Please, New York Times, call Trump a racist. Stop beating around the bush with phrases like “stoking racial tension / division / fires, etc. ). According to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, it took the New York Times 5 years from the time that Trump lied about what he supposedly investigated about Pres. Obama’s birthplace for the New York Times to report that Trump lies. Please do better, NYT, with regard to reporting on the obvious racism of Trump and the Republican Party.
Further proof of racism, on top of prior proofs. He's racist. In fact, his racism is blatant.
18
America Welcome to the Trump 2020 election campaign. Trump's American Carnage continues.
14
"Go back to where you came from". Sadly this is what many people in this country also say, and now they can say it louder and more fiercely.
We are in big trouble because a minority of powerful people have taken over thru propaganda, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and divide and conquer tactics, because they are either greedy or truly racist (or both).
It's very difficult not to feel despair.
23
I don't think many people from a progressive, democratic socialist country like Norway wish to immigrate to the United States at this time, with such an Occupant in the WH. It would be interesting to learn how many Norwegians have immigrated during his tenure.
10
What about Mrs. Trump? Although she is an immigrant herself, she supports her husband’s harsh anti-immigrant positions. Did her career posing nude in pornographic photo shoots prepare her better for her leadership position as the First Lady of the United States of America than the backgrounds of these four women prepared them for their leadership positions as American congresswomen? Perhaps Mr. Trump should suggest she return to Slovenia to help our that struggling country.
35
If Ms. Ocazio-Cortez goes back to The Bronx, will Trump go back to Brooklyn ... And stay there?
22
I am a Democrat, but was happy to hear Illinois GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger call out Ttump’s racist remarks from yesterday and this morning late this afternoon.
13
Finally, you figured out why Trump is so popular with white people and Republicans in particular. Racial animosity is the propellent he uses to drive his core voters into a outright frenzy for him. He is really scoring big now going after four women of color who are liberal. There is no hiding it. This is a jackpot he could not afford to pass up.
You tube has been running a lot of tape lately of white people around the country spouting off their racial hatred in restaurants, fast food places, in apartment complexes, etc. with no restraint or shame at people of color.
Trump must view these encounters and take heart and sustenance that his message is getting through.
Meanwhile Republicans in Congress play dumb.
26
Let me borrow the words from a not-distant past to give a moral remind, especially those Republicans in Congress at present:
"First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me".
Martin Niemöller, German Lutheran pastor.
28
This reminds me of the time my wife was taking the bus to work in Austin and the only seat available was one a woman had covered with her stuff. My wife pointed at the seat and the woman in a huff cleared it for her to sit down. My wife then took out a French novel she was carrying and started to read.
The woman said: "Why don't you go back where you came from!"
My wife replied: "Houston?"
(I would have posted this on the article about #Brokeahantas telling the Congresswomen to go back to the country they came from but comments are closed.)
15
The US of A is heading toward a 'tipping point.' If the Trump voters who support his not-so-veiled white supremacy platform show up in numbers and vote him in again, you're in for a world of trouble. I truly hope that the rest of the free world has a contingency plan to hold the US accountable and prevent the rise of another national socialist agenda.
It took Germany many years to regain the world's respect.
19
Trump isn't going to change. The only way change the narrative is the change the President. And an important part of changing the President will depend upon how many white voters are turned off by this racism and how many are turned on by it.
And race has a part to play. Having a lot of non-white people disavow these outbursts are nowhere near as effective as a lot of white folks voicing their disapproval.
14
Let me see if I understand this correctly. When a white man complains about the US, he just wants to "take his country back." When people of color, especially women, complain about the US, they should "go back where they came from."
A fascinating distinction, and surely not at all racist or sexist to somebody, but I'm not that somebody.
32
Trump’s oath of office:
“I do solemnly swear to destroy the Constitution, DIVIDE the American people, and enrich myself and my family wherever and whenever I can.”
21
More frightening than the pres. is the number of hateful people he has encouraged to come "out of the closet"
When he is but a bad memory they will still have their toxic beliefs.
And I thought that the Obama election was proof that our great nation was going in the direction of at least reducing hatred of "others".
Wow, was I wrong!
13
The Squad is helping elect Republicans:
A new internal Democrat poll in swing districts released on Sunday showed that socialist Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are extremely unpopular and that they may cost the Democratic Party the presidency and the House in 2020.
"Ocasio-Cortez was recognized by 74% of voters in the poll; 22% had a favorable view," Axios reported. "Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — another member of The Squad — was recognized by 53% of the voters; 9% (not a typo) had a favorable view."
"Socialism was viewed favorably by 18% of the voters and unfavorably by 69%," Axios added, whereas "capitalism was 56% favorable; 32% unfavorable."
The firm that conducted the poll gave the results to Axios on the condition that it not be named because it works "with all parts of the party."
A top Democrat involved in the 2020 congressional races told Axios: "If all voters hear about is AOC, it could put the [House] majority at risk. She's getting all the news and defining everyone else’s races. Socialism is toxic to these voters."
1
So another outrageous, despicable, racist tweet and all the media takes his bait once again. Trump gets lots of coverage and attention as he fans the flames of divisiveness - but one has to wonder what else is going on since it is likely he's using this as a smokescreen to fill the news cycle and hide from us. No doubt he is a deranged racist but why is he slinging this out now? Has to be more than pumping up his base.
6
This just in CNN Exclusive:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/assange-embassy-exclusive-documents/index.html
Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling.
Under marching orders from the Kremlin.
Tune in to Rachel Maddow
6
I am living and teaching in Malaysia for a year, and one of the headline stories on the news in Kuala Lumpur concerned Trump and his most recent racist remarks, which were reported on without comment. I spoke to a cab driver here recently who thinks that Trump is improving America; he was distressed to hear I disagreed with him. I do disagree and stand in solidarity with the congresswomen who are working hard to help us remember what America is about: freedom and inclusiveness and equality. The world is watching, and I hope what it is really listening for is an expression of the values Americans truly represent.
9
Dear Republicans,
Would you have voted for David Duke in 2016 if he promised you tax cuts and deregulation?
Because that's exactly what you did. Donald Trump is David Duke.
The question is, will you vote for David Duke again in 2020?
14
I see that the UN says there are 820 million people going hungry on the planet.
Those people will probably be looking for a place to live, where hunger is not going to be a problem for them and their families.
That being said, where do you think they should go?
As long as poor people in poor countries keep on increasing their population at the rate they are, there is going to be "border problems"
People being people, they will probably choose "rich" countries to get to, wouldn't you?
And no I do not know what the answer is.
But there is a big problem and it is not just going to go away.
9
This should remind us of the dangers of identity politics. For that is what Trump is practicing. When a politician uses animus towards other groups for B4—that is, to Burnish his Brand and Build his Base—that is identity politics. All the great genocides in history began that way.
No doubt some politicians from oppressed minorities feel justified in this approach, on the merits of their issues, but it never helps the people they claim to be helping. Rather, it leads to discord, fear and hatred, and usually makes their suffering worse.
8
I was a child in Canada when most of my male relatives were volunteering into the Navy to fight in World War II . I didn't see them or my Father again until years later.
We must stop listening to Trump's tirades.
He is clearly unable to see that his own faults and prejudices make him unfit for that Higher Office he occupies so pompously.
10
The real fun begins when Trump's time in office is up and he has to potentially transition into a new gig as a full time defendant. I wonder what his supporters are going to say when he maligns every institution we have and attempts to hold on to power past his expiration date as he has hinted at in his 10-14 years remarks. My guess is he hires the same cryo people who prepared Walt Disney and has Mitch or Hannity revived whenever he needs a disjointed defense of why we need him as President for Life.
6
Nothing will happen. McConnell has no backbone, nor does the GOP, and Trump knows it. And the open secret is that Trump loves this attention, as any, spoiled 5-year-old would. It's unfortunate that the spoiled 5-year-old also happens to be our president.
17
Perhaps Trump should "go back" to where he came (Germany.) Yes I get that he was born here just like three of the women he singled out, the fourth is a Naturalized Citizen, whom I suspect knows more about the Declaration of INdependence, The Constitution and the general workings of the Government. Donald are you smarter tha a Congresswoman? Shall we test you?)
8
Fans the flames of racism? The man is a racist, please don't sugar-coat his remarks. He's implicitly stating that people of color don't belong here, aren't really American. My Long-Island born husband of Puerto Rican decent has frequently been told the same by Trump's fellow racists. Telling people of color to "go back to where they came from" is in the top five of racists' greatest hits!
24
I am 71 years old and still remember Hate Fest 64 at San Francisco's Cow Palace. It was a week long GOP nomination convention condemning the newly enacted Civil Rights Act. It was the week Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan took over the Republican Party and installed Buckley's Whigs as America's worst enemy.
Trump is just closing the barn door after the horse of equal justice for all has escaped his enclosure.
For those that weren't there, and those that don't remember Smithsonian's Magazines history tells the story. Some remember Goldwater's extremism speech but looking at the week tells us the simple unvarnished truth the the liberty the GOP defends is the privilege of the few at the subjugation of the many. If the party platform and the hate and vitriol weren't enough the Klan marching with their Goldwater signs should tell the story that Trump is just a recent manifestation of a politics of hate and otherness.
I am a Quebecer where our motto is je me souviens, I remember. I remember because my father loved America and hated Reagan with an uncontrollable passion. My father was uncanny in his ability to see real character.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1964-republican-convention-revolution-from-the-right-915921/
20
Plenty of people have disagreed in their day with our government.
John Brown and Martin Luther King Jr are two famous examples of people who disagreed with fundamental human rights violations of our constitution, our laws and of societal acceptance of these flaws. Should they have "gone back"?
Thousands of people protested the Vietnam war - unlike Trump the traitor who suddenly developed bone spurs. Should they have "gone back"?
Today evangelicals are unhappy about Roe vs Wade, non-discrimination of LGBTQ and separating church and state. Should they go back?
How about Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Elaine Chao - should they "go back" to their failing countries?
I think all these people made substantial contributions to our country. We may not all agree with each of them but the greatness of America is absorbing the wonderful contributions of all of us and those who came before. Let's live up to the creed of our nation - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - for all of us.
9
So tell me--when and where did you serve in the Armed Forces or in the Peace Corp or anywhere?
2
I am at least a ninth generation Texan of Mexican descent. My children are 10th generation Texans (we call ourselves Texicans, lol). My family and my ancestors have been on this land since before it was Texas, and our ancestors were the first humans to walk on this continent. There is a saying among people like us that “we didn’t cross the border, the border a crossed us.” In other words, we’ve actually been here longer than anyone else.
My family and myself are brown, and I can’t count the number of times that white people, and I am sorry to say I have only been told this by white people, have told us to “go back to where we come from.”
The racism is always troubling, but I actually think what bothers me more is the unbelievable ignorance. Most Mexicans (Guatemalans, Hondurans, etc.) are descended from people
indigenous to this continent. It takes a crazy
combination of ignorance and gall for the newest illegal immigrants on this continent to all of a sudden erect and militarize borders and then dictate where the indigenous people can and cannot go. And especially to tell them to “go back to where they came from.” The lack of logic would almost be funny if the racist root of the comment wasn’t so indescribably hurtful.
No one in my brown family has ever told a white person to “go back to where they came from.” It’s a statement that embodies a hatred we probably deserve to hold, but we don’t. God help anyone who thinks this is acceptable.
50
Thank you! Indeed!
7
Who is editing the Times these days? Why in the world would this writer include Obama's "beer summit" in the same paragraph as President Johnson saying racist things in private. The implication is that Obama did something awful and the meeting with Gates and the police officer was his way of cleaning up a wrong he committed. The wrong was committed by the police officer. Obama spoke out against the arrest of Professor Gates, which was the right thing to do. Shame on the Times for implying that Obama did something wrong.
20
Donald helps women become citizens fast if they have special attributes. So the accomplished young women in the House of Representatives should leave even though three were born here and one was legally naturalized. That's rich! Hypocritical Donald hustled through the citizenship process a Slovenian model who attracted his, and numerous sleazy magazine photographers, attention by wearing no clothes. Therefore, we welcome new citizens who are pretty women who do not wear clothes (and their anchor parents) not accomplished women who do. Hey, be best and you can stay here.
25
In 2010 we saw the rise of the Tea Party ostensively based on their concern about fiscal conservatism. But when you peeled back the layers we found they liked their government entitlements, but believed too many undeserving people were getting too many hand outs. What they really meant and what we should have seen then was this was and is a culture war centered on race. The Tea Partiers are now the Trumpist and Trump has given them the license to voice to be unashamed about what they were all about in 2010. In 2010 it had nothing to do with fiscal restraint and likewise the Tea Party has nothing to say the about Republican fueled deficits occurring today. What we are witnessing in Trump and MAGA-ites is the dark underbelly of America. It has always existed and Trump didn’t cause it, he has simply given it a voice. Unfortunately, we have the consummate “un-leader” in a leadership position. So it will get worse before it gets better.
16
A light bulb gets brightest just before it dies. The same is happening to white supremacy, white privilege and white majority rule.
8
And you'll rue the day it passes. Count on it. Consider the fall of the Roman Empire. Its demise ushered in the Dark Ages, now gentrified as the Medieval period.
Melania should use the flurry of the president's tweets today in her Be Best initiative to demonstrate what not to say, write, believe or do! I hope she doesn't forget to mention that these disparaging tweets all came from her husband.
18
Why worry about tweets and off-hand comments? They don't accurately reflect what a person thinks.
Look at what Donald Trump has done over the years. There's lots of things not to like about the man, but there's no evidence that he's a racist.
3
@John
So there’s no evidence? True, if you ignore the existing mountain of evidence he’s piled up THAT PROVES he’s racist. Don’t believe me? Google works. Try it. His racism goes back decades. You can find out everything you need with Google. Give it a shot.
18
Bringing people to the US, taking advantage of those people, and then asking them to go back to where they came from once they can't be used anymore. How convenient.
7
This is all a dangerous distraction. The Dems are allowing Trump to set the agenda. That will fail. We all know Trump is racist. Speaker Pelosi is right: Democrats, stop reacting to Trump and get on message! Focus on the blatantly greedy GOP policies! Give the media a different talking point! As Mayor Pete wisely counseled, Turn The Channel!
14
With each passing outrage, it's becoming clearer that Trump is desperate for the Dems to commence impeachment proceedings. It would support his argument that his opponents are trying to reverse the results of the 2016 election, and would keep off the front page the increasing body of evidence that there's a corrupt, incompetent, racist mad man in the White House.
Thus far, Pelosi and other moderates have managed to deny Trump what he so badly wants. May they continue to persuade the caucus that impeachment would be a gift to the man.
11
It's just Trump playing the patriot card again. The Trump life...when you look at it it appears to be one long episode of avarice/publicity seeking-narcicissm/sex. Showing his patriotism....Where?...When?...How? What SACRIFICES did he ever make? The pitiful thing is this phony patriotism bit has worked in the past.
8
Trump is simply echoing the views of white privileged country club Republicans and their brothers, the white working class who lack the intelligence to appreciate differences and were left behind when the train left the station.
6
4 years ago I attached a Cal Berkeley graduation where Speaker Pelosi gave the commencement address. It was what one would have expected at a liberal university like Cal. The last pearl of wisdom she left with was, (with fist in the air) “be agitators.”
Well Ms Pelosi, your worst nightmare has come true. A party morphing into one of intolerance, demanding radical change yesterday and racist against anyone of any color who doesn’t tow their line.
5
We Shall Overcome.
2
taken in context statements are not racist just truthful
4
You heard it here! The truthful statements that Trump wanted them to fight corruption in the country from which they came because of the inept and dishonest government of the country he runs. Right here. They are doing the jobs for which they were elected in the country of which they are citizens. So they are right on point calling out his malfeasance.
Truth.
3
“Squirrel,” Trump shouts, easily distracting the increasingly lulled media. The four congresswomen in question should be insisting we ignore his transparent provocation and return to Epstein and Acosta.
4
They did online and this evening live in front of the press, media, and the American public!
They all called it a disgusting and planned distraction.
3
We've been digging ourselves into this same hole for 300+ years now.
3
Thank you President Trump.
For most of my like I believed that this country had finally moved past it’s racist past. That with the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement and the election of Obama, that we had finally accepted that while our abilities differ, we are all the same.
But, alas it isn’t true. About half of our fellow citizens believe that because of their ancestry and physical characteristics they are superior to others.
Thank you for showing me what is...that there’s still illogical, consuming hatred towards those who are different. Glad to not end my days thinking we were something else.
7
While understandable, the actions of the four representatives may lose the Senate for the Democrats.
Sure, people will (probably) be willing to vote out Trump. But will they risk turning the Senate over to those they see as not respecting America?
3
@Karl
The four democrats to whom you refer aren’t in the senate.
8
@Dana Osgood
Indeed, but their actions may cause many people not to support Democrats in the Senate elections.
1
Donald Trump is the uncomfortable uncle having attained real power. He has been tolerated by his voters because he says out loud that which all of them think. He says the words they would have you believe the "Liberal Media and the rest of the Liberals" will not let America say even though it is what America truly believes. Donald Trump is not making stuff up. He tweets and says in speeches precisely what he hears from his colleagues and adherents. His surprise comes when so many others find, what to him is bewildering, fault.
Yes, Donald Trump is Racist. And everyone is making themselves look foolish trying to find some other "reason" he says what he believes in his heart.
9
Trump is a racist of the worst order. He is proud of it and also more than happy to openly use it to divide the electorate. At this point my disgust for the man has evolved into pity for his inability to recognize that there is more value in unification than division. He is not a leader by any means he is nothing more than a bullying racist instigator. A sick vile person with no redeeming qualities.
13
trump's tweets are disturbing on many levels, but it is really concerning that he is so self important, so out of touch with reality, that the hair on the back of my neck raises thinking about his actions should he lose the 2020 election. Frankly, I'm afraid he will claim the election results a fraud, and attempt to stay in the Presidency by force. He will absolutely have armed MAGA supporters.
It's time, and maybe past time, for us to start thinking about how to prevent this and how to fight back when/if he attempts a coup.
10
It's too bad the mainstream Democrats don't have an effective spokesperson.
Pelosi condemns "xenophobia"? She can't think of a more effective way to communicate this?
How about,"Trump continues to play his base as chumps"?
And, "You think you're better off with a lying criminal in the White House, soybeans rotting because they can't be sold, Iran getting back to making nuclear weapons and all our allies thinking a madman is in charge? ... Don't buy his bull, don't be a chump".
Don't like that language? Fine. Suggest an alternative that's forceful enough so that it seems like a leader said it.
14
An authoritarian leader, perhaps?
1
What would Mary Anne MacLeod Trump and Melania Trump say? Immigrant-Naturalized mother and wife and the insulted voters. It is not just "Bad boy!" story. Focused journalism please. It is not just Democrat or Republican story. It is not AOC et al and Pelosi story. It is the story of the USA: How did Donald J. Trump become president. Who is insulting who? President Trump is insulting Mr. Trump.
1
If the persons who desire asylum in the US were Caucasian, Mr. Trump would have no problem with them. He has been and always will be a racist. I expect to see him appear in the Rose Garden in a white robe and pointy hat. It would not surprise me in the least. Thank you to all the Republican Senators who have not denounced his despicable behavior. It reinforces what we all know to be true. You are hypocrites with no redeeming values. You have no integrity or moral compass. There was a time whe it didn't matter what side of the aisle you were on, there were people of integrity and character that would hold someone like Trump accountable. Those days are gone
Most unfortunate for the people of America, all people.
8
TG, the problem is not that these people illegally living in our country are Latinos. The problem is that they are poor and uneducated. Many do not even speak Spanish, let alone English.
They do not qualify to get citizenship. They do not qualify for asylum. Yet they come here because they are desperate.
I pity these people. It is only an accident of birth that I grew up with good parents who had enough money to raise me well and help me get an education.
But I don't think opening our borders to anyone who wants to come is the answer. We do not have enough money to take care of all those who are already legally here, let alone the billions in the world who struggle just to live.
5
Only one way for Joe Public to make a change - VOTE. Vote for local reps that are speaking truth to power. Vote for your State Reps that are speaking truth to power. Vote for your Federal Reps that are speaking truth to power. Vote for your Presidential Reps that are speaking truth to power. If they are blowing hot air, then sort it out in your mind or do some research. The power is still within the people, but people have to get involved by doing to some homework to evaluate each candidate. Unfortunately, in 2016 the Dems promoted a candidate that was not salable ( though perhaps very qualified ). The future is arriving soon and so people need to go out and vote their choice - this is the only power that Joe Public has. Too many people just don’t really care and would rather watch the latest water-cooler TV show or sports events. We are becoming lazy, hatefilled victims - please get involved by VOTING. Voting should be mandatory and should be held on a VOTE-Holiday ( day off from work ). We don’t need all these public holidays - just change one to the VOTING Day.
8
A strong democracy requires a healthy debate amongst its citizens. It is your patriotic duty to respect opposing views - and your right to agree or disagree. Only a dictator (or someone who aspires to dictatorship) would tell people with opinions that counters his own to leave the country.
4
Donald Trump has found his water level. Criticized by four women of color, so offensive to his white nationalist ego, he lashed out as only he can. No decent person in today's world can say racism is a good thing. Racists are forced to deny they're racists and so they love him for not living in our PC world. He says what they can't.
I worry less about Donald Trump than all those who think he's doing a really good job citing the economy, forgetting the highest ever debt and Trump and his cronies using taxpayers as their personal ATM.
When all that crashes down he'll be long gone, hopefully surrounded by a phalanx of lawyers pleading his case of money laundering and tax fraud, etc. No doubt his base will still blame the Democrats.
Trump is the symptom not the cause.
7
I notice that Boris Johnson, a man who is basically Trump with a thesaurus and a pedigree certificate, is mute on this, a nightmarish man who is set to become our next Prime Minister, with sod all we can do to stop it, has nothing to say about this latest racist and childish outburst from POTUS. Even the MayBot has managed to whisper that this is "unacceptable".
My God, the humiliations just continue to build don't they? You know it's bad when Trump is praising that Boris will be a grand PM. But then, Boris is the architect of Brexit and owns a similar dog whistle to Trump. A whistle neither if these types even feel the need to use anymore. Perhaps that's the only up side? They aren't hiding it anymore, people can no longer pretend they don't know exactly what they are getting at when they lie about "no-go areas", "assimilation" and how "grateful these people" should be to the great country they are working to improve - (oh, and why is it only ever minorities that should shut and be "grateful"?). Not only can we see them. Their followers can no longer pretend they can't see and hear it all too. As such, we can see what ideologies they support in the full light too.
4
A strong democracy requires a healthy debate amongst its citizens. It is your patriotic duty to respect opposing views - and your right to agree or disagree. Only a dictator (or someone who aspires to dictatorship) would tell people with opinions that counters his own to leave the country.
7
Let's see. Per DNA I should "go back" to Ireland. Or maybe England. No, France. Could be Scotland. Or Wales.
Maybe to my birthplace. New York State. Where my father was a second generation polyglot American.
Trump will neither define me nor quiet my protests.
7
The 'love it or leave it' offering from Trump was not a successful strategy for America during the Vietnam was, and it certainly is more out of touch now than ever.
4
I would like the NYT to print a front page article headlined: US (p)resident Donald Trump: Racist, Mysoginist, & Crook, Leading the Destruction of our Democracy
...with the help from complicit GOP, Mitch McConnell, and foreign “friends”—you know the ones.
8
Elaine Chou: Your husband appears to be a lot cause, America's sycophant, but has it occurred to you that when Mr. Trump bloviates about immigrants going back to where they came from, he also is talking about you? Do you have no backbone?
8
Again, the problem is not only or mainly Trump. the problem is his millions of supporters. Our family members. Our neighbors. Our co-workers. If they weren't closet (or open) racists, this would not appeal to them. And if it didn't appeal to them, he would not be engaging in this behavior.
