or should have known, that by retweeting that user, he was implicitly endorsing that user and that user's content. Not surprisingly, that user has posted anti-Semitic content in the past.
The fact that Trump sometimes retweets these users is a powerful argument that Trump holds white supremacist views.
2
In France and other countries after the German conquest, politicians and citizens who never joined the national socialist party nonetheless participated in implementing their policies, or, simply looked the other way. They were called 'sympathizers'. They were folks who perhaps lacked the conviction or courage to overtly join and be identified as Nazis, or, more probably, simply found it in their own best personal interests to be a friend and confidant.
That seems to me to fit the President. Sympathizers are the weak followers, not leaders, and always doing the cynical calculation of how to benefit most without being caught in the dragnet when the winds blow the other way.
Have submitted several comments.all well reasoned and informative, and would appreciate it if they were to be published. Find fault with author for several reasons. First, is it not a trifle racist to call someone a "white supremacist" w/o ever having met, much less interviewed him? Second, author appears unwilling to take chances like many of his colleagues,is reticent to go where others also fear to tread to get a real story, to La.bayou for example,where Tea partiers reside. CB is from La. What could be more natural?Third,reluctance to dignify office of the president and the man bespeaks a lack of respect for our institutions. Finally, hateful prose only further divides us as a people. and what is it backed by except personal animus?By the way,still waiting to hear why DM was apparently let off the hook after his role in encouraging anti police violence by leading marchers in calling for "dead cops"Is there a causal connection, in CB's view. between assassinations of p.o.'s in Dallas and BLM's manifestations against the police? Finally, why has DM disappeared from public view, and did he get cold feet when challenged by Dallas police chief to try out for the force?Mr. Blow's many, faithful readers, of whom I am one, would like to know.
The fact that Trump's father was associated with the KKK, and that his parents chose to raise him in a segregated neighborhood implies that Trump learned the doctrine of white supremacy from a very early age.
1
I don't know if Trump is a white supremacist as much as someone who intellectually can't grasp that white supremacism is not a legitimate belief, or recognizing that white supremacism, rather than being about believing whites are truly superior, is about maintaining the privilege whites had for so many years that often was at the expense of blacks (and women of all races). Jim Crow in large part was about keeping 'blacks in their place', ie that the jobs they could get were menial, and if they got 'white jobs' to make sure they paid less than what whites made, so it didn't deny a white man a job.
More importantly, Trump follows in the line of the GOP where racism underlies a lot of what they claim. For example, the anti ACA line implied somehow that a group of 'those people' were getting gold plated health insurance for free while 'good working people' had to pay a ton for it (anyone wanna guess who the 'those people' and 'good working people' are?). Much like the tea party believing that budget deficits were all about spending on welfare and other social programs, that if we 'got rid of welfare' to quote one tea party nitwit where i live "the budget would be in surplus'. The fundamental notion the GOP has been spewing to the white working class is that they are paying for others, people who aren't 'pulling their own weight', and it is directly implied it was minorities..and of course, Obama being a minority president, would be 'helping his people' over 'working people'. QED
Trump courts white supremacist's approval to make his own accidental "race" designation appear, to him, to be a WIN. It's about the circular internal approval metric which distracts him from a logically shared reality. His Bart Simpsonesque default: "I didn't do it! Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything!" is funny, if you're a cartoon. Oh, right...
"Is Trump a White Supremacist?"
Yes.
What does that say about him?
He is racist.
How can you take comfort among and make common cause with white supremacists and not assimilate to their sensibilities?
You can't.
This has been yet another edition of "Simple Answers to Simple Questions."
1
Racism is a problem in this country, but it's not every problem and not all of Trump's support came from racists. He was elected in part by hard core bigots, but he was pushed over the top by a combination of Republican die-hards and those who believed that the Democratic Party no longer listens to the every day voter's complaints. It's not because he seemed racist or misogynist that he won; it was in spite. These fringe voters could overlook his intolerance but they couldn't overlook the Democrats' indifference. Obama always seemed concerned about the middle class; Hillary called the lower middle class whites deplorables. The hard left over and again asks, how could you ignore the venom of his words? Maybe they should now ask, how can we ignore that we are so out of touch that we even lost to Trump?
1
Surely Ms.Hill is as qualified to comment on politics as Mr.Trump is to occupy the White House.