8
Why can't the NYT call Trump a racist? You guys use every euphemism in the books but never call him out.
7
It always seemed to me that Trump is the one who does not like America. His campaign slogan loudly proclaimed that America was no longer great because -- in his imagination -- it needed him to make it great again.
So if anyone should leave, it should be Trump.
9
Siberia — “Think of it from a real estate perspective.”
2
Just more honest than Obama's weaselly "Trayvon could have been my son."
3
In 2021, Trump won’t be going back to where he came from. Hopefully he will have a whole new experience- behind bars.
8
Is this racist telling me how to love my country?
4
AOC and her group should stop talking. Trump is using them to stoke up his mini group of voters.
Time it is to cool it. Do not fight nastiness with nastiness. It is bad for the Party. Save the heat for AFTER the election or you will be helping Trump.
Listen to Pelosi or we will all be sorry.
6
Don’t you love how Trump has zero limits imposed on him but these ladies are supposed to know their place and bow down to people in power.
18
It should be front headline news when the president makes such a blatantly racist comment. And the front headline should report exactly that - President Directs Racist Tweet at Congresswomen of Color.
12
My local newspaper did exactly that.
3
I wonder if Trump ever said that to his wife, during an argument?
13
Barack Obama: Isn't it now your duty to step forward? I understand the Democrats running for office need to evolve as national leaders. But you remain the moral conscious of our divided country. You cannot let Trump's racist bleats and tweets go unanswered. To do so would be to undermine everything your administration, in its best moments, stood for.
Trump is all about rallying his base. It is time for you to rally your base. Enough snorkeling. Step forward. Be the American that you are. Lead.
4
TRANSLATION: "The ICE raids I promised would start on Sunday haven't happened."
5
I look forward to the day that we have an adult in the White House. All of this conversation is a total waste of time on both sides.
5
Nuremberg, 1938...”many people agree with what I’m saying”. Applause then and applause in the Rose Garden this morning...hit it Lee...and I’m proud to be an American...
3
I just listened to Britt Hume on Fox News, and he doesn't think Donald Trump's comments were racist, Britt what happen to your thought process, you've become a sad shell of yourself since you've left network news.
Britt, everything Donald Trump said in those tweets and all day have been racist and racially motivated, pull your head out of the sand.
7
Trump is doing this to solidify his base, which is populated by racists, xenophobes, and misogynists. God help us all if he gets re-elected!
6
Interesting that those Republicans in the House and Senate who've publicly "condemned" trump's racist tweets from yesterday can't help but use the opportunity to voice their own criticism of the four women and Democrats in general. Only 1 or 2 Republicans kept their condemnations solely to trump's racist tweets. All the other Republicans carefully worded their messages of disapproval in such a way that the focus was not on trump's racism, but rather on their attempts to portray Democrats in the scariest light possible -- with right-wing buzz words such as "socialists", "pro-open borders", etc. It's all a bunch of lies, propaganda and fear mongering perpetuated by trump and his lackeys. But leave it to today's GOP to turn an opportunity to do the right thing into a chance to lob partisan attacks on fellow Americans across the aisle.
What a disgrace.
5
Any Republican who does not condemn Trump’s blatant racist attacks condones them.
5
The fuel this man throws on the fire at every opportunity is an opportunity missed by our members of Congress to hold him accountable. Enough with the tiptoeing. # 45 is racist, inept, corrupt and dangerous. We all know it. Congress needs to do something about it because waiting another 15 months to get rid of this man by vote alone is not enough. He needs to go. If he stays and keeps going with his daily rants that hurt not only his targets but everyone, you and me, someone will get hurt or even killed. One must remember that most of these ignorant or not so ignorant people who put this man in office have one thing in common besides being racist like their idol. They own guns. Scary thought, no?
4
Donald Trump is a) "the least racist person you have ever met," and b) he is the most contradictory person alive.
One of those statements is false. Trump really is horrifically racist. And insanely contradictory. So why do people still support him?
4
This evil man who we have living in the White House is trying his best to bring this nation down. His supporters should be better Americans and pause long enough to understand what he is doing to us all.
8
Nothing illegal in anything President Donald J. Trump said. Nothing. Nothing in the US Constitution forbids The President from exercising Freedom of Speech. Nuff said.
4
Free speech, sure, but nothing says he can't be criticized for the bigoted and racist things he says.
9
Would that trump could be deported to a tiny (and even filtier than tiny) prison cell in his native Queens ... where the populace of what is now (ironically?) the most multi-cultural and multi-racial of places could view him as they might an animal in a zoo ... should they wish.
P.S. I give Queens this credit as a 48-year resident of Manhattan who, never mind, is and ever will be representin' my native Brooklyn (and proudest 'for it') where once were the multi-culture 'Kings' (in our 'eponymous' County of).
P.P.S. I just hope Queens's multi-racials and cultures aren't as segregated 'within' as was the Brooklyn of my youth (or as Park Slope is economically-segregated now ... or as the neighborhood was ethnically-and-economically un-diverse ... and 'off limits' to "the blacks" ... in 1949's 'year of my birth,' surely if presumably, through my years growing up in its precincts).
P.P.P.S. Norman Lear put his "Archie Bunker" in Queens, but 'represented his 'lovable bigot' to be of 'unparticularized,' Protestant faith. Ya know that had only to be because he 'and his' (Norman and Norman's) didn't want to catch the fire they'd-a caught had they repped' Archie as Catholic --even though the only 'way' to be a pre-70's Protestant in Queens would-a been 'to be' "black."
3
it has been working for eons:
the old game of DIVIDE AND CON.*)
and democrats are on their way right into the trap.
deep beneath racism lie greed, jealousy, feelings of inferiority
and deprivation. the utter unwillingness to share whatsoever
with [almost] anyone. no empathy, no generosity. no grace ...
a mindset not limited to US [alt_]rightwingers.
it's world-widespread.
can we do anything to change it when scientists say that
[wo]man still thinks the way [s]he thought in the stone age:
about her-/himself only. not even about their kids.
democrats undivided, unconquered might. just maybe.
________
*) divide, conquer and exploit to the absolute max.
[and definitely refuse to show your tax returns, btw.]
1
Children in cages.
This administration has failed miserably at stabilizing Syria, Iran, Iraq, Northern Africa, no ideas on Central America, its drought and the industrial invasions forcing farmers from their homeland, no ideas from this White House on Mexico or Canada, vilifying now Teresa May and the E.U., what would you expect from minds so incapable of seeing the world from any place other than what is presented by way of what is at the edge of their nose?
History within congress is filled with Louis Gohmerts. But the Oval Office has never even near seen the infantile behavior displayed by this president and the people around that merry-go-round.
4
Trump keeps up the discord and the focus is off all the problems that need to be addressed . but it’s the same old trick some still don’t see.
Just create a new problem to get people to forget the others still unsolved .
4
Why does a recent immigrant like Melania (the legality of her immigration is still questionable) never get questioned about her legitimacy as citizen when Ayana Pressley whose forefathers have been here from the very beginning? Does whiteness confer fuller citizenship and why exactly? There is a great anecdote from a fantastic James Baldwin essay in which RFK promises James Baldwin and other civil rights activists that they should be patient - a negro will be president of the U.S in approximately 40 yrs. RFK’s prediction was correct to the exact year actually. But I loved Baldwin’s response— how is it that you RFK (whose father arrived in the country some 70 years ago) telling him who has traced my lineage back to 400 years in this America, to the very beginning of this republic, whose forefathers built this place telling me what rights I can and cannot have. Like how dare you?
9
Dear Trump supporters,
Are you of Irish heritage? If so, your ancestors were considered "not white" at the time. Are you of Italian heritage? Same thing. And your ancestors were also probably With Out Papers. Are you Catholic? People questioned whether JFK's allegiance was to the Pope, and not to the U.S. Constitution. Are you of Jewish heritage? (I am.) Your ancestors were even more despised in this country. The only reason you are accepted today is the the evangelical right's obsession with Jerusalem, which aligns with the interests of people like Sheldon Adelson.
Today's Latino and Muslim Americans are denigrated just like your ancestors were. Your ancestors were accused of not assimilating, sticking to themselves, and not learning English.
If you can't see the hypocrisy of your president and your views, then I can't help you. You are just an ethnic NIMBY.
11
If I publish a racially insensitive remark, am I part of the problem or the solution?
3
Re: "...President Trump ritually denies any racial animus or motivations. “I am the least racist person you have ever met,” he has said more than once..."
A.) I am caucasian...
B.) I've voted in MULTIPLE, (borough, city, county, state, 'N, federal...), elections, since I first registered to vote...MANY years, ago!!
C.) I don't vote for Republicans, in general, and will / would NEVER consider Trump / any Trump_Clone!
So...
Will Republicans learn their 'A, B, C's'??
1
House should bring forward their resolution condemning the bigot-in-chief and his enablers and let the R’s either vote with them or have a pressing meeting to miss the vote. Either way its time to put this dangerous rhetoric out for everyone to condemn
4
Two points:
1) This time, Trump didn't confine his remarks to four nonwhite Congresswomen. He basically told everyone who doesn't like the way that he's running things to leave the country.
2) Then, Trump style, he said "stay, go, I don't care." He repeated his stated position, then offhandedly reversed himself in the same sentence. The usual confusion hypnosis.
Among other things, this flim-flam is intended to confound chroniclers of history. But anyone who hears doublespeak like that should know better than to be taken in by someone's forked tongue. About anything.
2
More and more the Times is normalizing this clown. Why quote a know liar?
4
Israel and the Jews really could do without the help of those Republicans who profess to hold Israel so dear and who decry antisemitism while at the same offering half-hearted criticisms of the President for his clearly racist remarks. How it is that the orthodox community continues to support this man and his policies which have only made their lives and their homeland far less safe is mind boggling. AIPAC needs to speak up and condemn this vile behavior once and for all!
3
Ms. Omar clearly does not share the values of this country and her loyalty should be questioned. According to the lefties, anyone who disagrees with them is a racist bigot and they sound like a broken record on the subject.
7
Speaking out against the things that are wrong with this country does not mean you hate it. Quite to the contrary, in fact.
8
This country is the people’s country and Trump is just a hired hand. Trump has been intentionally cruel to those women. It’s not up to Trump who is an American.
4
According to the righties, anyone that disagrees with them should leave the country.
3
Trump was not being racist and he said nothing about race. He was calling out the Squad of Four Representatives. This is the group that has called their own Democrat Party Speaker a racist. His comments about them have nothing to do with race. In fact two or the four are racially as white as Elizabeth Warren. He was attacking their vile anti-American behavior. Their anti-American comments, their hostility to the flag, their anti-Semitism, their disrespect towards the Americans killed by Radical Islamic extremists on 911 all call into question their commitment to America and its Constitution. I don't hear too many people of color supporting them. Didn't members of the Congressional Black Caucus just make public statements politely denouncing the Squad of Four? If the Squad members hate America so much, why don't they go to another country?
6
When are journalists going to learn not to take the bait? Trump just admitted during his "social media event" (only right-wingers invited) that he loves it when his tweets blow up in the media "like a rocket" and draw attention to his needy, puerile self.
Just like #hesahispanic trended after he back-handedly complimented Alex Acosta ("He's a Hispanic. He went to Harvard"), yesterday's comments netted him another trend: #Racistinchief. Another winner!
#dontfeedthemonkey
But if you absolutely must, then please don't attribute tweets coming from his account to him. They are very likely Dan Scavino's words, or Brad Parscale's - to name just the Cyranos we know about and that he's acknowledged. Instead, admit you can't be sure of your sourcing; all you know is that they came from the account of @realDonaldTrump. Keep sowing doubt on who actually said whatever drivel shows up on Twitter. That ought to give him pause, plus it would serve as a constant reminder that this daily source of opinion and policy is not usually being dictated by the US president but is, instead, typically outsourced while he watches TV, eats junk food, or plays golf.
2
The White Supremacist's Playbook*:
1) Say and do racist things
2) get accurately called a racist for doing so
3) Accuse those who comment on you racist behavior of being even more racist
4) rinse and repeat
* White Supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society.
3
What an despicable example Trump sets for our children, for our country, and for America to the world. And not one word of reprobation from any Republican or evangelical. Disgusting and shameful.
4
If the Democrats keep pushing reparations, open borders, free healthcare for illegals, free college for everyone including illegals, path to citizenship for the illegals already here and getting rid of private healthcare then they will loose regardless of who Trump insults. In the end, Trumps insults however offensive will not cost the taxpayers a penny while the Democrats ideas all transalate to significantly higher taxes for all working class Americans.
9
His racism doesn’t cost you anything if you are white and not standing up against it. The escalation in racism and antisemitism has already cost lives like the woman at Charlottesville, the black peoples at churches that have been targeted by racists and those at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
6
Trump is a certified racist for sure, despicable human being. But he has continued to keep himself in the news at all costs. I know he’s president right now, but it would be great if everyone stopped talking about him for just one day. Want to watch him blow his top? Ignore the spoiled rich kid in the corner for just a little while. Let’s try it!
7
He’s a total gas-lighter and liar. He will destroy with tweets. Find the Achilles heel and put in the knife. The of knowledge, science, facts, destroy his facade of division. He is following Putin’s directions. He is a traitor.
8
Hopefully enough of us have had our fill of this Divisive Dysfunctional Chaotic Presidency and will Vote him out of office in Overwhelming numbers in 2020 !! When and if that happens... I wonder if he'll leave the White House voluntarily or will he have to be cuffed and dragged out? Why were there so many of us who thought Voting for Boorish Bully Donald was a good idea? Why is there a Fox Nation of American Voters supporting this Catastrophic Administration ? With all the hirings,firings,resignations,indictments and convictions..it's like watching the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight !! C'mon America..Michael Cohen Rex Tillerson and Mr. Mueller have spelled things out for you !! What's it going to take to Wake Fox Nation from it's Alternative Fact Filled Delusion ?? In 2020...remember what Rex said...remember what the WHO Said...Don't Get Fooled Again !! Vote Blue...no matter WHO !!!! It's the Patriotic American thing to do !!
3
Pelosi better be right about her strategy not to impeach. Maybe lining up all of the Republicans who won't separate from him is the plan.
3
Looking at the photo at the top of this article - trump, slumped, descending the stairs - I was reminded of Yeats:
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
Rough Beast indeed, “wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross”*
*not sure who I am quoting but it’s an eloquent description of the person who brings fascism to the US. And the “cross” that slumping trump is carrying is the support of the Christian Right.
5
I want to see a Democrat challenge ALL of Trump. Everyday until the election. Speak your policies. Challenge his hypocrisy, gaslighting, and his relationships, help to power from Russia, sleazy life, love of corruption and money, nepotism. Challenge the hypocritical Christian! Evangelicals also prime gas lighters. Have courage don’t let up to his “reptilian cunning”.
3
President Trump does not care what a person's race or color is. He has insulted as many white people as he has people of color. People should know by now that if you attack him he will attack back. He is famous for giving his enemies names such as sleepy Joe to describe Joe Biden. He has described many in this manner,
Some people think it is funny others say it is terribly insulting. His base loves it and so he continues this pattern. You could call him an equal opportunity attacker. He will not change his stripes for anyone. It is who he is.
5
@KMW You nail it: if you attack him he'll attack you back.
But for the press he is always the bad guy.
1
I agree with Trump, as long as it also applies to Melania and her family tree...
1
So many comments, that's it's difficult to read them all; however, as the news media pointed out earlier, three of the four Congress Women were born in the United States. They are cleaning up the mess and corruption in their country Mr. Trump, but you're too stupid to understand what you're asking them to do is precisely what they are doing. It's disgraceful that we have someone in the White House that has all the mental agility of a small soap dish.
4
The thing about “go back” is that it’s not racist at all. The phrase was yelled at Irish, German, and other European immigrants.
2
It was certainly racist then and it is now.
9
@Chris McClure, all of whom were white, so I’m not sure how this turned into a racial thing either unless maybe some deliberately wanted it to be to serve their own other purposes. Maybe that’s why the original use of the term “melting pot” assumed to work because only under a specific set of circumstances it did. That model no longer applies anymore and trying to force it still today only deprives us of the opportunity to seriously face a new reality, often to our own detriment if when trying to avoid. Trump in his usual clumsy way seems to find ways to get us to have to look at things we hadn’t otherwise wanted to, like most recently illegal immigration. So just see where the bull in the china shop takes us now rather than merely dismissing him as a mad cow for our convenience.
1
I wish Trump had left while Obama was president.
4
“The president pointed out that many Democrats say terrible things about this country, which in reality is the greatest nation on Earth.”
Yeah, you're a real inspiration to us all. Shining city on a hill aren't you. What an amazing country, sure puts the rest of us losers to shame.
5
I love Donald Trump more every day.
2
@Lee Zehrer - Don’t forget, Donald Trump also once said that he loved “stupid people”. So, Lee: love away.
4
Perhaps Mr. Trump should be reminded that only one of his five children has two American-born parents. He has only one himself.
And there is the murky history of Melania's status on arrival not to mention her family who undoubtedly came by way if Norway.
10
But they are white. In trump’s world color is what matters. It’s just about race. National origin is secondary.
3
What's more depressing than Trump's racist rants is that they appeal to a significant minority of Americans. If they didn't, he would be silent.
13
I agree with many of the readers, Donald Trump is an overt racist and needs to go back to bankrupting his businesses and stop destroying American values and world leadership. It seems to me he's rather start a race war than give-up power. This is the worst of politics, and he's the worst of politicians. If it wasn't for Republican gerrymandering, he would never have been voted into power. Democracy in America looks pretty sad these days.
3
Ted Cruz back to Canada?
7
He’s a renouncer. So very funny, but no.
WHAT will it take to file articles of impeachment against this malignant sociopath ?
7
Trump is a tired old man. Enough of his pointless twaddle.
6
I hope his disgusting racist tweets apply to his wife too. The reason they probably don’t, of course, is that her skin is White. He’s gone nuts searching for ways to distract attention from he and his bosom buddy Epstein’s systematic sexual assaults on teenaged girls. Epstein must have a lot to tell about Trump’s involvement.
6
His tweets go beyond just racism. They fit into an overall pattern of de- humanizing entire groups of people. He is saying that Ilhan Omar, Talib, Ocasio and others are not “pure blood” Americans and, as such, they do not belong here. This is the same idea as the chants of “blood & soil” by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville that Trump called “very good people. It is this dehumanization that allows calling immigrants animals and treating them as such but only at the southern border.
Yes, yes, yes. This is a hallmark of fascism that essentially is capitalism that has imploded on itself. When the harvest is wanting for some groups, fascism scapegoats and dehumanizes groups by characterizing them as animals, undeserving, and not of pure blood. Removing them - sending them back home - means more for those who are left. Thus, the Nazis excluded Jews, Trump excludes Muslims and immigrants and Witches and non believers were rooted out in the middle ages.
7
Dear Democrats,
I've got a suggestion. Every time Mr. Trump says or does something offensive (which happens at least on a daily basis), DONATE to your favorite 2020 Dem candidate!
https://secure.actblue.com/
It's like putting money in the cursing jar. But more effective.
9
Republicanism now = racism. Which side are you on?
9
Mr. Trump, evil political genius that he is, has cast his bait and Democratic politicians are biting in earnest. By continually forcing the fractured and disorganized Democratic party into the quagmire of identity politics, he is once again directing the dialogue into a divisive, distracting and unwinnable position. My advice: after briefly noting that Trump is crazy and out of touch, redirect the conversation to health care, education, income inequality, strengthening medicare and social security, building a better future for our children and other things that voters care about. Please stop following him down the rat hole where, as chief rat, he commands the bully pulpit. Nothing will improve for immigrants and minorities if he wins reelection.
5
From Lindsey Graham's reaction it is clear that this is another of Trump's "loyalty tests": he says something outrageous and then he waits to see who defends him. This is a particularly difficult test and only his most ardent supporters will be able to pass it.
2
I would like to see an amendment to the Constitution whereby a President can be impeached for "high crimes, misdemeanors or ongoing gross failure to appropriately lead the nation in a professional, moral, consistent manner that follows all the edicts of our Constitution and the values implied by our Declaration of Independence". I leave it to the attorneys to modify this appropriately.
4
Nikki Haley on protesters who ripped down the American flag and replaced it with the Mexican flag:
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley joined Sunday the chorus of outrage over the Democratic Party’s near-silence over the protesters who ripped down the American flag and replaced it with the Mexican flag at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Aurora, Colorado.
Ms. Haley, who called the display “disgusting,” urged national Democrats to condemn the protest, which occurred during Lights for Liberty nationwide rallies against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“There are no words for why the Democrats are staying silent on this,” Ms. Haley tweeted. “If this is your way to winning an election, fire your strategist. This is disgusting. Love your country. And if you don’t like what is happening, then tell the members of Congress to get to work and fix it.”
Nikki Haley on Trump’s racist tweet about the four congresswomen:
3
President Trump and his associates are now repeating that those who criticize their approach to governing "must hate America." The phrase is now all over the place. It's a scary one; it rolls off the tongue and is easy to embrace if you are not thinking very hard. The phrase explains, dismisses and accuses all at once.
1
"Mr. Trump propelled his way to the White House in part by promoting the false “birther” conspiracy theory that Mr. Obama was actually born in Africa, not Hawaii."
The "birther" theory is bizarre beyond belief. It reflects both the ignorance of those who fostered it as well as the gullibility of those who believed it. Even if Obama had been born in Kenya, Indonesia or anywhere outside the US he would still be a US citizen by ancestry because his mother was a US citizen.
There is a common fallacy that Trump's supporters felt alienated and left behind in today's America and voted for him out of a sense of grievance, not out of racism. However, the reality is that both are true: Trump's supporters feel aggrieved and enthusiastically embrace his racism because he voices what many Americans would like to say but are afraid of admitting for fear of the consequences. What is so appealing about Trump for them is that he doesn't care if he is called a racist or a misogynist or a xenophobe. Trump lives in his own reality in which he is a "very stable genius", where his opponents are the racists, not him, where all women who accuse him of sexual assault are liars, where he is the victim of unfair press criticism, not the press unfairly criticized by him, where up is down, etc. And Trump's supporters are not appalled. They absolutely love it!
2
Once again the country faces a choice of who will win the next battle in our ongoing civil war about race. The Union won militarily and tried to consolidate its victory with Reconstruction, but allowed the Confederacy to destroy the Union victory. King and others found a way for some Union victories, aided by the race traitor LBJ, but the backlash has put Confederates on top again, led most recently by the ultimate Copperhead, Donald Trump.
The Confederacy got non-slaveowning whites to fight for it not only by memes of superiority over blacks, but also by picturing particularly the urban north as being taken over by hordes of mongrel whites from southern and eastern and Catholic Europe.
1
@sdavidc9
The problem with the modern-day Confederacy is that it is no longer geographically confined to certain states. It is ubiquitous, and its adherents live in every state of our nation today.
I am a white man from the former Confederacy. I grew up in North Carolina and now live in Atlanta. The South is certainly not perfect, but a great many of us have faced our ugly past and moved forward. Under Mr. Trump, the retrograde white nationalists are now emboldened to crawl out from under their rocks wherever they live. James Carville once said that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Alabama in between. Sadly, Mr. Trump has revealed that this is true in every state of our tenuous union.
1
I wonder if Trump thinks the Native American Indians should also go back to the country they came from. He probably doesn't know a thing about their whereabouts either and hasn't bothered to learn.
10
This headline makes my head explode.
The President didn't "fan the flames of racial fire." He made a disgusting, RACIST comment. Where does this disease come from, where our newspaper of record no longer speaks truth to power?
Who exactly are they afraid of offending, that they put on this mealy-mouthed show off dancing around plain, obvious, and critical facts? I thought our journalists were here to inform, not to pretend.
7
One of my most vivid memories while travelling as a Canadian tourist in the US occurred in Charleston, SC several years ago, late in George W Bush presidency. We were standing in front of a hospital looking for a landmark or something. A very elegantly dressed African American man asked us if we needed help, he had a security ID pass around his neck; he as doctor. After he finished giving us directions, a middle aged white man, obviously in poor health and down on his luck asked the three of us for spare change. I wondered if the country had really changed that much. The old reality of prosperity and status was turned on it’s head.
Now there’s another president saying things a real President would never say. Shame on him. Shame on his enablers.
6
If one of the squad was white, would you still think the comments were racist? Just wondering.
4
If their skin was White, he wouldn’t be tweeting because then it would include his wife.
5
@Bodyman His wife is not a hater of America
1
If the members of the squad, then he would not have told them to go “back” to their wretched countries of origin. Pray for wisdom.
We might as well have elected David Duke to the White House.
I really don't see any difference.
12
What a tragedy Donald Trump has been for this country. Tom Friedman is right. Trump's election was a self-inflicted 9/11.
17
"“I was in D.C. with my husband, and I came back, like, this is what people think all conservatives are now, and we are not,” she said. “The cowardice I’m seeing Republicans not speaking out and saying this today is embarrassing. It’s deeply cowardly.”
This is Meghan McCain's comments about Trump's racist slurs.
She is finally woke to the Republican party who is no longer the party of any integrity or morals.
10
If the US is truly a great country, it’s time for us to prove it by voting out of office the current President. I watched both Democratic debates in full, and all of the candidates would make a better occupant of the White House than the current one. Why? Because they’re trying to find solutions to help make life better for the majority of Americans. We may disagree with some of their approaches and policies, but none of the Democrats are trying to divide us and set us at each other like the current President. His policies and rhetoric of hate and division are anathema to American greatness. He is denigrating all that is good about this country in the service of his own ego - and to fuel the hatred of his supporters. Thereby hoping, no doubt, to eke out another Electoral College victory in the next election. We need to wake up to this divisive and racist strategy and VOTE for Democrats in 2020.
5
My dear GOP friends and leaders,
Answer my one question, " would any CEO will have his/her job next day if he/she says to his/her employee, 'Go Home where you came from?"
if it is yes, why does president still hold his presidency?
if it is no, what actions you think may be required to minimize such raging statement?
9
Any competent CEO would have fired the squad long before he would have uttered the words go back to where you came from.
3
@Jerry Davenport
Fair enough, but then if you're honest, you'd have to acknowledge that any competent CEO would also have banished the likes of a lazy DJT from his staff.
4
Any CEO would have fired the Squad long before he would have uttered the words „go back where you came from“
1
DJT has brought us to a stark reality. And, silence still equals death.
5
I take exception and quarrel with the headline Peter Baker chose for this article. It should have read “Trump Openly Reveals Himself to be A Danger to Our Democracy”.
11
When I first saw this headline, I mistakenly read it as,
Trump Fans:
The Flames of a Racial Fire
And I immediately thought of tiki torches and burning crosses.
7
Trump is essentially trying to start a race war in this country. It's truly agonizing to see what is happening to the fiber of this country. Trump, the GOP enablers and his hate-filled followers are ripping it apart! This is no way to counter your political foes. It's dangerous and will have serious consequences. Trump has taken the lowest road he can and then doubles down on it! The man is beyond any centrist thought or ideas of one America. It's all Trump and his manipulating the GOP jelly fish and his rabid followers. This is a dangerous precedent and regardless of any incidents that may occur, ( I pray they don't), the damage is already done!
10
While I am a Republican and usually don't agree with what I hear from the mouths of the four silly members of Congress Trump targeted, there is absolutely NO excuse for his comments. He should apologize, unreservedly immediately. Members of Congress are entitled to dumb comments and partisan, naive ideas, but a President represents all of us, his comments about going back to where you came from are despicable. This is an issue where Republican leaders should stand up to him.
10
@Oracle at Delphi Thank you. It is so rare these days to hear a Republican recall that the President represents all of us.
Every President will have their own views, ideologies, and policies, and won't make some people happy. That's understood. But every President in our lifetime has recognized that on some level he/she represents and needs to consider *every* American, even when ultimately making decisions some don't agree with.
Obama knew that. George W. Bush knew that. Trump doesn't know it, and doesn't care. If you're on his side, that's all that matters. If you aren't, he believes he owes you nothing. And most Republicans these days seem to stand 100% in lockstep with him on that point. So, again, thank you.
5
Allow me to also thank you for reminding us that the president is supposed to lead and represent all of us. From the start, Trump has demonized all opposition, whether they be Democrats, the media, or Republican Senator John McCain. His MO is to throw red meat to his base, and to encourage them to revile the rest of us. I hope our next president does not follow in his footsteps, but I fear that McConnell and company will continue the practice, displaying loyalty to party, only, and none to the nation.
We are so powerless to correct what is going on. A very caring person said during the Vietnam War that all we can do is take to the streets. That is a sad remedy for any peoples to get justice in their society. Is that not where we are at right now?
What else can we do when the 0.1% run this country to their benefit. Where are our moralists--religious and otherwise? WWJD, indeed?
4
@Nelson
We can, and must, VOTE!
9
He would have said the same things if these women were from Ireland. Get over yourselves.
3
@Erik 3 are from the US. Difficult to get over (His) ignorance.
4
Doubt it.
3
How long until Trump starts talking about the need for a racially pure America?
10
He does exactly what Putin tells him to do.
Wake up, America. You’ve been conned.
8
Disgusting!
5
So the quad hurt the feeling of Israel. Ah. This ventriloquist's dummy of a president keeps giving the game away but who is watching. That is why Israel and its amen corner are silent in this run off to war with Iran. They don't have a say anything from outside. They are firmly inside and in control - lock, stock and barrel.
6
Make America Great Again (MAGA) had no meaning when it was coined, because during the Obama Presidency America was already great! Now, however, MAGA means electing a Democrat, any Democrat, in 2020.
There is a cancer on the presidency. Surgery is the answer. Maybe radiation and chemo to purge the entire Republican mob of spineless thugs in Congress as well.
11
Oh please, the lefties play all racial politics all day long. They want every aspect of life defined by race, gender and class.
6
@DecliningSociety I was going to ask why haven't we heard from Stacy Abrams (Democrat who refuses to accept that she did not win the Georgia governor election last year), the current poster child for claiming racism where none exists.
4
ahh yes, it's the "lefties" fault, obviously. Because if someone talks about race it's an invitation for racism. Do you know who plays identity politics more than anyone? your idol, Trump. His entire platform is brainwashing white middle aged dudes into believing they're victims of some systemic injustice.
13
So why is the NYTimes giving him their full attention?
3
@Grandma
Because this is a negative attention.
President Trump's comments on the group of recently elected Congresswomen of color is astonishingly inappropriate; I'm not sure why I continue to be astonished. This is either one more indication that he harbors racist sentiments or (perhaps to be kind) continues to dangerously employ racist dog whistles for many of his followers. Despite the disgrace, and without attempting to equate wrongs, I feel the need to point out troubling behavior on the part of many in 'my party.' In recent months words and actions of Congresswoman Pelosi and others in Democratic leadership concerning one or more women in this group end up curiously empowering Trump, especially as he focuses on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and picks a fight on anti-semitism. Leadership's critique and sanctioning of Congresswoman Omar, for one, can be seen as adding some legitimacy and logic to his arrogant statements when, in fact, they are deplorable and wrong. Leaderships critiques of what are purported to be (or approach being) anti-semitic statements by Congresswoman Omar and perhaps others as well, have the result of serving Trump's cause, and undercutting the impact of leadership's moral condemnation of his recent horrible tweets.
I’m retired from the military, so I served this country and our government and people for 24 years. I am ashamed of what America is becoming under the Trump administration.
I disagree with everything Trump and company does. Should I should leave along with the congresswomen you said should leave? Do you think, Mr. Trump, that I am not a proud American because I exercise my right to free speech to say that everything you do harms our country? I’m proud of what America was, but I am not proud of what you are doing to draw our country down to levels unprecedented in our history since the end of slavery.
America is, and always has been, great Mr. Trump. We had our faults, but we overcame them. You, unfortunately, haven’t moved beyond 1958 or maybe 1858. You are not making America great. You are making America sad. You are ruining this country and I doubt that we will make it back to our greatness in my lifetime.
I served this country, Mr. Trump, along with several million others so you could exercise your right to free speech. The question, then, is why do you think your brand of free speech, filled with hatred, is the kind of speech most Americans want to hear?
22
This piece is beautifully written. The big picture is supported by quotes and data -- and leaves it perfectly clear that the divide in this country boils down to people on the right wanting to protect their own "supremacy" and people on the left caring about protecting everyone. We must get Trump out of the White House.
10
I've said it before;
If the people making anti-Semitic remarks, anti-American, pro-illegal immigrant remarks and trying to disrupt what Trump wanted done were from European extraction he would have tweeted the exact same thing.
This is just the way he expressed his views and if Twitter allows Tliab to be anti-semitic and deny 9-11 then we can allow tweets inviting her to go be effective elsewhere.
3
@Margo
Criticism of Israel is not the same thing as antisemitism.
7
I think this thing is deranged and he should be removed from office for health reasons. He is acting out his insanity in front of us and we are all taking it as part of the new normal. It's not. He is a mefical case and should be treated as such.
11
I often wonder what would happen if Trump were ignored, off the front page, for a week. What would happen?
7
Is it possible all republicans in congress support Mr. Trump in these comments? If not, why don't they speak out?
Is it possible they are *all* tied together by the Russia scandal, which Mr. Trump appears to be trying to push off the news cycle?
The Dworkin Report takes a look at what might be going on with Russia funding and some Congressional GOP
https://dworkinreport.com/2018/10/02/we-just-released-a-new-report-revealing-lindsey-grahams-russia-linked-donations/
3
Faux-Emperor Trump is not only a ‘white supremacist’, but more dangerously, thinks he is actually an Emperor — not only of America — but that he is the first Emperor of the World.
In this 21st century world of “globalism”, there are only two possible outcomes — global democracy or Global EMPIRE.
In 2020, like 1776, this is not so much an election, but a call for “Common Sense”, shared democracy, and a need for ‘we the American people’ to make a correct, peaceful, and even Revolutionary choice for democracy over Empire.
The American people have not only the power, but also the responsibility, to fire a; loud, public, sustained, ‘in the streets’, ‘in the voting-booths’, but totally non-violent “SHOUT (not shot) heard round the world” to ignite an essential people’s peaceful second American “Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire” — to lead the world assuring the preservation of democracy over Empire.
5
This country should have us people who care fill up the streets in protest just like they are doing in Hong Kong.
Let us not just shake our heads and do nothing!!!
Our President is not well and his enablers make him worse.
The US will soon be irretrievably not well too!
2
Do we really need more evidence of what Trump is? I challenge someone to point out one good quality about him. Please reply.
6
Alas, millions of Americans will agree with him.
1
I have a wish that will never come to be. That all newspapers simply stop mentioning Trump et al. The constant chaos, the uproar, the flame spreading and the ensuing fires are his strategies. He’s an intellectual moron but he understands that this mad whirlwind is fodder to his base. Turn off the spigot of publicity and he would simply shrivel and wither. But the media can’t and won’t. The ‘people’s right to know”.
4
The women Trump defames in his tweet are women of color and he brings that to our attention; then he says to all Americans to leave if we disagree with his vision of our USA.
From racism to all-out culture war. Reminiscent of the Nixon days —“America. Love it or leave it.” That was directed at critics of Nixon’s Vietnam War policies. Oh yeah, and Trump “wasn’t a fan”.
4
NY Times: end the euphemism and call Trump a racist. He is not "lighting matches" nor is he fanning "the flames of a racial fire." Trump's racism is an active choice; a declaration of white supremacy and yet another attack on people of color. It is definitively not the provocative ramblings of a controversial figure: it is the admission of his hatred towards black and brown people in the United States. Your job is to call it what it is.
10
Trump has been told that he needs to make every negative and racist remark he utters all about him and his base, so it will unify them unit. When you attack his base, calling them racist and stupid, not that it’s not true, all you are doing is deepening the divide and feeding their anger. I'm sure there must be several people in his base who have become disenchanted with Trump, to say the least, and we'd like them on our side in 2020. You get a lot more with honey than vinegar. It’s time to beat them at their own game.
Trump accuses the women on Congress of hating this country? He hates this country. He hates the kind of people that are here, he hates the color of their skin, he hates that people from other countries want to live here and he hates the fact that he can't do anything about it. So I think he is the one who should leave. Maybe he'd be happier in Norway.
8
That sentiment can go both ways. At the workplace I was told to "go back to..." And this was from a person from another country and I was born here. I politely explained that regardless, whatever the context, that this is not the way to address it. And at least at that time and place that was the last I heard of it directed to anyone.
1
And along with Trump 'fanning the flames' of racism, is the New York Times reporting on the incident. The paper would never print such comments from the white supremacist folks or the Klan, etal. And all such racist comments need to be suppressed. But it seems that if something Trump says makes him look bad, the Times will feature it on the front page, racist or otherwise.
3
@david g sutliff most of what Trump says makes him look bad. The NYT don't need to be selective. Trump does the work of looking bigoted all on his own, thank you very much. Also, why would a major newspaper want to be a platform for the KKK? Where the heck did you get that idea?
4
@david g sutliff Trump tweeted it to 60 million Twitter followers. Kinda hard to keep it a secret after that.
1
‘When it comes to race, Mr. Trump plays with fire like no other president in a century.’
This statement proves how far removed from reality the writer has become. Truly clueless as to real life and the country this news paper is based at.
Get out of your bubble, out side your private liberal Democrat watering holes, outside your friends circle in Williamsburg and outside the organic vegan stand where you pick up lunch. It’s not too far from 8th and 40th.
I hate to break it to you, but no other president has become as racially divisive, as capable of separating white from black, as able to break the divide between conservative and Liberal, than Obama.
Go out past the Hudson, people still cannot believe he was elected, people there will never again allow another black man to lead us.
Go ask them, not your friends at bars on 9th ave, or AOC’s district. The vast majority of non blacks out there became solidly red the day Obama won, and it continues to this day.
10
@AutumnLeaf You must have forgotten about the racial divides created by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton. And remember that the Republicans have only won the popular vote once in every presidential election since 2000, and that was in 2004, when Bush 43 won by about 3 million votes. Trump is definitely going to get fewer votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. His best hope of staying in office is to declare a national emergency after the election and get the GOP Supreme Court to support that.
5
@AutumnLeaf
The majority of Americans voted against Trump in 2016.
13
The idea that people of intelligence, conscience and accomplishment should kowtow to the stupidity and bigotry of people who have convinced themselves that Obama was “racially divisive” is so ludicrous it could only have been asserted by a Trump supporter.
19
What’s worse than the current racist, bigoted, misogynistic,homophobic, totalitarian occupant of the White House is the deafening silence from the rest of the administration and all the republican sycophants. Complicity in his unAmerican hateful speech is even worse than his totally unacceptable words. The GOP is finally exposed for what they really stand for-the party of old, desperately trying to hold onto power, white(and usually),rich men.
33
Ilhan Omar and Trump deserve each other but this country doesnt deserve either tweeting mischief monger - both should be voted out in 2020
5
From where I sit, the media is fanning racism. I cannot read the Times on any day and not read about racism. I've also watched in dismay when policy 'discussions' take place that the left claims the right is racist when the right disagrees with a policy. It's time to stop using the term so frequently.
7
@Ma
Start with Fox News please.
2
It is amusing that Trump is accusing the 'Squad' of saying critical things about the United States when he himself has done the same. His entire 2016 campaign was based on 'Making America Great Again' - thus implying that we were not great to begin with. There was 'this bad deal' and 'that bad deal' - this 'swamp' and that 'mess'. Trump's grandfather came from what was at that time a poor region in Germany, so maybe Trump the grandson can take his opinions and go back to the recesses of Bavaria where his roots lay and shout at us from there.
11
@Rick Morris
Well said. His entire slogan says it all.
3
Mission accomplished. Jeffrey Epstein is not the top story and they're not asking Trump about him.
4
I am speechless when I hear that there are black, Hispanic, LGBTQ, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist voters who actually support Trump. He has shown these groups nothing but hatred and contempt. Is it that they think they are exempt from his violently hostile rhetoric and actions? He betrays these communities on a daily, almost hourly, basis.
There may have been blatantly bigoted presidents in our past history, and even a few recently. But they had the decency to keep their personal bigotry to themselves and devote themselves to promoting national unity.
Presidents are supposed to bring us together, not divide us along community lines. Trump completely violates this principle every day and in every way. He is taking a desperate gamble that he will be able to motivate the bigots of this nation to turn out in force and cement his hold on power for a second term. All decent Americans must fight fiercely to see that this does not happen.
8
More proof that his dementia is accelerating and putting the nation at risk.
10
Will the DNC and voters in the primaries across the country give us someone to vote for that doesn't hate America, that doesn't want open borders, and that doesn't promise the masses free housing, a salary from crib to grave, and free college for all (the later because most kids are not even ready for college when they graduate)? Please, give us someone to vote for.
3
Better question is what are you talking about? That stuff has never happened except in someone’s delusions.
6
Trump said today "“If somebody has a problem with our country, if somebody doesn’t want to be in our country, they should leave.”
No, Mr. Trump. The people you attacked have never said they don't want to be in our country. You said that.
If somebody has a problem with our country, they run for office and do what they can to fix the problems. That is the American way, which apparently you have no respect for.
13
Today Trump accuses Congresswomen of "hating" America because they are "constantly complaining". He suggests they should leave.
Seems to me Trump has been "complaining" about America his whole life. In fact, he "hates" America so much that he says he wants to "make it great again".
He hates the Intelligence Community, he hates the judicial system, he hates the Congress, he hates the Fed and any other of America's institutions that don't support his corrupt view of the world. In short, it is he who hates America the most and he makes it crystal clear every single day.
Why doesn't he leave?
11
Trump spouts racist comments to rake the coals ; his aim is to retain power thru his base , to win by any means . Racism is insidious and all human beings have the spark of racism innate ; he manipulates that and does not care because this is how he wins . It's all about him and the trail of broken rules , laws , litter it like broken shards of glass that will make this country bleed .
1
Racism has nothing to do with any of this. The truth is that this is about content of character. Trump considers the "gang of four" to be anti-American, anti-Semitic and socialist. He doesn't like the ideas they stand for. The color of their skin has nothing to do with it.
4
Uh huh, sure.
6
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- Samuel Johnson
5
The bully-in-chief has calculated that his only hope of being re-elected is to make it a black-white thing. He is going to continue to portray the Democrats as the party of the "other," immigrants, blacks, the poor. He is going to frame this election for whites that if they want to be loyal to their race, their only choice is to vote for him. This is a crude political manipulation of our country, but the sad fact is that many whites will see it his way and vote for Trump. The destruction of the America the forefathers created continues under an administration that routinely tramples on the Constitution. Woe is America.
3
Trump has no verbal restraint.
1
What I just heard out of this guy’s mouth has convinced that there is no bottom in the cesspool that is now America.
6
The Donald: say it to their faces, you coward!!!
Can’t. Bone spurs.
2
When someone says "I am the least racist person you have ever met", you can be sure they are racist.
7
Forget trump. He is a dirty little racist fool. What about Lindsey, Mitch, the other grand poo-bahs of the GOP? What is wrong with these folks? Are they not human?
4
Be Honest; Trump and the GOP are Racists. KAW; Keep America White
4
And I thought that MAGA stood for Make America Gay Again. As in happy.
President Snowflake says "bounces off me and sticks to you". Keep hitting this cowardly cur where it hurts. I'd have more respect if he'd just come out and state "yeah, I'm a racist white supremacist and so are my followers - what of it?"
Meanwhile, no comment so far on the Republican leadership claim that the 4 congresswomen are "a bunch of communists". Really, where is the proof of that?
Cowardly wannabe fascists beating up on women and children as usual. Scum of the earth with all the moral fiber of their class comrade, Jeffrey Epstein.
4
Speaking to the racist accusations since Trump took office, I would say that the top 3 incidents are: (1) his claim that there was fault on both sides at Charlottesville; (2) his reference to carnage in the inner cities; and (3) his telling the squad to go home.
When I think of racist statements, I think first of the N* word, then of racial stereotypes, and then of out and out hate speech.
Trump has not made the sort of flagrantly racist remarks that leave no doubt. His top three remarks require context. The Charlottesville remark depends on the facts of a fist fight that occurred there. The carnage remark was attacked for ignoring constructive things about inner cities. The Go Home remark depended on the fact that three of the Squad were born in the US, which Trump may not have known.
Racism is a loaded word to say the least. Flagrant racism is readily identifiable. Trump’s big 3 statements do not mention race. The fair interpretation is that they reflect racial insensitivity, but not out and out racism. To be labeled a racist requires unambiguous prejudice. Offensive but ambiguous remarks are a lesser evil.
@michjas
Do we need torture camps or will you help explain that away as well?
2
I don't think it's correct to say that Trump is "playing," even with fire using kerosene. Just as it would have been a mistake to treat Hitler's views in MEIN KAMPF as mere "playing" with fire, we need to take Trump at his word. If he's given the chance, he'll follow through on the implied threats in his tweets. We already have concentration camps on our border. Will we also be having a version of Kristalllnacht and of the Reichstag fire? Where are the Republican patriots would are sworn to protect and defend the Constitution?
2
Years from now, students of American history will wonder how a racist demagogue was the President of the United States. They will read about the people who resisted and ultimately turned him out of office, and they will read of the shamful politicians who supported his xenophobic idea of what this nation could be. Think about how you would explain what side of history you were on.
6
Whether or not Trump’s statement is racist or not is beside the point. Don’t waste your breath.
His statement is a rhetorical version of “America, love it or leave it!”...which was a common right-wing refrain back in the Vietnam War era that most of us simply shrugged off. As John Prine wrote: “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore”. Anyone remember those?
Sinclair Lewis’s books from the 1920s and 1930s contain many characters who voice similar views of intolerance towards “socialists”, “union organizers”, “social workers”, woolly headed college professors and basically anyone who isn’t a straight up, business friendly Yankee Doodle Dandy “chamber of commerce” type. Race wasn’t a primary factor.
It’s interesting to note that there actually ARE a fair number of people who DO go “back to the country they came from”...although usually for tax and lifestyle reasons. My own German American great grandmother, who died in 1934 and spent most of her adult life after age 18 in New York City apparently never really liked her adopted country USA, refused to learn, or at least speak, English, harbored fantasies of moving back to Germany but could never make it happen and ended up raising a family of hard-core USA loving patriots including my own WW2 veteran and anti-Vietnam War father.
Trump’s statement was little more than Trumpist vitriol...intended to light up the internet...which unfortunately he appears to have done.
Trump along with many republicans are like an abusive spouse. They beat, hurt and attack inflicting tremendous sadistic harm then blame the victim for the beatings.
This is also known as gas lighting. Just look at the excuses in the posts and see for yourself.
6
Pops on, NORCAL and Nevada.
Just getting warmed up?
Except for the disrespect shown to these Congresswomen, why is this such news.
Trump started is campaign (after birtherism) with a racist slander of people of Mexican descent.
Yet millions voted for him. It is who we are. Face it.
3
The xenophobic rhetoric and racist epithets that Trump uses
are red meat to his misinformed narrow -minded base of voters.
This is a deliberate political act in revving up as much false disparagement against his opposition in an unholy and very simplistic narrative that unfortunately appeals to more Americans
who border on racism and the feeling of superiority towards people unlike them.
He says that he is the least racist person unwittingly not realizing
that least racist means that he's still part racist.
2
Can we stop falling into the rabbit hole of his stupid tweets. What a side show. We get it - he’s a racist and says stupid things. Let’s keep focused on the problems we have - his dismantling of environmental protections, creating the mess with Iran etc etc. the man is a one person disaster area - let’s keep hitting on that and just ignore his attempts to pivot attention away from whatever the current problem is. Maybe he wants people to forget about his partying with Epstein and underage girls.