Not everyone whom I know that voted for Trump is a racist
I admit that
but here is the "rub"
they were willing to vote for and elect a man who used racism and misogyny to get elected, and who David Duke supported
does that make them racist? maybe not
But it makes them deplorable
There are so many examples of Trumps conduct in regards to race, here are just a few that come to mind. I'm sure there are many, many other examples/
(If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ....)
1. the time he said he did not want black people handling the money at his casinos. “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” he said
2. The Justice Department sued his company ― twice ― for not renting to black people
3. He claimed a judge was biased because “he’s a Mexican”
4, He questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. This was the central point of the start of his campaign.
5. He encouraged the mob anger that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of the Central Park Five
6. He condoned the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at one of his rallies.
7. He called supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man “passionate”
8.. The tweet from 2014
@realDonaldTrump 25 Nov 2014
Sadly, because president Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won't see another black president for generations!
2
"It is clear that Trump is hero among white supremacists: He panders to them, he is slow to condemn them and when that condemnation manifests, it is often forced and tepid. Trump never seems to be worried about offending anyone except Vladimir Putin and white supremacists."
That pretty much sums it up.
1
Is Trump a white supremacist? Debatable. Would Trump demean, spread falsehoods about or unjustly attach minorities, women, and/or LGBT individuals just to get a vote or otherwise to consolidate his power - in a heartbeat. So, is he really a white supremacist; well is the label so important to you?
Mr. Blow is right on target about Trump and white supremacists. Trump ran on hate, and he still does. Trump's campaign of hate is very damaging to our society and our country, in many ways.
But, there's an elephant in the room that the New York Times is loath to acknowledge: Trump is actually, surprisingly, right about something when he mentions the equivalence between the "two sides" at Charlottesville and elsewhere.
Racist hatred comes from the white supremacists of course, along with racist victimhood and violent rhetoric and occasionally some violent acts. But, racist hatred comes from the "Black Lives Matter!" (aka BLM) movement too, along with racist victimhood, violent rhetoric* and occasionally some violent acts** as well.
Hate begets hate. Racism begets racism. If Mr. Blow were honestly, courageously in favor of diversity and mutual understanding and respect, and against racism, he would come out against the inherently-racist BLM movement as well.
*suggest an internet search for this dangerous piece of mendacity: "... in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise."
**Assassinations of "white" police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, breaking a window of the house of the mayor of St. Louis, etc.
Trump is a white supremacist second, and a Trump supremacist first.
What would it take for you an Anglo person to hire someone to advise you and that person(s) has a history of memorialized racially insensitive and outright racist/antisemitic opinions, theories and conspiracies. Wow that was hard to type.
1
Does this piece make me enraged? Heck--No! It is fictional, delusional, and utter nonsense and, as such, no threat to changing anyone's opinion other than die hard believers. It wouldn't past muster for most college publications--but my have they lowered standards at the Times!!
4
Hi Todd,
Please point to the "fictional" passages. Be specific.
5
Trump is an overt racist. Does that make him a white supremacist? My answer is, how does it not.
2
The alt-right, the KKK and other types voted for Trump because he was identified by them as a kindred spirit. If he isn't a white supremist he sure gives a good impression of one.
1
Trump is definitely a racist. He has certainly proved that over the years.
But white supremacist? I don't think he really likes most white people either.
He's a Trump supremacist.
1
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a white supremacist is “a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races”. The phrase black supremacist is not defined – perhaps for reasons both good and bad. Mr. Blow has become a self-made specialist devoting much of his energy to identifying racism – “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. Now if you believe race is not “the primary determinant of human traits and capacities” than racism is a fallacy, an error, and/or a mistake. Perhaps Mr. Blow really wants to be the arbiter of hate rather than a judge of racial error. I wonder if skin color helps him read the heart and soul of those he writes about.
2
In case this has not yet been said, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then most likely it's a duck, and Donald Trump is a white supremacist.
It's undeniable.
2
I have no doubt about Trump and neither do white supremacists.
1
All of this self questioning?
Trump is a supremacist. He is unerringly certain that he is superior to every human being he meets regardless of race, gender, or anything else.
He is also a racist, sexist, ageist, ectcetra.
He is also totally hung up on Whiteness. If your not white, you are obviously not in the room.
What about this is so hard to figure out?
1
Donald Trump may be the Chauncey Gardner of our generation; I'm not sure he actually thinks or believes anything. There may be no there, there.