5
Let's call a spade a spade. This president is a dangerous contagion whose symptoms, wanton bigotry, bullying, misogyny, lying and graft are spreading through our nation like wildfire. We must fight back or we will all be consumed by this scorched earth campaign meant to divide us and ultimately eat us alive. Let us try to return to decency and VOTE in 2020!
3
The GOP has with a shrug officially declared itself a racist party. No way to spin this leap into the darkness otherwise.
5
No reason to mince words, Trump, and the Republican party ARE BLATANTLY RACIST.
They have been for decades.
Anyone who supports them are racist as well.
5
Maybe Trump only wants Caucasians to vote for him in 2020. Great campaign slogan, huh?
2
Because it’s all about the dysfunctional reality show that the dotard has shoved down our throats, along with our willing acquiescence to his never ending torrent of absurdity.
He clearly has decided that he’ll float his little clown boat on the current of outrage and win on the back of his supporters’ toxic xenophobia, ignorance and white privilege.
The only way to deal with this human boil is to lance him with truth. He should not be asked questions, rather he should be told, daily, what an ignorant, incompetent troll he is. The truth shall set us free!
2
When I look at photos - I no longer see a person - just a swine of the basest and most craven sort. But truly and horrifying base.
6
Joe Biden should hold a press conference today to denounce Trump's racial screed.
1
Angry white men can easily become angry, violent, white men. Trump knows he is fanning the flames of racist hatred because that’s exactly what his base wants him to do.
3
I wonder what Melania thinks of the "go back" taunt.
6
this overt racism suggests "the country" perhaps made a mistake re the POTUS' own forebearers? Trump needs to "go" in 2020.
3
distract, distract distract - Donald J. Trump
1
If it looks like a racist, talks like a racist, acts like a racist, smells like a racist and moves like a racist, it is a racist! Americans need to decide if they want to have a racist lead our country....
4
The NY Times lost all the moral high ground regarding racism after they hired Sarah Jeong.
2
We should return the Statue of Liberty to France, at least as long as Trump is president.
The United States used to be a beacon of hope and mercy that was willing to help others. Now, the president says don't bother coming, we don't want you here, and leave if you are not white.
2
How can he still garner 44% in polls? That adds up to a shocking number of people. They can't all be racists, but you can no longer rationalize away his behavior and continue to support him without becoming forever tainted with that label.
6
Trump is not the failure we want. He is the failure we deserve!
3
Could we petition the media (NYT included) to give us all one week without using Trump's name or seeing his hateful face? Across all media - one week. This is a good start and would unravel him even further. ONE WEEK // NO TRUMP.
3
Maybe this is what America 2019 truly is. Or at least about half of it is. If that’s true, it can go on for a number of years, perhaps decades but eventually there will be a battle for the soul of America. It might be fought politically, economically, through cyber means or, I shudder at the thought, with violent warfare. But you a suppress a majority for only so long before it rises up.
2
Our brains are constructed to make sense out of our experiences. All of us are trying to interpret this madness but in doing so, we are changing the way our neurons behave. How many of us wake up everyday with a bit of anxiety about what Trump toxins will we hear about today? Why is the Congress doing nothing? Doesn't the media realize they are propagating this poison? Some will say our vote will count, but Ivanka bought patents for voting machines last year right before Georgia [and other states] upgraded, still I will try. Pompeo is rewriting what "unalienable" rights means in the Constitution - I say I'm not going back to Jim Crow. I have never felt so helpless.
Somehow, perhaps like an airplane flying into turbulence, we are going to have to rise above this through imagining a post-Trump, good America where we, as a country, can realize higher human values, treat our neighbor as ourselves, and exhale in my lifetime.
3
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel had said “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
The President’s rhetoric regarding the four freshmen Congresswomen of color is divisive and racist and must be condemned by all Americans of good conscience. This country was a founded as a nation of immigrants; if you’re not Native American heritage then your ancestors came from someplace else. The first amendment of our Constitution is first for a reason; dissent is patriotic. America was founded with a revolution about defending liberties and this goal has been an important part of our political culture ever since. To suggest that one group of Americans “ should go back” to the countries they came from because they are critical of the current administration or current public policy is “un-American” to its core. Our elected representatives must condemn this dangerous rhetoric and remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We are always stronger together.
3
"Mr. Trump ritually denies any racial animus or motivations.
Once again, as always, we turn to the immortal Bard:
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
'nuff said."
4
May be Trump is tired of his current wife and his in-Laws, and the updated pre-nup he must have had to sign to get her to move to Washington DC and /or to carry out her minimalist first lady duties.
2
I've had this same comment directed at me and my kids, but in a different context.
I am from the U.S. but live in a developing country with my husband, a native of this country and my kids who are dual citizens, and I've had many people say this to us over the past years. At times it's direct - 'you don't belong here' - but mostly it's the more passive aggressive approach - 'there are too many foreigners here' said loudly while standing near my family after hearing us speak English.
It's a funny twist and one that has given me deep sympathy and understanding for those who traveled to the U.S. to make their lives there, far from their customs, family and native language.
I wish I knew the answer or the perfect comeback - for myself and the millions of people in the U.S. currently being made to feel so unwelcome. But in lieu of that, I say this to my kids: when people are afraid of others, of progress, of change - of and for their futures; when they don't understand something and are too afraid to learn or grow, they lash out in fear. I feel bad that they are afraid but we do not need to change ourselves to accommodate their fears or shortcomings.
Yes, Trump thrives on others' fear and he is a deeply flawed, disgusting human being. We all know that - let's stop restating it in different language. Let's give some space to next steps, suggestions, things we (the average person) can do to cross the divide or bring us back from this point. What we need are solutions.
3
There can be absolutely no question - ZERO - that the charlatan-president is vile in every possible way and that whatever he says is ONLY to foment arguments and discord. I don't think he himself believes half of what he says but he simply thrives on the turmoil he causes. Grotesque in every way. Now as to the 4 people that are the focus of his ridiculous tweets, I can sympathize with them in terms of having been targeted with the most outrageous accusations by, unbelievably, the President of the United States. As to how I feel about them personally, I don't like them or agree with them on many issues. No, I'm a "Pelosi Democrat" and find the politics and conduct of these women who are using their sex and their races as cudgels against their Democratic colleagues. None of that, however, is justification for the conduct of the ludicrous occupant of the White House. HOW he can still poll 40% and more approval by the American public is beyond me and confirms the fatal and irreversible decline of this country as a force for good in the world. Regardless of the results of the next election, we are forever tarnished by this administration AND the millions who continue to defend and support it.
4
Pres. Obama once said that the presidency does not change you. It amplifies who you really are.
And this is what we're witnessing with Trump. Most people of color, especially Latinx people, have known this from the moment he descended his kitschy gilded staircase and slandered Mexicans. His rhetoric is racial vandalism and his policies, especially towards immigrants and asylum seekers, is racialized terror.
He is doing tremendous damage to this country. It's long past time to hold them accountable. Democrats need to acting as if they're afraid of their own shadow; Republicans, especially the ones condoning Trump with their silence, need to be put on notice that they are no longer allowed to hijack the terms of the debate in their paranoid and cynical favor.
2
I know at least one of them already had secret service protection. Now they will all need it. He just put a target on their backs just to distract from his party pal Epstein
3
You needed to use a different phrase from "...between the white, native-born America of his memory and the ethnically diverse, increasingly foreign-born country he is presiding over." Too subtle, even for Times readers. This country has rarely been majority native-born White and that message needs to be hammered home at every opportunity. His own wife is an immigrant for god's sake.
1
A decent human being would know enough not to inflame racists. Many have said that they feel the President is not a racist,but he repeatedly makes inappropriate and ignorant statements.
2
We see 2 great rationalizers---Trump and Biden, each in their own way.
So to beat our racist president, who worsens daily, the candidate who polls the highest is the one embroiled by his past school busing controversy, that gets to the heart of our national racial divide? Who could make this up?
For 2020 the best anti Trumper is the one who had cooperated with the most virulent racist senators? Who gave eulogies for Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd, despite their Klan membership?
Could we have predicted this for 2020, after all this country has been through? It's unbelievable. Seems the long time curse of racial supremacy and apartheid keeps infecting our politics.
Yet, we also have a large group of Dem candidates who are better than this. Why must Biden keep hanging on, trying to win our highest office, over and over? We have to free ourselves, finally.
Unbelievable and unconscionable! How is this walking abomination still in office? The mind reels.
3
'Deeply uncomfortable as many Republicans are with Mr. Trump’s racially infused politics, they worry about offending the base voters who cheer on the president as a truth-teller taking on the tyranny of political correctness.' This is nonsense. They are extremely comfortable. They love it. How does this uncomfortably manifest? And he is a compulsive liar, not a 'truth-teller'.
2
Trumps' tweets were too grammatically correct and too carefully phrased to have been written by him, he who can barely speak a sentence of coherent English much less write one. Some clever racist-xenophobe in his coterie, probably Steven Miller, wrote these tweets to inject the "president" into a Democratic Party issue.
1
Journalists and politicians need to begin paying attention to what is happening that Trump and his craven ilk are trying to distract from.....the more brazen his attacks, the more likely money is flowing from somewhere into his family coffers or some arms deal is being struck with some adversary. He is hardly a 'stable genius'. He is a crime boss who cares nothing for the law but knows how to puff up his bank account. He is a camel who somehow won the Kentucky Derby (because the Russians rigged the race).
2
How far away from Kristallnacht is rounding up the undocumented? Trump's steady drum beat of blaming the other is not very different from Germany in 1930's. Anyone who thinks that Trump is only a danger to Hispanics and African-Americans is mistaken.
2
Rounding up people who have applied for and been denied asylum by the American judicial system and then refused to obey court orders to leave is heading toward Kristallnacht? When exactly do you think we should be able to enforce court orders of deportation? To refuse to do so is to endorse completely open borders. Is that what you believe is necessary to keep us from becoming the Third Reich?
When white Christian Europeans. some desperate, others not so much, forced their way into what today are called the Americas, the millions of people already living here had no border patrols, no detention centers, no ICE. The white people believed they were entitled by their god to just take whatever they wanted. Then they started grabbing and enslaving Africans to work for them and add to their stolen wealth. Donald Trump is a direct descendent of greedy, self-appointed, entitled white people who believe they are better than everyone who doesn't look like them. Incredibly, in 2019 there are still millions of white people like that and one of them lives in the WHITE House. I don't believe such ignorance represents a majority of Americans or even white people but there's a lot of them and they're gullible and too easily manipulated by a conman like Trump. The hate train is not a comfortable ride and comes to no good end and people on it would be wise to get off while they still can (before they die). My message to my Trumpian friends might be, if you can't bring yourself to listen to liberals, at least try listening to your guy, Jesus. I believe he talked about this. If you're not religious, how about the old Golden Rule? Remember that one?
American patriots (irrespective of party affiliation) have two options to fight the statement and double/triple downing on the same statement, 'Go Back Home'.
1) Sit down in front of the white house and display a slogan, 'Mr. Trump Go Back Home (Germany) and Let Immigrnats (colored people) Live in Peace'.
2) Sit down in front of all GOP leaders who are enabling Mr. Trump evading their responsibility of racial unity with a slogan, 'Mr. Senator, Wake up Please. Your Grand Children will question you in your Grave to rise up and correct the damage to the country you created'.
2
We must beat this man in 2020. That means we vote Blue no matter who. This administration has us bleeding from an open wound, and we need a tourniquet. This means we vote Blue for the senate too (except for Amash and others like him who stood against Trump). The senate is complicit with the racism Trump spews.
1
I am hoping that Trump's most recent doubling down on his vitriolic racist statements will finally convince Nancy Pelosi that an Impeachment Inquiry is due. I fear that, in the mean time, Trump is appointing more and more federal judges who will see things "his way"- William Barr certainly seems to. It seems that Donald Trump is getting bolder and more powerful with the support of Republicans while the Democrats are being divided and conquered and weaker. I truly hope this is not the case.
214
@DCWilson
Instead of impeaching and failing to remove him, for the lapdogs will give him a vote, keeping him from leaving, the democrats need to focus on infrastructure projects and hope to keep their seats. They will be voted out next year if all they do is pick on the useless President. Yes, he deserves to be impeached, bu that is wasted energy.
11
@DCWilson
Need to stop wringing your hands with doubt--there's always Lenin's Bay Area 9th Circuit bench of DNC clerics to protect the Grand Collective dogma.
@NM
Then what are we to say when the arc of history showed that we, as a democracy, failed to "uphold the constitution?"
The Dems are taking the easy way out. They need to be reminded of the courage of JKF: "We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard..." and do what they are required to do before it's too late.
4
There are a lot of non-white voters in this country, including in key battleground states. I can only hope that they are all paying attention to this president's thinly veiled racist taunts -- and that they remember them in November 2020. My worry, though, is that 200 years of similar comments -- not just from cynical politicians but from neighbors and co-workers and even strangers -- will have inured non-white voters to this kind of hate speech. And that it will be viewed not as something they need to rise up against and help squelch, but as business as usual in America, something that won't change no matter what they do. The future of America depends in large part on their votes. But in all honesty, I could hardly blame any members of racial minorities for staying home and distancing themselves from our political process, which has done so little to improve their lives.
2
@David DeSmith It's not something we need to rise up against but something you all need to rise up against. Our ancestors shed blood and died for this country in wars. They faced down dogs and water cannons in order to vote and to get a better education. They lived through slavery, rape, murder and mutilations. Nothing this little racist says will deter us from our visions, our dreams and our destiny. What will you do to stop this racist from destroying this country?
1
Everything I can, including encouraging everyone to vote, as I have in every election since I turned 18.
1
The next election isn’t about Trump. It’s about us.
Until we do something about our culture of violence and greed, and thinking that the manipulation of its reality through spectacle and entertainment is sufficient to address it, Trump - or someone else like him - will continue to be the reflection we see in the mirror.
4
If Trump is the leader he claims to be, he should set the example by going back himself. If he goes back, we'll see if he has the following he claims. If he does, this country can return to being the great place it was before January 20, 2017.
2
As a Vietnam war era veteran I can't help but be reminded of what politicians and others said about the student protesters and others who disagreed with the Vietnam war. They were mocked and told to leave the country if they didn't like it, they were called unpatriotic, and accused of not loving America. When you love something it is always hard to criticize it, but it is necessary if you want that thing to be better and reach its full potential. In order to Make America Great Again we have to be willing to say somethings are not right and should change.
240
@Steve Heveron-Smith. Who are you praising Trump and his minions or the rest of us? Goodness, I hope what you mean is the only thing that will make America great again-or return it to servility and sanity, is to get rid of Trump!
11
@Wanda oh my. I did not mean to type servility, but civility. Sometimes I type too quickly. Wanda
3
@Steve Heveron-Smith
What's "not right and should change" -- our post-Modern Maoist reeducation camps, a.k.a., public colleges and universities, and our baked-in Cultural Marxist-driven Sovietized mass-media, to include SNL and Late Night.
There was every reason to mock them. As anyone who lived through the times and who served knows, the adolescent bourgeois protests of the 1960s was driven more by unctuous self-indulgence than any desire to make the nation "Great Again": "Gimme Shelter", gimme Woodstock, keep me a child forever.
2
Trump says if they don’t like America then leave. When Trump ran for president he made Make American Great Again his slogan. This would presuppose there was something he didn’t like about America in its present state at that time. Did anyone say he should leave? No, because dissent is supposed to be a tenet of patriotism.
When conservative Republicans dissent it is because they love their country. But when liberal Democrats dissent it is because they hate their country. I get it now.
2
Yes this president is a racist who because of the qualities that make him an overt racist also make him incompetent. Did anyone who now believes this man is a racist feel otherwise before reading this column?
I submit that this article is simply a bashing of the president which is no different than what Fox News does with Democratic targets. The Democratic party through the racist, antiracist paradigm distracts us from important issues.
The way we have chosen our politicians is by deciding on the lessor of two evils. Quite frankly, over the past 40 years the Democrats have failed us by offering economic policies that are only marginally better than the Republicans. We have been distracted by many of the social issues, which Republicans have forged to distract us from the extremist capitalism, they have been promoting.
None of the Democratic candidates are going to fail the immigrant community but if the candidate emphasizes the issue of racism, it is because he or she does not what to detail their program for revising our economy or is generally light on many other important issues.
The racial resentment that is so prevalent today will fade if we make choices that expand the average citizens economic opportunities.and expand opportunities for smaller companies to compete in the economy.
This president is gradually suffocating our economy with his tariffs and forcing the Fed to lower interest rate because of his mismanagement. This man needs to be removed from office.
4
Unfortunately there will be brown, and gay, and female, and different who will still vote for him.
As an example:
there will be substantial female votes despite his open disdain for females.
1
November 2020 is going to be absolutely crucial in determining what kind of country we are and where our future lies.
It is clear what kind of man Trump is and it has been clear for some time. He exhausts the capacity for outrage because his moral cowardice is so bred in the bone, so thoroughgoing and so unashamedly broadcast through the office of the US presidency that it has become an arduous task for anyone paying attention to orient themselves toward the truth.
There is no longer any question of what he will allow and what he intends..
The question now is who will vote for him and who will turn away.
If he indeed, "Says what other people are thinking" what will those people do sixteen months from now? How many of them are there among us who either actively want or will quietly accept another five and a half years of this?
4
The truth of the Republican silence in the face of all Trump's racism, bullying, narcissism, etc. seems to be that they rely on him to keep them in office. Careerism (and gerrymandering and big money) triumphs over patriotism.
It has been hard to watch this transformation from a desire to serve the country to self-centered and unprincipled greed and power madness.
Too bad for starters we can't just cancel their heath insurance and pensions. That might at least get their attention.
2
I've loathed political correctness precisely because it ends up giving us the likes of Trump. Bigotry is never dealt with by silencing opinion, no matter how odious. It always festers and grows in the shadows until people like Trump emerge to make it fashionable again.
Perhaps we can have a real discussion about "race" now, and put it in the place it really deserves: the history books.
There are no "races" any more than blue eyes or male pattern baldness or height or shoe size is "race". And until that's properly understood, this nonsense will keep returning.
Just saw the press conference in which Trump threw it all back on the Democrats , Press , and New Urban Socialists.
I wonder why everybody here ignores the sickening statements that those congress people made?
Don't bother answering , we all know why.
2
Trump is a reflection of half of America. What he says is what half the country sincerely believe and are too scared to say it. The fact he will get away with this like he as got away with everything else only reinforces the view that half of America actually feels exactly like he does about everything.
So the problem isn’t trump. The problem is the American psyche. How do you solve that one? When trump is gone the mindset that props his presidency up will still remain. I’d be more worried about that than a second trump term if I were in the USA right now.
211
@albee
A second term for the illegitimate, racist in the Oval Office would be devastating for America. This is not to disagree about the American people: the primary problem is the HUGE basket of deplorables. Nearly half of all Americans are racist, angry and wallowing in ignorance. "Go back to where you came from" is their racist motto. The basket of deplorables is the fundamental problem. Yet, a 2nd term must not happen or the damage will be devastating and last several generations!
I blame America's love affair with money and vicious capitalism (ie. the Republican Party) for demoralizing the American people. Capitalism is destructive of humans and human values, the environment and the planet. The carnage of capitalism is this basket of deplorables. The angry, racist 43%. They claim to be "Christians" yet have not the slightest idea of what Christianity is. They simply wrap themselves in this cloak of religion and feel that they are therefore righteous and chosen by god to condemn everyone they dislike to hell or to banishment from THEIR country. Their so-called "religion" enables their hateful racism. They are evil in the flesh. They are called "Republicans".
49
@albee I agree completely. But nobody wants to listen to that argument, and I just don't understand why.
I think a lot to do with it is tied into something fundamental to The American Way. It's its Achilles Heel, or something.
I've been in America 22 years and my first impression was that many Americans are very think skinned, and are far from "united" at all. The race thing was one of the first things i noticed, and it shocked me. But it is something deeper than that. It's a kind of core selfishness and a single minded devotion to stuff and success, I think, that removes any real social cohesion.
I tell you what will unite America? It's the only thing that ever unites nations: a common enemy. When Americans can perceive a common enemy (as we did Japan after Pearl Harbor) it will unite again. And not until then.
All that's happening now is the disunited groups are finding their own common enemies: blacks, whites, illegals, Hispanics, gays, bigots, pro choice, pro life...
And it's very likely that Putin is helping with this, too.
35
@albee It's more like a third, inflated by the Electoral College. Since we outnumber them two to one and they are mostly old and unhealthy people, I don't worry all that much about the future of my country despite them.
13
It's always donald trump did that, tweeted this, said whatever. I'll overstate the obvious by saying we have a terrible and serious problem in this country and dt is just the point man. 62,984,825 people voted for him, 2,868,691 less than voted for HRC. That means the 62,984,825 people prefer boorishness, racism, misogny, dishonesty, incompetence, and all that is dt. These traits were on full display, well known, and well documented before the election so anyone of those dt supporters who claim they didn't know what they were voting for is delusional. They wanted this man, and now look how low we as a nation have sunk under his, and the pathetic and cowardly GOP's enabling "leadership". The next election isn't about trump, it's about us, and who we are, and what kind of country we want to live in.
572
@Peter well stated, Peter! Thank you for those valid comments.
19
@Peter Given that the vast majority of people who voted for Trump were white males, and then white women (in the same demographic and connected to those male Trump voters), the next election is about who -white- people are. They are not the people they've been telling themselves they are.
25
@Peter
I so agree with this:
It is about us. Vote them all out, lets do a reboot and start over.
17
In some pathetic way, at least the citizens know the true Trump, even if they do not admit it. What's even more scary is VP Pence with his full hypocritical musings. Could it possibly go from bad to worse - likely yes. They are conditioning their base for upcoming full court attack in order to win the election. If another term of this juvenile is upsetting, citizens better get out and vote and also vote for state congress reps and state senators with this juvenile in mind - they are supporting him by their silence
20
Here’s the problem. Liberal media jumps all over these comments as “racist”. But that’s too easy for the conservative media and Trump to refute. And in fact only provides more red meat for their base. So stop it. There is so much more to this. These members of congress don’t “hate” the US or Israel. Issues should be discussed and solutions found in a professional manner. Not result in a bunch of childish tweets. This whole Trump incited public mud slinging should be the focus. Proclamation of racism, though accurate, hide a bunch of other aspects to this that should result in outrage towards Trump. Come on, let’s get our messaging right and grill this guy. Stop lobbing him softballs.
11
I agree with you however, with the 24 hour news cycle it’s never going to happen.
@YFJ
You can refute anything if you have no problem lying. You don’t have to prove anything if everyone on the lying side displays loyalty and plays along.
So exactly what do you believe can be done? If you have a magic weapon that will cut through the issue feel free to share.
1
Meanwhile, China slowly and surely takes over the world.
14
Repeat after me, New York Times: "The RACIST did RACISM that was RACIST."
It's really not hard to call things what they are!
15
I think this taunt from the "President" is more demagogic political theater throwing down what another comment posted called a racial trope; and that is all it is.
By design, Trump is burning up the air in the room and we aren't talking about what is really important: getting an impeachment inquiry going so media attention can focus on the real problem facing our country; and it isn't a "squad" of progressives.
9
Chuck, you are right, it IS political theatre. But people are listening and believing this Circus Barker. I would NEVER allow a child of mine, one of their friends, or my nieces or nephews speak the way that Child in the White House speaks! His behavior must be stopped! We need to smack him into next week! You can't even write him at the White House because the people who cover the mail room/electronic communications center are instructed to destroy any negative messages they receive there!. What a sad, sorry joke he is........
2
Everyone in the GOP is so worried about contradicting Trump’s base. When is someone going to stand up and tell these immoral, racist, fake American people they are wrong?! I cannot believe the Republican Party actually wants to shape America in their image. Shame on them!
19
Thank you, jaco. Sometimes people just genuinely don’t agree with a party’s policy proposals and vote instead for the party whose ideas they think will work better. That’s what democracy is all about. The personality of the candidate is beside the point.
@Jaco. And how is anything you have written related to trump's racist tweet? You love djt, so he can do no wrong? Ever? Nada? Zilch? Oh, yes, so much easier to change the subject.
2
@jaco
I’m actually not a progressive, I’m not even a Democrat. Like many Americans, I am from a family of immigrants that came here many years ago. Today, we are no longer immigrants but our family roots run deep. The generations before us were proud people who worked hard and contributed to making America great and honorable. I may not agree entirely with your position, but this is a America, you have the freedom to see things through your own lens. What I do oppose are the angry, hateful attitudes that frame the lenses of the Trump base. It’s mean spirited and fueled by a man who has not figured out he’s leader of the whole country. Systems need fixing not people.
It really shouldn't be news that Donald Trump is a racist. The very first words out of his mouth in announcing his candidacy calling Hispanic immigrants "rapists" and "criminals" were racist. His attempt to delegitimize President Obama with his fake "birther" campaign was racist. His attacks on Colin Kaepernick and other African-American professional football players was racist. His Muslim ban was racist. His defense of white nationalists who murdered a young white woman, Heather Heyer, in Charlottesville was racist. His "zero tolerance" policy of separating Hispanic immigrant children from their parents and putting them into the equivalent of concentration camps where now 12 have died is racist. The massacre of 11 worshipers in their Pittsburgh synagogue by a man inflamed by his fear-mongering about "caravans" was racist. Now his latest twitter tirades that use that very word against four freshmen Democratic women of color in the House is overtly racist. Racism is now out in the open and will be a major issue in the political campaign. Democrats must stop their own "internecine" attacks on these same four women--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC), Ihlan Omar (a Somali Muslim refugee who Democrats have attacked as antisemitic), Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib--known as "The Squad." With an overt racist occupying The White House the Democrats, especilly their nominee, must not be tainted with racism. This is a civil war with our Constitution at stake.
15
Note: The president’s Charlottesville comments specifically excepted “white supremacists” from the “good people on both sides” statement (which was about the statue controversy, not the march per se).
@Z97 And, of course, it was not just any statue, but one of Robert E. Lee who fought to overthrow the government of the Union (aka the U.S.) and preserve the racism of slavery. Please spare me the superficial gloss!
2
@Paul Wortman, there are legitimate arguments about removing monuments to long ago people who don’t meet 21st century standards. I take your point about Lee, but where do we stop? Lots of reasonable people worried about this and thought that the solution was not to start tearing down statues in the first place.
Every day a new low. Revolting, as usual.
9
Trump is a known racist going back to when he and daddy refused to rent to people of color. Maybe instead of settling on a fine they should have been thrown on jail. What is most alarming is that every one of the over 50,000,000 Americans who voted for him knew when they voted exactly who and what he is. What does that say about our country.
5
Does it really make a difference if you’re truly a racist or not, if your words and actions are those of a racist?
8
Liberals hate to be criticized for the ugly things they say about America.
6
Criticizing our country is a freedom ALL Americans have a right to do. The right sure loved complaining when Obama was in office. The horrors of his wearing a tan suit!
5
So does trump, it would seem.
3
@Dr. John
Gas lighting.
1
I'm shocked! Shocked! Donald Trump, a racist? Who knew? Meantime, The Propagandist-in-Chief's massive public failure in the census citizenship question court battle has been been knocked off the front pages all the pundits are focused on, "OMG, the president expressed his racism out loud...AGAIN!". The con-man wins again!
7
And NO republican can stand up to him. They are all racists now.
13
Trup hates America; collaborated with Russia to take American presidency.
13
Trump is purposely keeping the "squad" (that term makes me cringe) in the news to make them appear as the face of the Democratic Party in order to drive moderates/undecideds towards the right. Any efforts made by the left to appeal to the middle, and there hasn't been much, is totally negated by our president painting these four novices as the biggest influences on the Dems (hint: they're not). I love and admire their zeal, but they need to realize that they're playing right into his trick.
10
I dunno about the cleverness—he’s not—but it sure does look like he’s trying to foreground AOC and play with the Democratic majority.
4
@Robert
Fix news has been targeting them. When Pelosi attacked them she opened the door. She continues to run cover for republicans and needs to stop immediately.
1
Yes, which is why Alexandria should give the Views Corp reactionaries exclusive access to her staff shake-up.
That is the international Asylum and US immigration law actually.
This was enacted to deter economic migrants.
Every country even Canada and Europe, uk have the same law.
2
I see a mindset in the President's hateful comments: they substitute for real governance. Since the President does not have the patience or background for initiating, coordinating, understanding and supporting legislation, throwing flames is his preferred way to spend a day.
11
Hopefully, I speak for all when I observe that Twitter now has both an impending moral as well as ethical obligation to delete Trump's account. Take away this dangerous man's megaphone. Let us render him voiceless on social media and take it from there.
17
As long as they take away the left wing ideologues also, no problem at all. I don't read Twitter anyway.
I do think Trump is a racist but let’s say I did not. Then I would have to say he stokes the flames of racial fears and anxieties for well meaning whites who may feel their country is becoming less and less “white.”
This is a very insidious strategy, which is condescending, to say the least, because it is over the heads of his supporters. It’s as if he’s using them a pawns in a racial chess game. The Lindsay Grahams of the world know exactly what Trump is doing. Rush Limbaugh became a millionaire with this strategy and the Republicans have won many elections with it as well.
4
Trump defended himself just now by saying his Tweets are justified because the four representatives said critical things about the US. There are plenty of people who have said worse things about Trump, his administration and his policies than these four but Trump isn't telling them to 'go back where they came from.'
Why hasn't he told a single white male representative who criticized US policy to 'go back where he came from?'
13
When the left stops categorizing the majority of people living in this country as one monolithic group, the right will lose its power to use race as a mainstream political weapon. Articles like this fan the flames of Trump's Tweets.
And stop calling this "news analysis." George Carlin would have a whole new routine about the doublespeak in the news if he were still here.
5
1. TRUMP keeps insisting that the majority of people living in this country are white, Christian voters.
2. “News analysis,” means, “here’s the news, here’s my interpretation of the news.” That’s actually pretty much as much singlespeak as things get.
1
The reason the GOP is silent is because they want those swing states. I don’t believe they legitimately won those states in 2016 (and they know they didn’t), but they need as many of those people to go out & vote for Trump in 2020 as possible to avoid suspicion. Small time vote stealing & election tampering can go undetected, but big time vote stealing & tampering cannot. Race baiting, misogyny, venerating confederate traitors & pretending to be pro-military (giving the vast majority of defense funds to defense contractors while continuously cutting veteran benefits) works in those states.
Nancy Pelosi’s do-nothing attitude in the face of this garbage-spewing president and GOP is bad enough, but her turning on her young colleagues — running to Maureen Dowd and asking her to write a negative column about them, thereby giving Trump a perfect excuse to sheet-talk these young women — is nothing short of traitorous to her party.
Pelosi must go. She started this latest round of hate talk, and don’t tell me she didn’t know EXACTLY what she was doing.
1
Racist allegations as well as Pelosi’s make America white again tweet are bogus. Note that two of the four Squad members are “white”! That’s how most Hispanics and Arabs are classified. Trump’s tweet was about policy and decorum, and a defense of America and its successful culture. Not sure why leftists have such a difficult time accepting how well off we are as Americans, especially when compared with many other countries.
3
@James Bowers
We’re rightists saying this while Obama was president? Did they thank him for helping dig us out of that recession caused by Wall Street and the banks?
Donald Trump has broken our country.
5
@ CB
Mitch McConnell has also wreaked his fair share of destruction with his insidious ways.
Don’t expect him to change though - he has no shame and he has no conscience.
The only way to get rid of these ugly stains on democracy is to vote them out.
Register to vote, make sure your friends are registered to vote, and make sure your community turns out to vote.
It always matters, it always counts - our votes are our voice.
3
This is the ego driven , grandiose supposed rich man who waves our flag like he was the actual founder of our country. He flaunts his patriotism by condemning most of this country’s citizens. And he has others acting the same pathetic way. I can’t help but remember not just past presidents but notable statesmen when speaking of our country they united us, made us feel as one people, with pride and dignity and honor. Not a one talked of exclusion, diversion of our democratic course. The depths we are experiencing can’t sink lower than this man does.
5
Republican leaders either agree with the sentiments expressed in Trump's tweets or they are cowards afraid to denounce them. There's nothing in between.
4
My Caucasian father is a veteran whose parents met when my grandfather was stationed at the Panama Canal during WWII. My cousin is buried in Arlington cemetery. My eighth great grandfather, Lucas Schermorhorn, fought in the Revolutionary War.
My mother was born in New York City like I was and her parents were born in China. My parents did not meet when my dad was in the military, as some have asked. They met as students at Columbia University. The thing that kills me is that each of my four Chinese uncles served. That means that Chinese side of my family has even seen more military time than the Trump family.
Of course I’ve been called a chink and, like these Democratic congresswomen, told to go back to my own country. I recently got called a chink walking down the street in San Francisco on my way to lunch.
Trump’s inflammatory racial rhetoric is completely about whiteness, shrouded in the more palatable appeal to American patriotism.
“Whiteness” is simple and straightforward. People imagine they can see it with their own eyes.
Even though my family preceded Trump’s in America for generations, in his mindset and to many of those who follow him it’s clear from looking at me: I’m an immigrant, they’re the real Americans and they feel justified to tell me to go back to my own country.
For me that could mean going back to the 16th century Netherlands, when my ancestors arrived to settle New Amsterdam, before it was renamed New York.
9
So, what’s Trump’s next act? To tell Melania to go back home because her country of origin is in such mess?
7
The more Trump sounds off about race, and the less the gang of 4 talk about race and gender, the better they will appear and the worse he will appear. Not that race and gender issues aren't important, but the greater issues of equality, poverty, healthcare, education, immigration and corporate greed are why people elected them. When the President is an outright misogynist and racist, he's already proved the point. Just let him melt on his own.
5
If MLK was alive today, what would he say and how would he say it?
How do you handle a bully? What means do you use? How does that define your country? These are the questions we still have to answer today.
I see so much anger and hate everywhere, few listening to other with a president who is incapable of restraint or thoughtful dialogue, setting the tone with inflammatory, racist sound bites.
What would you say, MLK?
What would you say.
3
Is there any evidence of ICE rounding up any of the more than 500,000 illegals from European countries and Canada who are currently living in the US
6
Pence - the "moral Christian" continues to stand with this deeply immoral/amoral man. He continues to legitimize the administration with the Evangelical movement.
This is the vilest aspect of the administration & GOP Congress - failing to call out racism, misogyny, lies, and deep corruption.
Despicable.
23
@brian - Pence isn't a Christian. He's an opportunist.
2
We have to stop legitimizing the disgusting rhetoric of a man who calls himself the President of our country but in no way bears the slightest resemblance to what the Founders had in mind for that position. I am not at all surprised that the GOP politicians have failed utterly to condemn these further abominations by Mr. Trump, but the latest outburst needs to be called out loudly, relentlessly, and in no uncertain terms by every Democratic politician and, most especially, by those aspiring to replace Mr. Trump in the White House. Where are their voices in denouncing this destruction by Mr. Trump of whatever is left of American values? Speak up now!
10
That Trump would make racist statements may not surprise us. What should surprise us is that a President of the United States would make racist remarks. Americans need to make clear this is totally unacceptable behavior.
18
If anything it’s like talking about ones family members. Those who felt they were on the fence with these congresswomen now will defend them and their rights to the end.
1
Trump's campaign slogan was code for
MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN
11
More like Make America Hate Again.
3
Racist? Probably. Stupid? Definitely.
12
I am worried the most about his „base“ who cheer on those comments and think he is their folk hero for „saying it as it is“. Even when he is gone, those people and their feelings will stay. That is the real problem here.
26
Part of the reason Trump was elected in the first place was because of the shock value of such comments and the corresponding righteous indignation of the press, furthering his message. Obviously, we can't let comments like this go by, but I am really tired of the Trump Show and the media that fuels it.
Really. Tired.
12
In a country that has more guns than citizens...Trump is playing a very dangerous game, it will only take one spark or event that may lead the genie leaving the bottle and you any have trouble getting it back in.
10
As a child, Donald Trump had a serious learning disability. His severe dyslexia went undiagnosed as his stern, demanding father would not accept his inability to learn the basics of reading and writing as a medical condition. Trump, larger than his classmates, learned that bullying was a sure way to circumvent the real issue of his very poor classwork. Trump Sr. sent him to NY Military Academy to "straighten him out", sure that his educational failures were caused by laziness.
His time at NYMA was troubling, his roommates called him a "jerk". But bullying continued to be the only way he could succeed. And his family accepted his ways. Father Fred, attempting to make a silk purse from a sow's ear, doted on his uneducated son to make sure he would become a success in spite of never mastering the 3Rs.
His professional life has been a series of economic failures interspersed with personal disappointments. But his continued rebuttal was through diversionary tactics, placing blame on others and more bullying. But he was always saved by Fred's money. His family is fully aware of who and what he is but are vested in his false bravado and smoke & mirrors wealth.
His rise to the presidency is largely the result of President Obama's public jokes about him in 2011. Trump's spiteful desire to tear down anything "Obama" is a clear indication of both his racism and his dangerous mental condition.
Bullying has worked for this damaged human being all his life. Why not now?
19
This is exactly why progressives should have voted for Trump in 2016 - he feeds a growing backlash that would not be possible under Hilary.
2
@Robert
People who fight back typically are.
And this is exactly why self-styled progressives are so frequently insufferable.
7
If it helps, I’ll be glad to “go back” to Norway where my grandmother came from if only they’d take me. I doubt if I can be so lucky and will have to remain stuck here with everyone and their chips on their shoulders.
13
The Walter Cronkite Republican observes the notion of white supremacy is just another unjustifiable form of hereditary aristocracy that the founders of our nation rejected as a reliable means of obtaining national leadership. One might examine the consequences of hereditary aristocracy where it still persists around the world as well in the families of the "wealthy elites" in this country. The leaders of one generation do not, by and large, generate the leaders of the next. We do not breed true.
1
It’s laughable that Trump ignited this firestorm. The Progressives and their Allies have spent the past 10 years use racial tropes to brand and label wides swathes of Americans who oppose their agenda. Blatantly racist terms such as “white privilege” and scientifically unfounded “unconscious bias” to formally accuse people of being racist or harboring racial bias of the unconscious sort.
Instead the Progressives have devolved into a pogrom of race based hatred towards Americans who don’t look or think like them. It as if I were watching the reemergence of Maos cultural revolution on our shores rather than in China. The similarities are striking in that the biases of the Left are used as a foundation for truth and those who dare speak against them are publicly accused of crimes against their collective mind hive and driven from public view or dismissed from jobs or expelled from colleges. The crimes: Free Speech and Free Thought.
Trump only has said what many Americans have thought and it clearly means that the Left is now going to have to face the backlash against their twisted ideology.
7
You really must pardon me if I refrain from confusing the old tired refrains about how picked-on white guys are with any kind of reasoned analysis, criticism, discussion or for that matter, actual knowledge of history.
12
@Mike
You poor thing. Did they mistreat you?
White privilege means never having to feel inferior or restricted, regardless of what others think. But you need the personality for it. Victimhood doesn't really work for white folks.
5
@ Robert
It would be very interesting to see what would happen if these “siege mentality” non-minority males were forced to experience a body-swap with a minority individual for a few days.
4
Trump is unique among American presidents. Who did Mr. Baker have in mind when he wrote "When it comes to race, Mr. Trump plays with fire like no other president in a century."?
5
Donald Trump cynically understands the political power of racism, and Donald Trump is betting that he can use older White anxieties about immigration and change to win the Midwestern battleground states he needs for reelection. This is why Trump makes the Border Wall, immigration, the Census citizenship question daily news.
Donald Trump is also laying a political trap for Democrats by defining them to America as the “Party of Minorities” and a Party more concerned about protecting the rights of the helpless & immigrants than about addressing the needs of “Real” Americans.
Zealous Trump supporters who believe this message are beyond reaching, but GOP college educated, suburban women, conscientious Republicans, and reflective swing voters will hopefully see past this divisive strategy and cast a vote against the man who would resort to such distasteful, divisive tactics to win re-election as President of the United States.
275
As 2020 approaches he wants to draw the line, us versus immigrants, more clearly so that he can expand his base.
13
@DCJ
Yes, but, for the Democrats to win over these swing voters, who find Trump’s identity politics unacceptable, they need to desist from their own brand of identity politics. No more attacks on the white working-class, for example. Full stop! Cold turkey! No going back!
17
@DCJ
And how does attacking immigrants help the middle class? The world isn’t zero sum. And immigrants typically pay more in subsidizing our infrastructure more than citizens and use resources less even when they have access.
It’s all based on lies. I don’t want democrats to lie to participate in our democracy.
11
I am ashamed of my country for allowing this man to continue to hold the office of president. All lawmakers should have spoken up in disgust time and again because of things he has said. If we ever were, we are certainly no longer a moral leader in the world. We are diminished.
26
Doesn't matter his history. He is saying racist things now to stoke division and fear. That isn't just racist it tyranny.
Hes an Authoritarian doing exactly what Authoritarians do: stoke fear to divide any opposition the institute tyranny to keep power.
Our only question as a nation is do we want to continue with Democracy under all of us, or Dictatorship under Trump. It's a question for Democrats and Republicans, for liberals and conservatives. For big govs and small govs.
Trump is not and never has been a safe leader. He is dangerous to us all.
19
I agree with those who refuse to equate moral rectitude with elitism. It doesn't take a college education to look into the eyes of those frightened children separated from their parents at the border and see a gross violation of human rights. It simply takes a bit of compassion. Trump emitted every sign that he had no moral compass before he was elected, and still millions voted for him. Ok, fool me once...But to approve his performance as do more than 40% of the population at the moment takes a moral blindness so stupefying as to be incurable. Charges of "elitism" against those who object to Trump's policies are entirely fraudulent. Let's face it: there is no common ground on which to "win back" these people, whose minds have been permanently twisted by Fox News and hearts buried in the dust. They need to be isolated, condemned, and defeated at the polls in 2020.
19
Voting for Trump is all about racism. That is his strong suit and he knows it. Of course, he will throw accelerant into the flames. How else could he possibly get re-elected? And if he doesn't get re-elected, he has the enjoyment of blaming the unAmerican other for his losses. Expect more of it.
12
I realize Trump and all his rhetoric is distressing to millions of people, and I am no exception. We must temper our emotional reaction with the knowledge that the US continues to move to a better place. Trump's words bring to the surface these malingering undercurrents of hatred. But as they surface to the mainstream, they can be dealt with. It is a cleansing process. The electorate is not dumb, and in an ever more educated society, these techniques lose their power. I think Trump and his sycophants will try and get some political traction with their base, but will not have much success with moderate suburban voters. I encourage this type of dialogue, because it exposes the bigotry for what it is. Do not be too disheartened, but take the opportunity to confront it head on and trust the good judgement of your fellow voters.
4
Not that I'd expect Trump to have any idea what "E Pluribus Unum" means, but you'd think the GOP members in the House and Senate would at least have a clue.
... or at the very least a sense of decency.
After all, it's not only on the Great Seal of the United States, it's also inscribed on money.
8
Thank you Peter Baker for the clarity of your piece, accurately describing the racism and fascism of Trump and the Republican Party, and worse yet, a core of our citizenry. Frightening times, and your call for response is most welcome.
8
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South”...Abraham Lincoln.
No matter the issue, what is different in the year 2019 between all Americans and between the 7.7 billion humans on earth???
1
He wants a war but not just a war of words anymore. Be careful what you wish for people .
2
The first that came to mind is "They know not what they do."
2
they know EXACTLY what they are doing & it makes the actions that much more disgusting
3
This is not news. We all knew he was a racist from before he was on the apprentice.
Moreover, anyone who voted for Trump is a racist plain and simple, there's really no denying it.
And there's no denying it, anyone with a TRUMP bumper sticker is a racist.
Anyone who supports Trump should simply be ignored, and better, shunned. Including Republicans who made this Faustian deal and who will regret it come November 2020 in the polls.
13
I am heartened that the NYT is clearly stating that our president's language is ugly and racist language. Pointing out that this language has never been used by any other US president, and plainly stating that Trump's language is dangerous to this country is a necessity. This criticism needs to be said. Now if the Republican party could just do the same.
9
This is your president. Is this what half of America believes in? I suppose they must or he wouldn't have been elected.
2
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,” tweeted Trump.
Since all but one of the congresswomen Trump refers to were born in the USA, Trump implies that the US government is
“a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world.” Thanks to the Trump Administration, he is right!
9
Just another diversion. As Paul Ryan (reportedly) said, Trump knows nothing about gov't. Nor does he want to. He's there to enrich himself, his famiglia, his cronies. The rest is just a 'reality' TV show.
6
I think what trump is really trying to protect is not a white America but in America that believes in individual freedom low taxes a strong military of the protects the country and if you work hard It's your money not the government's. What you're seeing from those Congress people hes talking about that do come from foreign countries or their parents did is a lack of a simulation to traditional American values that made this the wealthiest country in the world. What you see from these representatives is constant anti-Semetic remarks the belief and bring socialism to the United States the belief in dramatically increasing welfare programs including to people who don't wanna work and this is what trump is responding to. What trump also is responding to is the worst thing that could happen to this country is to have immigrants come in and instead of using the melting pot to assimilate them and to traditional American values is to have a moto a multicultural societee where most of these people coming in have never experienced democracy the rule of law the respect for the rule of law and that's what these representatives are really showing values that have no place in American societie
3
uh...sure...you are wrong, you know, but I do not know how to get you to see that...
2
Everybody agrees with Trump.
2
@kerri The country 3 of the congresswomen are from is the US?
The media fanned the flames to a full-on inferno years ago, starting with the Trayvon Martin incident. Trump just threw a match onto the existing blaze.
3
@John L. Barton But it's not everyday a man armed with a loaded weapon follows a kid (he doesn't know) at night, confronts the kid (at night) and ends up shooting and killing the kid.
If it happens again, it'll make the news, even if it's in Florida.
3
The House Doorkeeper, heard practicing the appropriate intonation for the words of introduction ... as he intends to speak them ... on the occasion of the next State of the Union address (if trump is still in office):
"Ladies and Gentlemen … The President of The United States ???"
4
The "squad" has become just another convenient prop for Trump, and he will ride their policy differences within their own party, to divide and conquer.
Speaker Pelosi has a real problem with the four freshman congresswomen who choose to die on the hill of their diversity, rather than work to defeat Trump.
The engorged media can't get enough of the latest Trump outrage, either.
3
Trump's forebears were from Germany. Can we send him back there?
7
They don’t want him.
4
@Lisa This would be like saying can we send Obama back to Kenya,
@sleepyjoe, I was being facetious in saying we should give Trump the same treatment he is proposing for the Congresswomen, not saying we should do this to Obama. Apart from full blooded Native Americans, we're all from "somewhere else". There lies the irony and the pity of what we're doing to immigrants. I'm sure glad Trump wasn't around when my grandparents fled pogroms in Poland, or I might not be alive today.
To the person (and others similar) that posted
"I thought at some point he would learn,..."
Narcissistic Bullies don't have a great history of "Learning".
5
We've gone from Obama, who chose his words carefully, to a mountebank who is flagrantly careless about what he says, even contemptuous for decency. And millions endorse his views. Tragic for America.
9
Just a shameful article bending over backwards to avoid saying Trump is a racist or that his tweet was racist. Sacrificing accurate reporting for the sake of showing how "objective" you all think you are is what got Trump elected and may help re-elect him. Use well-known, accurate language to describe what Trump does. That is your job.