If you turn a blind eye to white supremacists, you might as well be a white supremacist.
I have never met a more racist person than
Charles Blow.He thinks that affirmative action is a given if it is based on the amount of melanin you have . Secure borders and voter id is racists per say.He probably thinks that I am a racist because I dislike his angry rant and inability to find anything positive to say about what the President tries to do.
High teen age unemployment and rising crime under Obama in Chicago never got as much anger out of this racist commentator than Trump saying that Antifa shares blame for violence.
1
Why do you still read his columns? I don't read racist rants at the Daily Stormer.
If I thought Blow was racist I wouldn't read him either. But pointing out racism and being racist are two different things!
Hillary Clinton was a hero to the Communist Party USA, which endorsed her. I guess that makes Hillary a communist. See how that works?
If a half of one percent of the American population were racist or white supremacist, I'd be surprised. The left must have their demons, even if the are few in number and mostly toothless half-wits residing in the backwaters of America. They must exaggerate the dangers those demons represent. Why? Who would they save us from if not their imaginary bugaboos?
I suspect that deep in Mr. Blow's mind he believes we Republicans are all white supremacists now.
3
ESPN's Hill called Trump a white supremacist because SHE KNEW THAT SHE CAN. No credible political expert or columnist holding meaningful employment in that field would go out his/her way to bluntly accuse the POTUS of being a white supremacist. But that's her whole schtick - this campy "yo-yo-yo" hip-hop urban sideshow to mainstream sports. she's a campy professional race baiter looking for attention.
Your assessment is spot-on. But I think Trump does not realize he is a white supremecist, mainly because he is a me-firster. Everything for him is ME FIRST. And because he likes himself so well, he likes people who demonstrate similarities.
He likes brash, in-your-face anti-establishment types. Gentility, thy name is not Trump. He gravitates to white men like himself, rich white men, America-first white men, gun-totin' protect-the-little-lady white men, put her on a pedestal and cop a feel white men. Get rid of those uppity immigrants white men. These are the people he speaks for. He is proud of his white man-ness and wallows in it.
Whenever something isn't going his way, it's UNFAIR. He sees unfairness only in terms of himself and those he thinks are like him. Nothing appears to be unfair to immigrants, Democrats, liberals, the media as far as he is concerned.
Nazi salutes and KKK hoods? Nope. That's not him. No hiding behind a white outfit for The Donald. He's loud and proud and has no idea that he's one of them at heart.
2
I had order home delivery of the New York Times as a reaction to the frequent attacks made by Trump on the press. Despite already having a subscription to a local paper in NJ, I thought it was important to support the continuation of a free press which was continuously being attacked. I also got the advantage of world class reporting being dropped on my door step each day. Unfortunately, after being a regular reader of the NYT for months I have been surprised that the opinion columnist have been so focused on reacting to the latest Trump nonsensical twitter blast that they now are attempting to match him with their own hyperbole and bombast. If you are not 100% supporter of DACA, then you are racist according to Paul Krugman. With Charles Blow, everywhere he looks he sees white supremacists. No effort by the writers to write a balanced piece with real analysis when they can just write some emotional reaction to Trump. Looks like Trump is not the only blowhard regularly spouting these over the top reactions. I think I will stick with my local newspaper after all.
P.S. Appreciate it if you could let the Circulation department to please cancel my subscription with the NY Times.
1
Mr. Donald Trump is mentally unfit to serve as president of USA
2
Well, he surrounds himself with Jews, some of whom are Orthodox. Is he anti-goy?
You do surely know that Breitbart News was founded by a Jew and its current editor-in-chief is an Orthodox Jew. I somehow seriously doubt that the celebration of Nazi ideology is part of the secret or not-so-secret agenda of folks like Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller and the Breitbart crew.
Are these people (excluding Kushner) quite conservative in their viewpoints? Yes indeedy. Champions of white supremacists? Well, do you want to call them self-hating Jews in order to somehow find a rationale for that?
1
The words 'white supremacist' and 'Nazi' have joined that other favorite word of the Liberal-Left, 'racist',in the 'meaningless' category by virtue of their astonishing misuse by the usual practioners since Trump's election. The deranged mentality of those currently engaged in this nonsense is illustrated by their freely applying the label to anyone disagreeing with their political agenda.