3
The phrase Trump used in his tweet, “Why don’t they go back [to the] places from which they came,” has chilling echoes from Enoch Powell’s infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech to his Wolverhampton constituents urging non-white immigrants to return to their homelands. The Times (London) recorded several incidents of racial attacks in the speech's aftermath, including one, reported under the headline "Coloured family attacked", involving a slashing incident with 14 white youths chanting "Powell" and "Why don't you go back to your own country?" Before the speech, Powell remarked to a friend, "I'm going to make a speech at the weekend and it's going to go up 'fizz' like a rocket; but whereas all rockets fall to the earth, this one is going to stay up." Trump too has the capacity to make news stay news, as Baker notes—“ each time the flames roar...Mr. Trump tosses a little more accelerant on top.” Like Trump, Powell too protested he was not a racist. Aside from the fact, as Baker makes abundantly clear, that Trump is racist, we should take note of the clear political calculation underlying it that evidently also underlay Powell’s speech. Wikipedia (see under “Rivers of Blood speech”) reports that a Gallup poll showed 75% of the population were sympathetic to Powell's views, and that “the popularity of Powell's perspective on immigration may have played a decisive contributory factor in the Conservatives' surprise victory in the 1970 general election.”
3
As an immigrant, I know exactly how it feels when somebody born here tells you to “go back to your country”, just because you’re different.
However, this article, as previous ones published by the NYT, misrepresents the situation.
1. Trump’s tweets, as outrageous and inappropriate as they usually are, did not simply say “Go back to your country”. He said that those who think this country is a horrible place could go back to where they or they parents came from, fix it and live they way they like. Personally, I would recommend that not only to first or second generation immigrants, but to any extreme leftists who feel this country is terrible, rigged, and offers no opportunities.
2. This “go back to your country”, taken out of context, is branded a “racist trope”. I actually did what I deeply dislike, I read Trump’s tweets - there’s nothing about race there. This is the typical race card - say something critical about somebody “of color” (whatever that may mean on the case of Ocasio-Cortez), and you’re automatically a racist.
4
News flash: Donald Trump is a racist! And he uses Twitter as a kind of stream of consciousness for his frail ego. (Yawn)
How many times must we read that he thinks of himself as "the least racist person" one could ever meet?
Can the media move on, please? Trump "fanning the flames of racial fire" is hardly worthy of news analysis at this stage of the game.
3
Trump was Drumph before his family migrating to the USA, and he is not Native to the Country. Trump will go down in history as the most exceptional example of psychological projection ever! No one has ever accused more people of their own weaknesses, crimes, and sicknesses than Trump.
This list is stunning:
Hillary is a crook
Hillary is ill
Putin is a good person
Russia didn't aid me getting elected
I'm not a racist, they are
Immigrates are criminals and rapist
I could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not be arrested
The media is fake news
Go back to your Country
I'm great looking
I'm a stable genius
I have an incredible memory
I've won my club championships
I'm a billionaire
I'm a self-made man
The list goes on and on,
Here' reality, whatever comes out of Trump's mouth will be the opposite of truth and intended to cover his weaknesses.
7
Not in my lifetime have we as a country witnessed a president who has systematically, intentionally and frequently employed hate, racism, xenophobia to divide the country. He is unfit, unstable and incapable of leading this country and the sooner his malleable, ill-informed and manipulated followers realize this the better off this land and the world will be. He is a shameless, shill whose hate mongering is simply unacceptable to anyone with a conscience and understanding of history, here and abroad.
8
If only Trump would go back to Germany and see how they do healthcare and education.
8
Trump is a racist. It's short, it's succinct, it explains exactly what's going on, yet news organizations tie themselves into knots to avoid saying it
3
Mr Trump appears to think he is the president for his base only; for the rest of us, he is our boss. Throw this bum out!
9
You can’t go back to “The Good Olde Days, “ Mister President! The country will soon be a brown majority and that is a fact, Jack! Get used to it , or move out of the way...
5
Simple strategy: divide and conquer.
Misogyny along with racism -- hate those Dems with all those uppity women and racial types.... He's obviously running scared
Being president has got to be a ton of fun... the bully pulpit, the buttons at your fingertips, the luxury of life (which he initially commented on -- Washington in many ways is a nicer place to live than NYC!) Have "Hail to the Chief" played endlessly; 41 gun salute in London. I'll take it.
Anything to cover up Epstein, Iran, babies and toddlers at our southern border wallowing in filth.
And, most of all, the fact that Obama, a Black man, publicly and accurately skewered him for what he is while adding jobs to the economy every single month of his 8-year tenure, preventing 20 million Americans from going bankrupt due to a catastrophic health situation, and saving the auto industry, among other great achievements - all while being married once to the same woman with who he had both of his kids.
This is all about being bested by a Black man. Every. Last. Bit. Of. It.
12
Trump: “I am the least racist person you’ve ever met.”
Translation: “I am the most racist person you’ve met.”
8
According to Fox News and the current G.O.P. rhetoric,
1. Anyone who supports any government program is a "socialist."
2. But it's quite okay to be a White Nationalist or a neo-Nazi.
11
Why don't you call Trump's twits what is is, racist comments? NYT needs to stop letting its reporters use less incendiary terms to describe Trump's twits. Readers deserves a higher level of reporting that is not afraid of the truth.
3
Not too long ago in America’s Bible Belt, white America meant WASP America. Catholics were not considered white, Jews were never white, people that lived on the wrong side of the tracks were white trash. Think about it.
6
AND Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clearly insinuated Nancy Pelosis is a racist. AOC needs to get over her self and stop using the victim racist card amongst her own liberal democrats or she'll be out of a job.
5
In his excellent piece, Mr. Baker reports:
Other presidents have played racial politics or indulged in stereotypes. Secret tapes of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon show them routinely making virulently racist statements behind closed doors. Mr. Nixon’s Southern strategy was said to be aimed at disenchanted whites. Ronald Reagan was accused of coded racial appeals for talking so much about “welfare queens.” George Bush and his supporters highlighted the case of a furloughed African-American murderer named Willie Horton. Bill Clinton was accused of a racial play for criticizing a black hip-hop star.
*****
Seems to me that Bill Clinton deserves a pass re his Sista Soulja 'commentary' -- and definitely deserves to be not lumped with 'this' group/the evidences against them.
4
I recently read that two-thirds of the current Canadian population is descended from 1100 French women. A very large percentage of this country is likewise descended from the first settlers of the earliest colonial outposts—Virginia, Massachusetts, New Netherlands, Barbados and South Carolina. Sparing the details, I have confirmed that many of my family immigrated to these places in the early to mid 17th-century.
By comparison, Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, emigrated from the Rheinland in Germany to this country 200 years later in 1885. When given a chance to demonstrate his loyalty to this country in 1968, he chickened out. As 20-somethings in Basic Training, our platoon often marveled at the fortitude of a 35 year old slightly built Filipino immigrant recruit in another platoon eager to make a case for his citizenship. Meanwhile, Trump was hiding behind his "bone spur" deferment.
I will always embrace new generations of immigrants who serve this country, and will always view Trump as a foreign country populated by a single ego.
19
Once again, aside from Justin Amash, the silence of elected republicans is deafening, telling and and shameful.
31
Let's face it, Trump was right: three of these congresswomen ARE from a country whose government is a complete and total catastrophe. But we're working on it, we'll get there.
You know you've hit the mark pretty well when Trump comes back with the third grade "rubber/glue" type of argument. Remember "I'm not the puppet, you're the puppet"?
11
No wonder they're disappointed with how things are going. The nation is no longer living up to the ideals they and their families admired when they came here. Americans who have been here a few generations don't understand how badly it's getting screwed up.
1
The Democrats play this game with Trump at their own peril. I think they need to bite their tongues and get back to business. They can’t beat Trump at this childish game of hurling insults. He does it to sow division and to rouse his base. He’s been a complete failure, and stirring up emotions is all he has left to fight with – but he is good at it.
If the Democrats are not going to impeach him – and it looks like they’re not – then they need to ignore him. Otherwise they play right into his game plan. And they won’t win. Every response from Democrats will unleash a bigger response from him. There is nothing – no insult, no logic, no moral outrage – that will get through to him. He is psychologically impenetrable.
And the media needs to cooperate here and quit publishing every inane Trump tweet. Ignore the bully no matter how outrageous he is. He feeds on the attention.
Democrats: get down to the more important business of running America, and preparing to defeat Trump in the election.
19
"I push a button, the press goes boom" He's not talking about bombs. He's talking about stirring outrage. And we are reacting exactly how he wants. This is a documented strategy he uses. This strategy is already contributing to the downfall for our democratic country. Let's get savvy.
20
@Madhavi Thanks. I am reminded of a cat, and a laser pointer. The media can't not take the bait.....
Not surprised .. he is the one who became a politician by claiming that President Obama was born in Kenya . He promised to release the findings of his panel of experts who visited Hawaii & Kenya but never did . Ditto his tax returns . What else is new !
13
This sounds exactly like what was going on in the 19th century sending African Americans back to Africa. Some abolishtionist said it and Abraham Lincoln said, after the Emancipation Act. But here we are in the 21st century and we're still saying thgis kind of thing. Trump himself is "only" 2nd generation American. Do we all start counting our lineage and how many generations we've been here to see who's got the "right" to be here? And when was this country all white anyway?
4
The President is supposed to fight to make our union “a more perfect one”. Trump is not—that is very clear. His focus is on taking advantage of our base instincts —our fears, our anger. We the people are responsible for bringing on this continual attack by Trump and his supporters. An attack that’s eroding the underpinning of our country; it’s moral fabric and it’s leadership position in the world today. Our job is to do everything in our power to protect our country and reset its downward course. If you are not actively resisting Trump you are helping to destroy our country. To me it’s as simple as that. Protect your country. # Resist.
3
It's shocking that the President of the United States would make such comments, but it's not shocking that Trump would make such comments.
11
Why are white people so shocked? The black people I know understood Donald long ago and they know blatant racism is not relic of our unenlightened past.
The problem now is how to avoid getting back only to the point where white people think we're still making progress when in reality, we rarely have.
A good start would be for the Republicans in local government to come down from the mountain and lead the party away from worshiping idols.
7
Thanks, Donald Trump, for saying exactly what you really feel(!). Your blatantly racist attacks and the silence of your GOP colleagues makes it clear just how far you have all strayed from our most cherished American ideals. The rest of us now have a very clear choice: reject all of you and your hypocrisy or see our country enter a period of steep decline.
7
This is exactly why Trump was elected.
This is exactly what his base expects and wants from him.
He is delivering on this campaign promise.
He hasn't delivered on anything else. His "easy to win trade wars" have been great for US steel makers, US Steel stock price has declined 64%. Great for farmers. Especially soy bean farmers and dairy farmers in Wisconsin. At least the ones who have managed to avoid bankruptcy. Trade deficit? Never grew this fast or been this high. Budget deficit?Bottom line is Trump has been a colossal failure at everything except what he really got elected to do. Make America White Again.
Sure, his fawning fans will say they wish Trump didn't come across as a racist fool, that they wish he would tweet less, etc.
Pure nonsense, this is what they wanted and this is what they got.
8
You know, maybe Trumps has a good point here. Maybe we should all go back to where we came from starting with the First Lady. Give this country back to the people we stole this country from, the real Native American Indians. They could take care of this country much better than we can or deserve.
3
While it is true that some accused Bill Clinton of a racial play for criticizing a hip hop star, Clinton correctly and rightfully observed (Sister Souljah had advocated blacks killing whites for a change) that if the words black and white had been reversed, her comment could have come from David Duke. His point being that racism whether from whites or blacks is unacceptable. Same for AOC and "the Squad".
4
Where are Mitch McConnell and this GOP?
They are complete cowards.
They do absolutely nothing about Trump's daily assaults on American citizens, our free press and even our long revered national security institutions?
This Republican blind alliance with Trump is not only shocking, repulsive and outrageous, it directly violates the oath of office they took to serve and protect our U. S. Constitution (not Donald Trump).
This GOP will pay dearly in 2020.
6
Shame on Trump. He gets more vile every day. But there is method in this madness. He wants to highlight the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party to keep his base riled up and convince them that all Democrats are very far left. As usual, this is a ruse.
2
I know these are "hated" facts, but U.S. high school students score toward the bottom internationally in every academic discipline, and students from the red states score at the bottom of the U.S. Even just looking at the so-called "best and brightest" Ivy League grads like Trump, Bush 43, and the exclusively Harvard and Yale grads on the Supreme Court, and I honestly doubt that Americans are smart enough to carry on the ideals of our comparatively wise Founding Fathers and Presidents like Lincoln and FDR. I wouldn't bet a nickel that the "United" States will be around to see its 300th birthday.
7
Some of are, and I got a dime right here to see and raise you.
I assure you, there were plenty of dolts back in those halcyon days.
1
I posted already that those who have been here a few generations have lost touch with our country's ideals. Relative new comers still believe in America. But these women see those ideals being torn apart. They want the country to be better. If they were Swedish immigrants would Trump have been in such an uproar?
4
@Cowboy Marine African American and Hispanic students drag the test scores down considerably. If you compare only White and Asian students, the scores are comparable to the top countries.
Unfortunately, I CAN'T 'go back' to Ireland ... 'those' of my ancestors having left County Mayo in the first decade of the 19th C. (thus 'leaving' me w/o the Ireland-born grandparent 'or better' that I would need to claim Irish citizenship and Irish passport); nor can I "return" to Italy -- same 'issue' ... 'those' of my ancestors having left the City-State of Genoa in or about 1850 -- just 10 years before Garabaldi's "unification" led Genoa into the "Kingdom of Italy."
P.S. Kinda makes me feel like the bikers in the bar run by Chazz Palminteri's character in "A Bronx Tale" ... when, having just witnessed 'thems' insulting behaviors, he walked to the bar's front door, locked it from the inside, and turned back alone to say to the many of 'thems,' "Now yiz can't leave."
P.P.S. Might be my favorite movie scene of all-time … but it makes me think, "What's up with the pre-Woodstock-era Bronx? 'Cause "thems" would never have so much as chanced entry into that era's northern Brooklyn neighborhood known ('like' Jumbo Shrimp?) as South Brooklyn ('let alone' to enter there and insult its residents -- and 'least,' to enter there and insult our patrons who referenced their club as "Our Thing").
3
It might be remembered that Trump did not refer to the race of these women, the NYT did. But they're also under 40. Does that mean that Trump is attacking people under 40?
There are lots of countries in the world which are rather dysfunctional and the US cannot possibly absorb everyone who wants to leave these countries so they have somehow to be put on their feet.
Open borders is not going to be a solution to these problems and Trump, crude as he is, has his finger on the problem which the Times is ignoring.
I doubt if these four congress women are the right people to solve the problems of dysfunctional countries and some of their ideas about America itself are in fact good. AOC is right that the rich have too much money. But we do need to ask the question, if not open borders then what? This is the hard question and the important question.
6
Sorry. Meant @Ludwig.
As a moderate Democrat I have no problem with your expressing conservative views that disagree with mine. I may learn something from you. But if you still support Trump knowing what we know now, we cannot have a dialogue or a relationship. Enough is enough.
13
At my workplace, we are currently in process of determining actions against a person who conceded having used a hateful racial word. The word uttered just once during one minor verbal altercation. Yet, the person is likely to be subject to harsh consequences.
I can't help but compare the incident with our no-good for anything POTUS using hate speech number of times in his tenure and getting away with it simply because where he is and political support of bigoted section of the lawmakers and citizens.
9
My question, as always, whenever Trump tweets something outrageous, is what is he trying to distract attention away from?
"Judges on a federal appeals court grilled President Trump's lawyer and the counsel for the House of Representatives on Friday over Trump's effort to block a subpoena ordering his accounting firm to turn over financial records."
My guess would be that.
11
@Hank Disclaimer: I don't support Trump. The publicizing of Trump's tax returns very possibly may not have the intended consequence and instead could make him even more of a hero to his base. Unless he's done something blatantly illegal vs. repugnant-yet-acceptable by industry standards, and is actually punishable, it's likely to backfire.
The "progressive" four - (but particularly Representative Ilhan Omar), routinely and repeatedly voice highly antagonistic positions that many Americans find offensive.
It brings our policies regarding immigration into question. We don't need to import people that hate our country.
2
@Ami
Tucker Carlson’s Attack On Omar Is a Pack of Racist Lies
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/tucker-carlson-ilhan-omar-immigration-racist-lies-debunked.html
—
Article - George W. Bush says Russia meddled in US election. - AP News
https://apnews.com/fb98faa8f69b4135a9a866e0b61a6593
Bush also criticized Trump’s decision to scrap a program implemented by former President Barack Obama’s administration that allows young immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children to remain in America.
“America’s their home,” the 43rd American president said. “They’ve got to get it fixed.”
Bush acknowledged that he tried to overhaul America’s “broken” immigration system, but failed.
“There are people willing to do jobs that Americans won’t do,” he said. “Americans don’t want to pick cotton at 105 degrees (Fahrenheit), but there are people who want put food on their family’s tables and are willing to do that. We ought to say thank you and welcome them.”
1
Would those many Americans happen to be Trump voters? These representatives don't hate America, they rightly hate the direction we seem to be going. Not the same thing.
The immigration and race debates are our "Vietnam moment". The inflection point of protesters in the 60's and early 70's in opposing the war in Vietnam forced Americans to confront basic issues of our humanity.
We are in the same position today. The voices of Americans are being raised in opposition to the horrifyingly vile forces emerging from the slime of our darkest impulses. It is this point in history that America will either reclaim its' mantle of moral leadership in the world or forever surrender it to dakrness and evil.
Pure. and. simple.
2
Remember the slogan, “Love it or Leave it”, the response to protesting against the Vietnam War? It reflects a recalcitrant attitude towards addressing something that is wrong but cannot be easily or simply fixed.
We need to not let Trump trivialize nor misrepresent the facts. He distracts us with his vile tweets.
5
Your front page stories today are about Trump’s vile racist slurs against four duly-elected women Congressmembers of color, and how Joe Biden turned from supporting busing to alleviate segregation oppose busing in 1974 (hey Kamala Harris, I also was part of that busing and saw first-hand what a horrible idea it was) instead of reporting Elizabeth Warren’s plan for immigration reform, Joe Biden’s plan to save Obamacare, Amy Klobuchar’s plan for seniors, Bernie Sanders call for a national emergency to address climate change, etc.
Each one of the Democratic candidates has offered progressive, mostly pragmatic, solutions to the most pressing problems we face - the very existence of the plans could provide a constructive roadmap to legislators who really cared about Americans instead - voting rights, election integrity, gun safety, and protecting democracy against internal and external threats.
5
"He is only saying what others believe but are too afraid to say, he insists": I have long been of the view that when voters on the right complain that they are offended by "liberal elites" telling them what to think, that this is what they mean--they are tired of being shamed for their racism. And so they love Trump for saying the quiet parts out loud. A number studies post-election indicated that the "economic anxiety" that was supposedly the motivating factor behind his support was in reality subsumed by ethno-nationalism. The irony is that as the old Republican politics of continual grievance morph into the Trumpian politics of racial hatred, those who complain they "no longer recognize my country" will be right--the US will look more like Orban's Hungary than the City on the Hill.
6
Actually what Trump is saying is exactly what Republicans are saying behind closed doors and what the GOP in the House and Senate truly believe. America is sinking downward very quickly. And even if elected officials don't agree with the four congresswomen he assails, they should at least have the guts to defend their right to say it without being told to leave the United States. Unbelievable GOP!
8
My direct ancestor, Thomas Stone of Maryland, signed the Declaration of Independence. He is rolling over in his grave right about now.
I am tempted to ask Mr. Trump and all his supporters to kindly get out of my country, to go back where you came from.
But that would be stooping to their level.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
6
Is it possible that one of the Congresswoman Trump insulted may well be able to trace her origins in the US further back than Trump ? Maybe Trump as the newcomer should be going back ?
5
Trump’s mother immigrated to the US from Scotland. We don’t want him here but surely you don’t want him there!
1
Mr. Baker is wrong on only one count. It's not kerosene, it's gasoline. That's why Trump is the worst President since Jefferson Davis.
I wrote a long time ago that it only took Mussolini, a man of similar appetites, two and a half years to overthrow Italy's fledging democracy. It is taking Trump longer because our institutions, the courts, the House of Representatives (Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues have castrated the Senate) and the 1st Amendment are far more resilient than Italy's back then.
But he will succeed if Democrats and progressive independents don't get their acts together. Nancy Pelosi made the only mistake of her Speakership by personally attacking the "Squad" personally. Trump's attack on them has afforded his opponents the opportunity to kiss and make up. Take it or take the blame for another Trump victory.
3
It's time the Republican Party takes an official position on the words of Trump. It must denounce his words or endorse them. What is it Republicans?
6
Trump tells them to go back to their countries and then return. Does anybody know what was his purpose in asking them to return?
1
He continues to dismantle US democracy and functionality.
5
The only situation where I can imagine myself saying something like "go back to our country" is where someone from another country to whom the host country has offered safety commits acts of terrorism. I believe that France, for instance, has a right to strip those of citizenship who commit acts of terrorism on its soil. This is a very special case, however. Trump is saying something very different and very hurtful: if you disagree with me, you are being unpatriotic, and, ergo, you must prefer and side with the country you left to come to the U.S. My parents were immigrants and they had Americans tell them "to go back to their country." They never expressed opinions critical of the US., except privately.
3
I remember the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s coinciding with the race riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit to name the most notable, then the assassination of MLK in April 1968. By the 1970’s, with the Baby Boomer generation coming of age, there seemed to have occurred a turning point in this country as to how people’s general attitudes about race had turned more positive. Notwithstanding the bitter school bussing programs that ensued in the 1970s, the bottom line was the Civil Rights movement had made its point and was working through American society in changing hearts and minds in a positive way. By 2010, some 50 years after the Civil Rights movement had struck its stride, there was hardly a peep of any story that America was still a “racist” country. The culmination of the Civil Rights movement was the election of Barack Obama, an event that showed the greatness of this country that despite its past history of slavery, racial segregation, and discrimination, the country elected a person on his merits and ideas and not for the color of his skin.
The paradox is that it was during the Obama term, race became a divisive issue again in America. What I see are politicians, primarily Democrats, pushing identity politics, which surely uses the race card when convenient, as a fall back to stay in or regain power when at the same time, their ideas on policy and moving the country forward, lack any substance.
People know better! It will not work in 2020!
2
To think this is rash or uncalculated is shortsighted. Trump knows what his base likes. He knows what keeps him at the center of attention. He’s obsessed with ratings and his perception. He’s learned long ago that being associated with racist demagoguery seemingly won’t hurt his electability. He has learned how to transcend the cautions that held back other political figures. Trump chooses to tread that line because he can always fall back on his own lack of knowledge with long-standing decorum and also his willingness to state he’s the only one willing to fight the political correctness that has taken root in America. He doesn’t care about you, he doesn’t care about these congresswomen. He only wants to fan the flames as Peter Baker points out so he can continue to enrich himself in the glory of his supporters.
4
@Patrick Newton For all we know about Trump's real position about making those tweets, maybe something is happening with the investigation of his pal Epstein that will be brought to the country's notice on djt guilt.
3
As long as Congressional Republicans have no courage to react to the many ridiculous things POTUS says, he will know no bounds. Where is Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy and their minions? How low can the political establishment be, which has become self evident.
2
When is Mr. Trump going to tell the hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens who have overstayed their visas in the U.S. to go back where they came from?
I'm waiting.
5
The word "racist" has lost much of its impact not least because it has been tossed around by Democrats not only at trump and republicans, but also at fellow Democrats, implied if not expressed. What trump has done with this latest act is so much worse than spouting racist rhetoric that its hard for me to wrap my head around it. The president divides the country and incites his supporters when the very people he attacks already are experiencing death threats. He very likely further endangers their lives and tears the country apart all for the sake of politics, for the sake of winning the electoral votes in two states he must win and for returning the House to republican rule. Please tell me what word describes a man who can do this. Racist simply doesn't reach that far.
1
I believe Germany has some problems with Russia regarding a gas pipeline - a matter Trump takes much interest in. Maybe he should go back to the country where he came from and help out?
5
I wake up each morning with a Trump headline on my phone more sickening than the one that came before. I had hoped he would eventually hit a low point, but Trump has proven that there is no bottom to his immorality and depravity. This nation will not recover from the damage done by this man in my lifetime.
7
Well, if any good can come out of Trump's ugly statements and desperate attempts to divide this country, let's hope he unites the Democrats and motivates the Independents to vote democratic with a capital "D"
5
You forget President Obama’s response to Ferguson Missouri as well as to other incidents where people were falsely accused of being racists. That fanned the flames a great deal. You just don’t remember because, just as Trump can do no right, Obama could do no wrong. But he could and he did.
1
All of the rationalizations provided by his supporters are obviously attempts to find excuses for what is inexcusable, and is therefore as reprehensible as Trump’s comments themselves.
There is a clear, bright line that distinguishes these sorts of vile ideas: it is inexcusable to blame other humans for traits with which they were born. Anyone who does so is, quite simply, wrong, and not only wrong, but vilely and inhumanly wrong to the point of immorality.
So here’s a partial check list for the morally impaired: skin color, not wrong; birthplace, not wrong; kinky hair: not wrong; birthmark, not wrong–the list could go on, but the idea should be clear.
While it seems clear that Trump is a longstanding racist, what makes this whole debacle even worse is that it is a calculated maneuver on his part to drum up support by appealing to his supporters’ baser instincts, and quite simply reflect a self-evident bias that demonstrates Trump’s unfitness for office. Of course this is not a new tactic for a politician, but, as with all of his lies, the transparency with which he purposely and openly transgresses appropriate behavior for political gain makes him particularly shameless.
As a country we can survive Trump, but for our reputation to come out on the other side, we need to repudiate him as clearly and as soon as possible.
4
I heard that sentiment expressed often when I was younger and living in an ethnic neighborhood. It wasn't directed at me, but at blacks when they'd say "Go back to Africa." I just can't believe that in 2019 we have an explicitly racist president.
12
@AlNewman
I have never heard anyone say go back where you came from, fix the problems and then come back to lecture us. In my view, this is an appropriate response to someone who is lecturing others but knows little.
2
@AACNY, Trump was merely encouraging them to hone their skills to more effectively put them to use back here in America. His comment was for their sake, if anything coming at the expense of Lebanon and Sudan.
Of course Trump is a bigot and racist. He showed everyone who he is two years ago when he came down the escalator at Trump tower. He made racist remarks about Mexicans. He showed his racism when he persisted in asking for President Obama's birth certificate. When he discriminated against black people in his housing developments 50 years ago. I could go on about Trump's racism, but I think he will step up these disgusting statements and policies as the 2020 election gets closer.
He clearly is firing up the 30 or 40 percent of voters who support him no matter what he says. You can see some of them at his rallies, cheering his stupid, bigoted, speeches, and believing every one of the thousands of lies he tells. He makes these horrid inflammatory statements on Twitter to gain maximum effect. We can expect more of the same as the next election approaches.
I hope all who recognize Trump for what he is will get out and vote!
23
Since the women he dissed are all anti-American in both deeds and thought, I support the President's comments MUCH more than I sympathize with those females.
7
Of course you do. But like being in Florida in the dead of summer, you got it backwards. The not white Congresswomen who traitor trump slurs with his racist slander and whose loyalty you unknowingly question are the heroes in this scene. Your boy is a bad racist. Those among his followers who are sentient know this. If one were to support such a racist, then maybe, just maybe, that one has some reflection yet to do. Just saying.....
3
@Lee Selkirk
Trump is anti-American. Doesn't pay taxes. Doesn't pay his workers. Doesn't reimburse for money owed. He launders money. Has allegedly raped and assaulted women. And you're defending him?
4
Good thing Trump never attacks America, its government, its military, its Press, its citizens, and our allies, huh?
4
If this is who Republicans protect and endorse. And it clearly is; the Republican Party is a minority and is dead. Game over!
12
Obviously Donald is a racist. I'm sure most of his base is too. Donald controls the narrative everyday with his disgusting tweets. At the same time he is locking up babies at the border, undoing everything our bi-racial president accomplished like health care, environmental regulations, and nuclear treaties only because he was not white.
The man is opposite what he says. Not best, but worst.
16
But at least he doesn't want to give free healthcare to illegal aliens. I don't get free healthcare, do you?
"He bashed the presidential hopefuls that year with trademark Trump braggadocio. Pat Buchanan was a “Hitler lover”; Al Gore was an “anointed” leader; George W. Bush had substandard business skills."
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/business/media/03trump.html
Looks like Trump is an equal opportunity racist...he even goes after white men.
Back in 2012...the media called this behavior "trademark Trump braggadocio".
The same Trump behavior today is called "racism".
2
Did he imply that Al Gore was not American?
He did not. He reserved that *particular* braggadocio for a black man who happened to be president.
2
First off, a question: have ANY of these four women said anything worse about America and Americans than Trump? Trump, who told us that we’re falling apart? That our military was decaying and its leaders couldn’t be trusted? That our intelligence services were filled with liars determined to destroy him? That our President was from Kenya and hiding his allegiance to Islam? That we were filled with illegals and everybody but him was too lazy and weak to do anything? That one of our war heros was a loser, that the parents of a KIA officer were sneaks and liars, that a decorated combat vet was a crook and a liar and a conspirator?
Thought not.
And then a statement to anybody bloviating about how this isn’t racist, and Trump’s not a racist. Sure. Right. Bet you say different at home when you’re cheering this clown on. Bet you’re happy to throw crud at black people, gay people, women, whoever, and then bellow how unfair it is that you can’t say it like a white man usedta be able to do. Bet you’re happy to see brown kids in cages.
Maybe he’s not a racist. I doubt it, but maybe. But he sure says racist stuff, he sure builds his ideas around race, and he sure hangs out with racists a lot, like the creeps he just brought to the White House.
And David Duke, the Daily Stormer, and the rest of that ugly little brigade seem pretty sure.
So whyn’t you just own it?
24
@Robert: About your comment, believing Trump is a racist; but hoping he isn't ,despite saying racist things, some food for thought; "If it walks and quacks like a duck..."
2
Warning to today's Democrats. Your Utopian idealism and circular firing squad will result in defeat in 20/20. We are in a very unusual circumstance. The focus must be to defeat Trump. period! That is the only objective that matters.
Look to the example of the choices FDR had to make to win the second world war, most specifically having to ally with history's most prolific mass murderer Stalin in order to defeat Hitler and the Axis powers. That was his only purpose.
Medicare for all might be morally right and aspirational but timing is everything. That is not a winning issue now.
Focus, focus focus!
7
Like Charlottesville, this will be out of the news by next week: UNLESS, instead of Nancy just issuing mild rebukes on Twitter like she did, she immediately put impeachment up for a vote today, based upon the president not being fit to serve. Why wait for Mueller, the grounds for impeachment are already in his report, and now we have the “new normal” of the President of the United States spewing racial hatred on social media as if he’s talking about a golf game. And on Monday, blaming the victims to boot! Typical white supremacist trope.
4
To paraphrase Phil Ochs:
Here's to the land
You tore out the heart of.
Donald Trump go find yourself
Another country to be part of.
23
Show me a person that has never experienced real life with minorities and i'll show you a man full of misconceptions and prejudices towards minorities. The only people that are uncomfortable with people of color are people that haven't experienced people of color. In NYC it's cultural racism and in the rural areas it's just skin color. When those racism's meet.....God help us all....next will come the arm bands.
9
The resounding message from the quiet majority of Americans come November 2020 should be: “Mr Trump, please, go back to where YOU came from”.
17
Enough of the analysis! What are we to DO about this, this ...
[can't think of an epithet that's not already been overused to no avail]?! Gimme some action! No more hand/word-wringing! Let's get him on 5th Avenue with his gun and have someone else take him down. I know, I know ... Pence is worse ... so what? Deal with that brand of unfittedness when we get to it. We let DT get ever more outrageous to what tipping point? What if election day 2020 is as disappointing as the Mueller Report was as any kind of saving grace? Where is our collective laser focus to zap him and other anti-compassionates into their own universe?
Or ... is this a clever tactic to egg us on to MORE outrage and push our morals to the limit? Is he saying, "I dare you to stick up for yourselves!"
10
The most vile behavior. But it demonstrates he's "good" at one thing.
8
Roll out the Trump supporters saying "I wish he wouldn't tweet so much" in the same way other people say "I wish he knew how to use the right fork."
This isn't about etiquette or good taste: it's about raw racism. All the white nationalists and Klan members who support Trump know that. It's time we all admitted it to ourselves.
Either it bothers you or it doesn't. If it bothers you that Trump says non-white people who were born in this country should go back where they came from, vote him out. If you don't, then it didn't really bother you all that much, did it?
And don't spend the next 18 months trying to conjure up reasons why the Democrat is worse. You already told yourself that fable once. But the odds that the Democratic Party could nominate two human beings more horrible than Donald J. Trump are longer than the odds that you will win the lottery at the same instant you are being hit by lightning.
20
@Bill Camarda
Another day, another hit piece on Mr. Trump from Charles Blow and more comments from HIS base. This is not a "turning point." Mr. Blow: No one is happy without a delusion of some kind and this is yours. Mr. Trump's poll numbers are actually up. And keep in mind what happened in 2016. Many of those surveyed earlier didn't admit it then. . . but voted for Mr. Trump when it counted. Voters you don't convince see the following scenario: Decriminalizing illegal immigration, providing them free health care, not requiring they learn English as a first language (see Theodore Roosevelt's statement about this while welcoming legal immigration). . .and the following statistic is always left out but voters aren't blind. Wait for this. . .each illegal immigrant public school student costs taxpayers approx $12000 per year. If they finish--and many don't--that's $48000 in just that one category. Under the Democrats our country would be overwhelmed with illegals given those incentives. Many voters will hold their noses and vote for Mr. Trump on that issue alone. Your columns not only don't make a difference. . .they convince fence-sitters to vote the other way.
@Irving Nusbaum You may be right that Trump will be re-elected. You may also be right that Democrats are playing into his hands by allowing him to position them as supporters of open borders.
None of that has a thing to do with whether it's despicable to tell people "go back where you came from" when they were born Americans and have lived here all their lives. Or whether you and I as individual American citizens should tolerate Trump's constant, increasingly rabid promotion of racism.
I recently finished a remarkable book: The Nazi Conscience, written by Claudia Koonz in 2003. There, Koonz describes how the Nazi party and its non-Nazi supporters in academia and the bureaucracy gradually convinced the broad German public that Jews and other groups it hated did not deserve to be included in the "volk" -- the "people." That the Nazis' victims had behaved in ways which *required* them to be driven from civilized society -- even the aged and infirm and children amongst them. That those people were a parasitical infection on the body politic, and *whatever* was done to them was done in legitimate and necessary self-defense: they had it coming.
That's how Trump talks about non-white immigrants -- and not just "illegal" ones. Trump may indeed prevail, as you suggest. Winning won't make him any less despicable, or any less destructive of what has made America at its best a truly great country.
2
"His Twitter harangue goading Democratic congresswomen of color... shocked many."
No it didn't. It's completely expected. Where have you been for the past 2.5 years? You're not much of an analyst Mr. Baker if you truly believe that. I stopped reading after that, because the premise is beyond flawed, it's inane.
4
As a Black American Trumps words are more than offensive to me they lose an immediate existential threat in an era where unarmed black people are being murdered in the street for such offenses as p!aging rap music or asserting their constitutional rights to police officers. If anyone needs to go back to where they came from its the racists.
8
Trump is such a racist and a liar! Somalia is a great country. Its government is among the most honest and competent. Crime is low. The people there enjoy the highest standard of life and are the longest lived in the world. We have a lot to learn from them. I am so glad that Ilhan Omar is here to help guide our transformation into a new and bigger Somalia!
5
Yeah! Trump is a stable genius! He’s incredibly competent! Nobody in his Administration is corrupt! He’s solved North Korea and Iran!! He’s cut the defict and debt in half!! He’s...he’s fixed our infrastructure and our health insurnace!!! The Truth about how he won the Medal in Vietnam has finally come out even though The Media blocked it!! He beat up Chuck Norris!!! He’s a good speller!!! We now have eighteen people on the moon, all white men, and Obama never did that!!!
And he’s not a racist!!
2
The change has to begin with white people. When your racist uncle, friend, Republican president says these things, they have to be held to account. Too often and for too long, whites who object to this kind of language have sat by quietly while the racists among them spread their hate and assert their power. Imagine the world we would live in, if there was consistently real accountability for spreading this racist and misogynist ideology. SMH
7
It’s not limited to whites. But, As far as white bigots are concerned, the outspoken are fools who are too ignorant to understand, and those who retain racial perceptions are mostly doing so unconsciously. It’s not a simple problem to correct.
Maybe Trumo's racist Twitter storm was meant to hijack the news cycle.
His pervert pal Jeffrey Epstein was in court this morning for a bail hearing. The judge wisely postponed it until Thursday to let victims who were in the courtroom speak before making a decision.
11
Trump is not only fanning the flames of racism but has committed treason with assistance from his buddy, Putin. Nancy Pelosi needs to begin the impeachment process regardless of the outcome. She is allowing this idiot to be above the law.
12
The utter vulgarity of Trump is allowed by the Republicans, because he is the pit bull holding their fragile world together. The all white male one percent who just got the all time best tax cut ever, including the end of the death tax, will fight to the bitter end to maintain their total dominance of this economy.
Why is anyone surprised about this? this vile game has been going on since the dawn of time. If you think their are better angles out there in the Republican party you have deluded yourself. Wake up America the one percent are fully in control and will fight dirty and do anything they have to to keep the power. Their ultimate fear is being in the gutter with the little people, that they so despise.
The racist in the White house, only sees his fortune growing and not fully aware of his place, in the lowest end of the one percent. When it all comes down Trump will find the people he helped will turn their back on him in a New York minute.
8
No, I disagree.
Trump reflects the frustrations of patriotic Americans regardless of their ethnicity. It has nothing to do with race.
A strong reaction from a frustrated leader to senseless, immature and incendiary behavior by minority women even if they are elected to the US congress (from gerrymandered districts, of course) is not racist. That reaction is simply an attack on stupidity.
12
@Appu Nair
"Patriotic" is the last word I would use to describe Cap'n Bonespurs.
From his venom directed to the Intelligence corp of this country, and his hatred of half of the citizens of this country - the women, to his protection of grown men who abuse and rape children, then I haven't a clue why you would use the word "patriotic" to describe that man.
Patriots don't abuse kids.
Any kids.
36
Wrong on the facts.
12
1) say that you are right. Is the correct answer that the President says something even less mature? Is that how we roll now?
2) Only people with certain looks are ever told to go back where they come from. Looks - skin color - racism.
12
I was in college in 1969. I walked in Civil Rights marches and protested the Vietnam war, and lost my elder brother in to that war. I also sat in my parents living room and listened to my (racist) uncles talk about MLK Jr. One of their favorite ignorant slams was “they (meaning black Americans) should go back were they came from”. Usually one of them would conclude “we should help them go back to where they came from”. When I attempted to enter the ‘conversation’ I was laughed at and told to go do the dishes. Racism and misogyny go hand in hand.
It was so bad my mother and father finally informed them that the way they talked about people other than whites (they used all the racist ugly words for anyone who was not white) was not to be used in our home. They didn’t even understand why someone who was ‘white’ would object.
I thought those days were over. Who would have thought that such ignorance and hate would actually come from the White House? I wake up these days and feel like I am in a time warp- it seems we are moving backwards. I just hope this is the death rattle and not a resurrection of those horrible, divisive, hateful days.
Resist. Vote.
1455
I credit my racist relatives with helping me to be the liberal thinker that I am. Even as a child, with little direct exposure to African Americans, I knew that no group of people could be as bad as their slurs and comments made them out to be. In my high school years, I argued vehemently with them about this issue and Nixon. It probably changed no minds, but I could no longer be silent in the presence of such language and vitriol.
116
I thought those days were over as well. A joke I heard was racism was unpopular until Obama brought it back. It was a snide way of using their blame game against a black man for the racist retaliation we see.
And Trump was very much a part of that racism with saying Obama wasn’t born in the US. He obviously will use this for anyone he desires to attack. And republicans support it through silence.
103
@Sheri Delvin Well said, thank you for exposing the racism within your family which is a reflection of the whole country where unrecognized racism is alive and functioning.
70
I am an 84 yr old, white southern. Born & raised in Alabama & have lived & worked in Georgia app. 60 yrs. The most heartbreaking of all of Trump & his devastation to our country, has been the numbers of people who actually support & endorse his words & actions.
As a retired RN who lived through these years of civil rights issues, I thought that as a country, we had gotten past much of our racists hatred!
I have lost family & friends, because I am considered a "flaming liberal". And it grieves me greatly, to come to the end of my life, that we are back to the days (born 1935) of segregation, & racial hate.
2625
As someone who has also lost those close to me due to trumpism, I sympathize.
But take heart, the fight is not yet lost and you certainly will have some bright uplifting years ahead of you...just get those votes!
251
@graceD.
Wonderful post. Thank you!
166
@graceD. We are the same age, and i have been a passive even righteous liberal Yankee most of my life, until Coates stirred me. And I have learned among other things that schools in the South are more integrated than in the North. There is a lot of warmth and kindness in the South thanks to people like you. Please accept my admiration and consider me a friend.
208
It is telling that Theresa May, who has nothing to lose, issued a statement from 10 Downing Street saying that Trump’s remarks are “totally unacceptable”. Boris Johnson, who may well have something to lose, is mute. This seems to be the model. Trump’s racism is bred in the bone. It has been apparent since he bought billboards to denounce the Central Park Five that he is a through-and-through racist. The sad part, of course, is the enthusiastic support of his base and the acquiescence and cowardice of the Republican politicians. Trump has revealed the toxins that are usually hidden in the American body politic and deepened divisions between people to an extent that reminds me of the two nations that co-existed at the time of the Civil War. He has no sense of history and is dragging America backwards to something very dark indeed.
795
@Geoffrey James
Interesting that such remarks of great disdain have emerged from England's Prime Minister but not one peep from a single member of the GOP.
97
"... the toxins that are usually hidden in the American body politic ..."
There are no "toxins". Political conflict has existed from before the founding of the United States. Read the Declaration of Independence.
"... the two nations that co-existed at the time of the Civil War."
Some people vehemently deny that the Confederacy was a "nation".
And the combatants certainly didn't "co-exist" in the sense of "liv[ing] in peace with each other especially as a matter of policy" (merriam-webster).
2
@VPW, the toxins that are being exposed today are a far cry from the political toxins of the past. Today we know better than to promote racism but Trump hasn't received (or read, or paid attention to) that memo. In the past, political disagreement didn't mean claiming the opponent was bad and evil. Unfortunately, that is what is different about today.
18
I don't agree with what Trump said, but I also don't really care.
Truthfully, these representatives consistently give ammunition to Trump and his ilk, so they did it to themselves.
Folks like "AOC" don't help the democratic party. If anything, they're helping ensure that Trump wins in 2020.
62
@M. Noone: AOC is a pardigmatic representative of a gerrymandered district, where voters the Republicans don't expect to vote Republican are concentrated.
6
@M. Noone Well said! That his vile tweet should merit several front page headlines is more a reflection of the media that revels in such nonsense. It helps their bottom financial line. Also, AOC (and representatives) implied that Speaker Pelosi was racist. So it's odd that they should complain now.
14
@M. Noone
Really now? Trump was like this long before "AOC" was born. What was his excuse then? Overtly discriminating against Blacks trying to rent apartments owned by himto the point of being fined millions of dollars?
Taking out full-page ads calling for the execution of 5 innocent men; and still after exoneration- never apologizing? Calling Black people, "Low IQ", stupid, dumb, ugly...."
There's a 50 year long trail of racism.
But it must be comforting living in a vacuum of ignorance waiting just to blame one 29 year old female for Donald Trump's behavior.
22
Trumps barker-like reflexive claim to be the "least racist" is disproved by his lifetime of racist words and deeds, but now he can cause direct harm to all Americans that believe in justice, freedom and fairness. It was only a few years ago when "values" were elevated as a measure of politicians and candidates. Many Americans believed that meant morality: honesty, integrity, committed work, community service, and respect for all people and for the law. Republicans then injected an anti-feminist, anti-gay, anti-education, anti-government hybrid of negativity, distrust, and pessimism into our politics and have been running on it since 1980. Candidates tell the voters how great they are and enrobe themselves in an aura of success and authority with money pumped into their campaigns by wealthy donors, the only voters they need to win every election. We have elected men and a few misguided women who worship wealth, power and authority over freedom, justice and fairness at every level of government, controlling positions of power to act against the interest of all Americans while they dismantle the few remaining protections most of us take for granted as the club of 5 Justices do every day, throwing out precedent at will, gutting voting rights pronouncing racist exclusion solved and forced arbitration just and fair. I used to believe America would become more free, more equal, and more just but our love of country has been replaced by the worship of wealth, authority, and power.
521
@marksjc
Let us all work to make sure the pendulum swings back to
the American values like truth, justice, inclusion in 2020!
21
@marksjc
Worship of money (wealth) being first and foremost.
9
How is it that America embraces the racists as Omar, AOC, and the others in the group of unpatriotic, unappreciative, negative, women. They hate Nancy Pelosi and this country. All of them are highly dangerous; they are not role models. This is the caliber of people Congress attracts.
7
This is the result of blindly voting by party line.
Or is everyone who voted for Tliab also anti-Semitic?
3
Trump is the virulently anti-American one, and the true anti-Semite as well. Being critical of Israel does not make you an anti-Semite, and being a pal of Israel’s right wing does not make you a friend of the Jewish people.
4
@Jan
Are you listening to Tucker Carlson?
Tucker Carlson’s Attack On Omar Is a Pack of Racist Lies
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/tucker-carlson-ilhan-omar-immigration-racist-lies-debunked.html
Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately.
Maybe that’s our fault for asking too little of our immigrants. We aren’t self-confident enough to make them assimilate, so they never feel fully American. Or maybe the problem is deeper than that, maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours. Who knows what the problem is, but there is a problem, and whatever the cause, this cannot continue. It’s not sustainable.
No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive. The Romans were the last to try that, with predictable results. So, be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. She’s a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we better change our immigration system immediately, or else.
President Trump is absolutely right in that “the 4” are virulently anti-American and 2 of them are unabashed anti-semites.
Strategically, he should have just sat back and just enjoyed as the 4 race-baited and attacked Pelosi. But he’s like the scorpion in that tale...
10
@JQGALT
Not supporting Israel doesn’t make people anti-Semitic. The Palestinian lady likely has a story to tell and Jews should embrace her and listen instead of join in as you do.
Also if we treated Jews or Gypsies as we are treating migrants on the border what would the world say? Just for a second call them Jews and ask is this okay?
5
@JQGALT
Wanting better for your Constituents doesn’t make you ‘anti-American’ but makes you American.
As for the ‘anti-Semite’ part, you seem to have no problem with the rampant ‘anti-Semitism’ coming from the 45th on a daily basis, not to mention the Republican Party, but appear to believe in the media’s ‘caricature’ of the two from Mich. and MN due to their race.
Quite frankly, your ‘unabashed’ Islamophobia towards these 2 women seems quite apparent, to say the least.
7
You’re unaware that this country was founded on a bill of indictments against this country and its King, and that “unabashed,” means completely open to the point that you’re stomping down the street with tiki torches chanting, “The Jews will not replace us,” then?