1
Mr Blow should discuss this issue with Ta-Nehisi Coates, who said:
"I think if you own a business that attempts to keep black people from renting from you; if you are reported to say that you don’t want black people counting your money; if you say—and not even reported, just come out and say—that someone can’t judge your case because they are Mexican; if your response to the first black president is that they weren’t born in this country, despite all proof; if you say they weren’t smart enough to go to Harvard Law School, and demand to see their grades; if that’s the essence of your entire political identity you might be a white supremacist, it’s just possible."
I am, as a 66 yo white male, siding with Coates.
5
I am a FOWG, a Fat Old White Guy and I know a few things about Fat Old White Guys, so let me put this question to rest once and for all. FOWG to FOWG there is no doubt in my mind that had the opportunity presented itself, and Mr. Trump was under the impression I was a fellow traveler, he would not have had the slightest compunction about expressing his ideas regarding the superiority of white people in the grossest and most disgusting terms. I know countless Donalds I am sorry to say and like former Mayor Bloomberg, who as a billionaire knows a billionaire when he sees one, I know a racist thug when I see one or to use a more polite term, a "white supremacist."
2
If he walks like a racist, looks like a racist, smells like a racist, speaks like a racist...he must be a racist.
As Maya Angelou would say, listen to the man and believe what he says!
Not my president.
1
First, let's consider Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Her job prospects outside the White House are dismal, when one considers what routinely spews from her mouth. As for Trump being racist, his choice of advisors and comments about the Nazi and white-power looneys, places him in the plus column.
Absolute nonsense!
Every week you literally write the same exact column plus or minus the "insult" of either Trump or his supporters. You are an angry person with little to no imagination to write about anything else. There is a nut in NK that wants to nuke either the US or give the technology to Iran. There was a terror attack on Friday in London by a Syrian Refugee, there has been two Hurricanes over the last month with people helping each other and yet, you continue with this nonsense.
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The true White Supremacist speaks unambiguously about his/herr belief in the superiority of a fraction of the USCB's "white race" people. That supremacist uses exactly the same language used by American racists who created the USCB race designations starting in 1790.
The same is true for the neo-Nazis here in Sweden, at least 50 of whom marched down "The Avenue" in Göteborg yesterday - without a permit - and who have been granted a permit for September 30. Sweden at its worst.
But Donald Trump never says anything clearly and were he to do so he might retract it the next day, so we can never use his grade-school English to determine if he is a White Nationalist.
We can only rely on his actions, his appointments, and his failures to take a stand against racists of many different kinds. That, and perhaps his frequent past declarations of pride in his German gene/s - earlier Swedish gene/s - making him who he is.
All that reminds me of the leader of a 1920s movement to control breeding in Sweden so that in the end most citizens would have some kind of imagined genetic purity. The leader was Herman Lundborg who created the Swedish Institute of Race Biology in 1922. Donald Trump clearly thinks as did Lundborg but DT knows that all he can do in that line is to restrict immigration. Paradoxically the people whom he targets most decisively belong to the USCB's white "race" the MENA - Mid East-N Africa.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
I don't know if Trump is a white supremacist. He's certainly a bigot.
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Well put. Donald is also a Donald supremacist and he is white. His own visceral self identity colors his every thought . White Donald like to be supreme.
Has Blow ever written anything positive about a white person? I've never seen it. Lots and lots of hateful columns though. Hmmmm, I wonder who is the racist here.
I'm White and I agree with Blow's assessment of Trump and then some. Just because he can lay out the reasons that Trump is a racist, and I can lay out the reasons he's both a racist AND and anti-Semite.
I've thought Trump was a blowhard, a bully, a phony, a con artist, and unable even to make money running a casino for over 30 years.
He's a dislikeable many, shallow, ignorant, and acts like a disturbed pre-teen. You don't have to be Black to recognize Trump is a catastrophe for America and the world, who has let loose the dogs of the KKK and American Nazis.
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Of course Donald Trump is a white supremacist. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a recent MSNBC interview summed it up nicely. Coates said if one owns a business that won't rent to blacks, says he doesn't want blacks counting his money, claims the first black president wasn't born in the US and isn't smart enough to have gone to Harvard, and says a judge is unfit to rule in his lawsuit because he is Mexican, then that person might be a racist.
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What do George C. Wallace and the prez have in common? Support for white supremacy.
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poor poor white people - who knew that being white was so hard.
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Trump's handling of the murder in Charlottesville and his " some nazis marching there are fine people" clinched it for me.
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Is Trump a white supremist? No, he is not. An insecure, narcissistic fool, perhaps, but not a white supremacist.
The more the libs trot out this nonsense, the more energized his conservative base will become...and the more they will accept/forgive his unacceptable behavior. Not good.
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Mr. Blow's baseless assertion that Trump is a white supremacist falls flat. In fact, the lack of evidence presented in his piece undermines Mr. Blow's entire thesis. Conclusion: if Charles Blow can't find convincing evidence that Trump is a white supremacist, then it simply doesn't exist. Case closed.
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Trump isn't a white nationalist. He's a racist, pure and simple. The other term actually makes him look better since Jews and Muslims for instance are omitted from that focus since it targets just Blacks. I appreciate that in a society where that racial group is significantly large it carries more interest but it misses the point. The Charlottsville marchers carrying tiki torches were chanting anti-Semitic nazi slogans and displaying swastikas and didn't shout "white supremacist" chants. There also seems to be the misperceptions that someone whose daughter is Jewish would not be anti-Semitic. Some of Hitler's cronies had Jewish friends and mistresses. They tolerated them even though they hated Jews. And I suspect Trump had no say in his daughter's choice of husbands. He just sucked it up. And he doesn't like Kushner and Cohn because they are Jewish, he likes them because they are fabulously RICH. Let's be clear: Trump just hates anyone who isn't a white Christian and tolerates Jews because they are rich and he knows a lot in his New York business dealings. That's why he hates Muslims (double whammy), and loves doing the southern rallies where, if you notice the crowd, almost all are white, excepting of course the token black he always places over his right shoulder for appearances. So let's just stop calling him a white supremacist. It's actually dangerous because it entirely diverts from what we should be very concerned about.
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Trump is a little tricky.
As "God's gift" he is certainly a supremacist. And while he clearly sees most whites as below him (he's an equal opportunity con-man), he certainly has a tendency toward whites among his circles, and decidedly turned to Hitler's demagoguery in game-planning his campaign (read "In ‘Hitler,’ an Ascent From ‘Dunderhead’ to Demagogue" for the chillingly similar rises to political power).
It's a little ironic since Trump is directly descended from the "Palatine Boors" that Ben Franklin singled out in 1751 as lesser humans and a drag on white, English-speaking colonial society.
So, sure Trump is a white supremacists, as his Daddy was and as his 1973 discrimination suit reveals.
But maybe, as his narcissism dictates that he delude himself as "American royalty," we should specify that even though he is like your run-of-the-mill "white supremacists," there is no doubt that he has fashioned himself (with John Miller and John Barron's help) as America's premier "Orange Supremacist."
It wouldn't be morning if blow wasn't up on his soapbox ranting and raving about Trump.
Blow is so unbelievably fixated on the subject of race that he can't see past the tip of his nose.
We all have to make a living and feed our families, I understand that, but we need to get past this one subject every time, every morning. I'm not a fan of blow, but I don't deny his intelligence, he is certainly worthy of better columns than this.
I'll give you a list to consider this evening, climate change, the UN, North Korea, the real estate or stock market...... anything, just please stop this race baiting, you're not making it better, you're making it worse.
Is that your motivation?
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There are two types of republicans: (1) racists that speak their mind without restraint; and, (2) racists that do not speak their mind. Both types believe white people are superior to the others.
Benedict donald is a type 1, but he is also a traitor.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
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" and insisted that Obama’s memoir was too well-written for him to have written it, that it must have been written by a white man".
Mr. Blow, this must be a fake statement. I know, not even Donald Trump could fix his mouth to utter those words. And how would he know? He hasn't read a book since "Dick and Jane".
Trump said Bill Ayres wrote Obama's second book.
Why didn't Trump's network fire him for his racist diatribes against President Barack Obama? Why don't WE fire Donald Trump for HIS cruel, misogynistic, ignorant, inflammatory, racist, self-serving, fake news...tweets? Time and time again, the pot calls the kettle, um, black.
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Is the Pope Catholic?
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Wow that is the evidence you have that trump is a racist? What a juror you would make. According to mr blow, mr trump ( and all of his supporters) hates blacks, Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, Asians, and every other non white group. I am continually amazed at the hate in mr blow's heart.
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