2
What is truly shocking is the deafening silence of the Congressional Republicans following the president's racist remarks about at their 'colleagues across the aisle.' I was brought up to believe that our leaders had the duty and obligation to lead our country and make it better, even if they disagreed about the ways and means. Instead, they seem to be so frightened of their 'base' that they have abrogated their responsibility to lead. They follow from behind, keeping their heads down and hoping that one day this will all go away. By their continued silence, they disgrace their office and betray us all.
1991
@Robert Brenneman
Why is this shocking? The Republicans have demonstrated they will not "betray" Trump since inauguration. What's shocking is the lack of a unified response from Democrats capturing the media. Their complacency and ineffectiveness allows Trump to control the narrative. Democrats need to try something new and bold. They should consider appointing a Press Secretary. Someone charismatic, smart, funny, articulate. Perhaps Stacey Abrams? Every time Trump lies or says something appalling (and this will be every single day), this Press Secretary will hold a press conference. If this Press Secretary is compelling, she will grab the attention of the media, and thus, the nation.
184
@Robert Brenneman
They know these are effective tactics and Trump is in fact a stable genius. He knows how to win. He knows what he's doing. He knows his supporters very well. He understands the reptilian brain and the needs and desires of his mostly frightened white base. He's good at this. Turns out a conman with a history of selling shabby products to the gullible is the leader the Republican Party wanted. Truthfully he's only removing the veneers. Republican strategy since the mid-60s has been, Come to daddy. He'll protect you from all the scary black and brown people. It works!
99
@Robert Brenneman
Sadly I am not shocked by the GOP silence. I remember Newt Gingrich shutting down the government to stop a middle-of-the-road Clinton agenda, an extremely popular one. John Boehner vowing that Obama would be a one-term President b/c he would oppose Obama at every turn. Obama too was not a progressive, he was a liberal at best, trying his best to find common ground with the GOP for the good of us all, only to watch the GOP get more obstructive. Now we have Mitch completely and smugly refusing to allow even bi-partisan legislation come to a vote-come to a vote! No, but he has removed the entire judiciary as a fair and reasonable body. Even the 9th Circuit, the last "liberal" circuit is backing extremist GOP politics. These judges can't be voted out of office, they're young and biased. And that's just the beginning of our Republican problem.
142
Honestly? Wow. I sincerely wish that the American people as well as American politicians will start to hold Trump accountable for this nonsense. This is NOT what the United States of America represents to me and hopefully the majority of us. I have never been a fan of Trump, but reading this article jogged in my memory all of the instances when Trump has been racially offensive, and when reviewed simultaneously, it becomes pretty obvious that he is undoubtedly racist. Is this who we want to represent our country for us? Do we want this man to be a role model for our children or even for adults? Furthermore, his playground tantrum that demands that these congresswomen "go back," to their countries of origin needs to be countered with a collective "Go back" to the business world and out of the White House.
859
@Catherine Graciano He was an awful businessman with multiple failed businesses and unpaid workers. I'd prefer that he just go hang out on his golf course and eat burgers. Or move to Russia.
71
@Catherine Graciano
Totally agree with your thoughts.
I also believe the media, needs to stop with the coverage of any/all of Trump's hate spewing rallies. This is NOT news but just promoting his vile, evil agenda via press coverage & free publicity. I'm tired of hearing his hateful rhetoric everywhere. Those of us with a conscience, morals, ethics honesty & integrity know what's right. Trump & his GOP followers aren't going to change their views based on press coverage. Trump is like an uncontrolled, undisciplined monster child who gets his way. More publicity equals more outrageous tantrums/ behavior. The majority wouldn't tolerate this with children.
Twitter must also be held accountable for allowing his racist, bigoted, hateful, intolerant, misogynistic, sexist words.
This is the downfall of American democracy & we must stop it before there's nothing left.
43
@Catherine Graciano The 2020 election will show whether he is or is not what the USA represents. We will find out. It's horrifying.
33
I'm still not sure he is a racist. But I am sure he is too often a buffoon. He's the noisiest person the room. The one my folks used to describe as "empty barrels make the most noise". When he makes these all to often shoot from the hip remarks it makes me feel embarrassed about the man in the White House. The man who arguably has the most important job in the world. The man I voted for. I thought at some point he would learn to shut up instead of feeling the need to always be on the offensive. Wrong again. He can't help himself.
169
@Charlie
Sorry. Not buying it.
And I suggest you look a bit more closely into Donald Trump's past before letting him off too easily.
Start with the "Central Park Five".
277
@Charlie What was it about Trump that made you think he was fit to be president? His multiple bankruptcies? His well-documented molestation of women? His ignorance of statecraft and policy and foreign affairs? His bottomless narcissism that endlessly reveals the emptiness of his soul? His ceaseless cruelty and divisiveness?
Fortunately you have a chance to redeem your mistake by voting AGAINST him in 2020.
372
@Charlie - You lost me at, "The man I voted for."
99
The targets of Trump’s comments insult the USA, insult foreign countries, attack the President, and attack other Democrats. They are examples of what Americans need. We need to vote for more Democrats like them.
3
Trump is right. It has become fashionable with liberals and new immigrants to wangle as much sympathy as possible for illegal aliens. The hard working Americans pay taxes which go to support illegals. For example it is common practice for an illegal to go to ER when he falls very sick. The hospital cares for the person without charging a penny and they care for him till he is well enough to leave. These are very much American values of compassion and caring. But everything has a limit and illegals should be identified and deported
10
@Yeti
But it's their country that's paying for the wall, isn't it? Oh, right . . .
1
@Yeti
Sorry -- this is about four Congressional representatives being assumed to be born in some other country simply because of skin color.
Not about immigration at all.
13
How can you justify... His recent insults to Congresswomen???
5
It is evident that the rancor of the presidential Tweets has escalated. There are no filters. The virulent expressions of his personal opinion continue unabated and are noted around the world. It is unsettling to observe that he apparently has become unstoppable as he is met with silence by supporters and by those in government. Though the press continues to expose these challenging statements it is a singular force against a mighty power.
7
Trump has accomplished the unthinkable
America is in the midst of a civil war.
And there will be no reconstruction this time.
9
Since our executive branch has turned into a pre-k, I say we give everyone there a nice long timeout. At least 15 minutes. If that doesn’t work, no milk and cookies for a week! Can’t think of anything else right now. Does anybody have a suggestion?
4
@Very Confused
There might be some of you that think that 15 minutes is not very long for a timeout. But for a 70-75 year old toddler who is in an early stage of brain development, it can feel like a very long time. I’ll leave it up to their mothers and nannies to decide what is appropriate.
2
USA is marching towards a civil unrest and many credible reports even predict second Civil war, if this political polarization and administrative dysfunction is allowed to continue.
This long emerging story basically the unfinished job that is lingering since our first civil war with very abrupt and politically motivated end of post civil war reconstruction, which basically allowed Jim crow era in South and many other places as well. Influence of religion (read, Christian Fundamentalism) was nice and shrewdly mixed with White Supremacy not only enabled it to survive but also helped it to thrive politically- by both the parties. Then Regan's Crony capitalism actually added more fuel to this deadly fire that ultimately enabled Trump to beat all other mainstream GOP politicians and hijack the party and then exposed the dark underbelly of America's corporate democracy, as we see today.
5
Right-wing political violence has been surging for years, according to our own federal and local law enforcement agencies. The immediate and grave danger Americans face is from the right, from Trump supporters and people even more reactionary.
2
I spent this weekend in Georgia and listened as some longtime friends rationalized Trump's behavior. While they admit what he says or does isn't something they necessarily support, they don't like the alternative either. Much of what they know is parroted from conservative media and they readily admit that its mostly opinion reporting, not actual news. But they also see virtually all the other news outlets doing the same and find it too confusing to sort out the truth. As age 60+ Americans, they long for the days of responsible newsmen and women who tell it like it is, but see little evidence that anyone is doing that. They find that the PBS NewsHour comes close, but still tend to gravitate to messages, factual or not, that appeal to their beliefs.
That suggests an absence of critical thinking essential to making sound choices for America. Accepting fiction as fact and assuming fact is fiction is destroying us. Americans are distracted by nonsense and name calling, while our focus on important, consequential issues that affect our international standing, national safety and overall security are left wanting. Until Americans set their standards higher by demanding accuracy from our news sources and truth from our leaders, China and other nations will continue forward, bypassing a distracted America. Then, and only then, maybe we'll have a chance to remain the country we admire and want to be.
5
Critical thinking from media outlets? That went out the window with the bathwater the day Trump announced his candidacy
1
I’m saying this with love.
I think and your friends should begin by looking at how the president can’t seem to ever tell the truth and how he “defactualizes” facts. Just because the PBS News Hour doesn’t allow his lies to stand as facts does not make PBS news reports less fact based.
Excusing President Trumps behaviours makes you all complicit in RACISM and LYING. At what point can people who “wish” Trump would not engage in this behaviour, need to admit that they support INSTITUTIONAL RACISM? Today would be a great time to stand up.
1
It is almost impossible to believe that what is happening in the United States of America is not a bad, bad nightmare.
I didn't live during the reconstruction era in this country but I've read history which tells me that what is happening now happened before. Currently there is so much blatant racism with every effort to turn back the clock on gains to uphold human-rights it's scary.
How on earth can a person elected to be president of the "Greatest Nation" speak in such derogatory term to the citizens of that nation and the elected officials around him stay quiet.
If America is the "Greatest Nation" you uphold the dignity of everyone including people running to you for refuge, you don't treat them like sub-human, you don't call them derogatory names.
It is appalling to put it mildly how this person (I find if difficult to call him president) is destroying the institutions that Americans thought were so strong. He has shown us how easy it us to manipulate these institution using archaic laws to bamboozle his way to get what he wants.
Most recently the courts upheld gerrymandering in North Carolina, with all it's implication to undermine the voting rights of its citizens. When you see stuff like this happening you know for sure that this is the Republicans agenda to pack the courts with judges who will give them what they want....But you know what, I believe there is a God and it will eventually backfire on them.
1
We will never know just how many of the vile trump's base actually approve of his racism, but the excessive pandering to that so-called base must stop. No one who proclaims to be an "American" can be believed to be such if he or she also sides with racism. We are a diverse nation and becoming more so. All of us need to embrace this diversity becuase this is who we are... and we should be proud of that fact.
5
NY TIMES Please Help Us Define "Racism".
I believe we need to engage in a national discussion in which we define the word "RACIST" together. Based on what I'm reading, many people appear to be operating with different definitions. The majority of us have probably never really analyzed and personalized the term RACIST. As long as we have a fluid definition of Racism we are likely to miss the opportunity to come to a national place of reckoning with our past and present.
Here is part of my definition of "Racism":
Sadly, for many of us, when we look inside with honest intention, we see that sometimes we have "Racist thoughts". How could it be otherwise since we live in a racist world? Not being Racist, to me, means examining the categories in your own mind based on race and being open to growth.
I hope that others agree that this nation - right now - will benefit greatly from a national conversation about the definition of "Racism". Continuing to hurl the term at each other without a concrete definition is deeply problematic and risks actually deepening racist divisions.
3
@Burton S the best way to understand racism is what a lot of people refuse to do - be quiet and listen to people of color without judgement or personalizing what they hear.
1
Let's not forget that the reps are also women. Another group that gets under DJT's tissue-thin skin.
8
Trump is simply leveraging the dispute between Pelosi and the four representatives. And what I can see on Twitter, it’s working- as Pelosi is being raked over the coals even today for her critique of the Reps. I wish people would stop with the face palming. It’s calculated, effective attack against not only people of color, but more strategically the Dem party and its constituents. I hope folks will unite against Trump despite this hideous move to undo all of us who oppose him.
1
The President who vowed to "make America great again," continually demonstrates how little he knows about it, and where some of its citizens were born.
3
Trump supposedly strikes back if he is confronted with disfavor, which makes it all right by his Republican supporters. Yet, we have seen Presidents mostly take disagreeable treatment with grace and forbearance, since George Washington. Trump reacts like a school boy in some highly violent community where not retaliating makes one the target of bullies. He reacts without thinking because he rarely acts with any concern for consequences. It’s behavior which is not acceptable in a civil society. He’s not a responsible leader and he is creating problems for everyone with his poor conduct.
The Congress members who were the targets of his wrath are critical of him and of a lot of things with which they see as unjust. They are young and inexperienced and not a little self righteous, but they are fulfilling their responsibilities as representatives of their constituents. They are acting within the norms of a liberal democracy, although not nicely. That does not make them right but it does not mean that they do not belong in the country of which they are citizens.
Frankly, I am amazed at how many of those commenting on this news analysis veer from the point: that the president of the United States has stooped to obvious racist criticism of elected leaders he disagrees with. The point is not whether "the squad" has foolishly provoked Trump, whether they have created problems for the Democrats in 2020, or whether Trump is personally a racist. The point that needs to be addressed is how the Democrats and fair-minded others are going to make sure that such a divisive, destructive person is separated from the powers of that office. The wrongness of Trump's remarks must not be forgotten and must be keep in the public eye until November of 2020.
4
Social media and politics -- worst combo ever. I've grown to dislike the tweets from the squad almost as much as I can't stand daily rants from Trump. I do agree with Pelosi - get off Twitter and get back on strategy and leadership.
1
I'm sure the President realizes that tweet was wrong, and hopefully one of his braver staffers is also underlining that for him this morning. But, where is he to go with all his bridges burned behind him, and knowing that an apology will get him nowhere? Hopefully this will generate some opposition in the Republican party to his re-election and give him a serious primary challenger (Mitt? Jeb? Graham?). This would give the party a path away from being on that ledge with Trump, and force him into the political dustbin of history.
Here's the big picture:
Rubert Murdoch likes making money. He does that by getting advertising dollars. He gets those dollars with high TV ratings. He gets high TV ratings by targeting right wing customers. He gets them to watch by being divisive, going low, and appealing to their worst instincts (racism, xenophobia, etc.) This is his business model that he's employed in three countries (Australia, UK, US). Everything you see here (Trump and the corrupted GOP) is a consequence of that.
5
I actually don't think Trump hates people due to their skin color, background or gender. The bigger sin is to show unhappiness with his leadership, and to question what he is doing.
I absolutely think we need a better process for immigration, and I think Trump is trying to fix that. I think he sincerely believes in his path- stop the influx by making it miserable. I think he underestimates what the immigrants are going thru in their home countries- they are fleeing rampant murders and starvation, so a detention camp with a space blanket and bologna sandwich isn't a deterrent when your other option is your kid murdered or starved to death.
He can't look objectively at the success/impact of his policies and lashes out when others do. Throw in the overly dramatic liberal reactions to any issue and you have a perfect storm of hate and anger.
I don't think his comment is similar to a racist telling someone to get out; I think his comment is his fragile ego unable to communicate with people who disagree. You can educate a racist and change their views, but there is nothing you can do about a narcissist.
The best way for the left to deal with Trump is to ignore his outrage and continue to move forward developing policy. All it does to fight back is making him more explosive and outrageous, and make his base dig in that much deeper.
There will come a day when Donald exits the office. Every morning, I say a little prayer that today will be the day. But whatever unfolds, I console myself with the knowledge that we are at least one day closer to the end of this sociopathic all about me regime. The international vandal.
When Donald returns to life as a private citizen, he’s going to find it awfully hard. He’ll likely be banned from Twitter for some racist rant. He won’t be able to summon anyone anywhere. No one will come to his rallies because he won’t have enough dough to rent an arena. He will be the most reviled man in the world, hopefully serving a prison sentence. That keeps me going.
4
Here’s what Nancy Pelosi should do: 1) Take a group photo with the squad in front of Lincoln Memorial, presenting unity. 2) Introduce a resolution into the House of Representatives that demands an apology from the president. 3) Make the Republicans vote on the resolution.
1
Trump wants us looking at this instead of the Epstein/Acosta mess. He is a master at distraction, but he is just too predictable.
3
Mr. Trump's comments are unacceptable. He is no longer a billionaire civilian. He wanted the job of the presidency and god help all of us, he has it. If he is unable to comport himself in a manner consistent with being a world leader then he should resign. I for one have had enough of his antics and cannot wait for his removal from office by whatever legal means. He is disruptive and his government is destroying the democratic fabric of this nation. Frankly, I'd like to see him indicted and thrown in prison as well as removed from office.
3
Trump is setting the table for the election with this; that's why he's doubling down and that's why Repubs aren't saying anything. Yet again, Party over country. He's baiting the Dems and they--we--are taking the bait. He's making Omar et al and impeachment the face of the Dems for the election.
STOP reacting to his trash; it's strategically exactly what he and the Repubs want. Listen to Pelosi.
1
Does this latest episode really surprise those of us who are thinking, informed humans? The good news is that most of my intelligent friends who voted for trump won’t vote that way again. They voted for him solely because they assumed that a trump presidency would shake up Washington enough so that our elected “leaders” would actually lead. Sadly, they were mistaken. Now, trump’s base consists of simple-minded folk who just love to be told how to think and feel because they have a difficult time making those decisions on their own. trump is the presidential version of rush limbaugh and as the latter has proved for the decades he’s been doing radio, the easiest way to rouse that group-think type is to say aloud all the things that they are thinking but dare not say in public. In 1865, when the Civil War ended it really didn’t. trump has become the de facto voice for the remnants of the confederacy. Imagine that - a presumably wealthy, New York con-man with the demeanor of an oafish playground bully, finally giving the rebels that which Robert E. Lee could not deliver. History is trying to repeat itself, but with a different outcome, and it will take a fully concerted effort by people of conscience to overcome the evil that is at our nation’s door. Without that effort we will lose the country we know and be relegated to history’s hall of shame alongside hitler’s Germany and mussolini’s Italy.
Ponder that my friends.
2
Your so-called intelligent highly educated friends are the problem for the Democratic Party . It’s called errogance and it’s hurting you and if you think you’re not helping Trump, you’re wrong.
Here is the true test of whether we are racist or not. Gandhi said, "All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family." Anyone who does not in their heart embrace that belief is, at least to some degree, racist.
4
Trump appealed to racists and won in 2016. He is doing the same thing now hoping to secure another 4-year term. It will be up to the Democratic Party to get out the voters and defeat this racist very unpleasant man and keep him limited to a one-term president.
3
Unfortunately, you can't respond with the same insult to Trump and his followers. They believe in their hearts they are the Real Americans and that anyone different from them is here only with their sufferance and should be grateful to them.
If you want to insult Trump and his followers, don't tell them to go back where they came from. Instead, question their intelligence. Tell them they're gullible and naive. That's what they're defensive about.
3
In addition to the silence of Republican leaders, as well as those in Congress, is the Groundhog Day of surprise and shock coming from Democrats, the press and readers’ comments here.
How can one forget this man peddling Birtherism? His dog whistle comments about Mexicans? The mother of a Muslim Gold Star family? Megyn Kelly? Praising Neo-Nazis in Charleston?
It’s high time Americans and the free press acknowledge this man’s statements and beliefs, as well as his administration, his political party and its policies as being all about racism, misogyny, xenophobia and white male supremacy.
2
To all of you who seek to quiet the “squad”, in favor of party unity and the defeat of Trump, over, say, telling the truth, consider Senator Lindsey Graham. In 2015 after Trump announced his candidacy, Graham said this about Trump;
“Trump is a race baiting, xeonophobic religious bigot.”
In 2016, after Trump had campaigned for many months, Graham said this about Trump;
“I think he is a kook. He is an idiot. I think he is unfit for office.”
In service to the greater good of the party and unity, Graham was prevailed upon to shut up and get behind the President. Just look where that has led the country and the Republican Party.
3
I guess you might say all this is useful because it shows who we really are. No point in pretending otherwise any longer.
3
As President Trump steadily adds to his odious list of racist taunts, nativist fulminations, and ugly outright lies what stands out to me is the chorus of silence among Republican leaders. No matter how low Trump goes in his un-American tirades, the current representatives of the "Grand Old Party" lie low and keep mute. Let me suggest a title for a future history of the record of the contemporary Republican leadership--"Profiles in Cowardice".
9
In 1965, the author James Baldwin offered the following conclusion to a speech he gave before the Cambridge Union:
" It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. And until that moment, until the moment comes when we, the Americans, we, the American people, are able to accept the fact, that I have to accept, for example, that my ancestors are both White and Black. That on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity for which we need each other and that I am not a ward of America. I am not an object of missionary charity.
" I am one of the people who built the country–until this moment there is scarcely any hope for the American dream, because the people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence, will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West. "
This statement concluded Baldwin's debate against William Buckley on the question before the house whether "The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro." Buckley's counter was weak, condescending, and within seconds of his opening statement provided all the evidence anyone needed to confirm that where race was concerned American Conservatism was still anchored to the Dred Scott Decision of 1857.
Baldwin received an unprecedented ovation from the Union Hall; the final house vote tallied 540-160 in Baldwin's favor. Over 50 years later we still need his message.
9
Donald Trump said he loves the uneducated- and it shows.
Sophistry is too highfalutin for what Trump is doing. He's just giving *his people* their daily-bread.
7
The Democrats resort to their go to strategy when they have no substance.
You will not succeed in a winning the immigration debate by simply labeling Americans opposed to illegal immigration as racists, which has been the Democrats’ whole argument. And it is weak.
You will have to win this debate by convincing us why illegal immigration is good for us.
Congress should not just shut up and finally do something about it.
1
2020 and America's future will come down to this:
How will WHITE people respond to Trumps racism?
Pundits can talk about everything else, dissect the eletorate, parse candidates bonafides, etc.. but the answer to this question will determine the fate of this country.
2
The Trump life....grabbing the spotlight, period. Hasn't it always been that way? And everyone including the press responding, to his inner satisfaction. A lot of average people I know basically stating it's nauseating. That is, Politics in general. To think we have about 15 more months to go till the Presidential election. The longest campaign in the world x 10. That I'd venture to say the masses who are supposed to be served by the whole thing do not even want. More civic erosion ahead. Trump-World so disspiriting and cynicism-inducing.
The problem with Trump's tweets isn't that he's a racist (though he certainly acts like one). The problem is that he's the President and as such, he is signalling to the racists here and elsewhere that it's safe for them to speak and act in ways that have previously been condemned. An even bigger problem is that this kind of playing to a people's base instincts while roundly ignoring (as a leader) the country's laws and mores is a tactic used often by fascists and other ugly strongmen. I don't understand the foot dragging on the part of the Republican party: do they really value the short term gains they're making over the long term damage they're allowing to our country and their party? Have they no decency at last?!
8
@Dan G it's obvious to me at this point that the GOP has no decency what so ever!
1
Same old same old. In Nixon's time, it was "Love it or leave it, you stinking hippies!" Extremism is as American as apple pie. Trump rips the patina of exceptionalism from this preening country. The country didn't abandon that hate with Nixon; it simply picked a more genial messenger of division, whiteness, and resentment in Reagan. Trump is its ultimate open expression.
6
There is no question that President Trump’s remarks were demagogic and bigoted.
But there is also no question that Representative Omar’s earlier remarks about Israel and American Jews were prejudiced, dishonest, and mendacious.
Both should be condemned.
5
@Michael Richter: Sorry but while politically unwise, everything Omar said about the State of Israel and the blindness of American jews is true.
1
Trump is simply doing the only thing he has been doing since he became president: run for re-election. Although he is undoubtedly a racist, his bigger goal is to push the Dems as far to the left as possible to ensure another term. For once can the Democrats be smart and reign in their own extremist tendencies and unite to dethrone a despot? I admire AOC's willingness to go toe-to-toe with a seasoned liar, but she is only one voice out of hundreds of legislators.
1
I don't understand
should trump and his ilk also leave America and go back to where they came from including the racists
after all America belongs to the native Americans, not to the whites not any colour
so how can trump claims this country to be his own?
and as to the migrant crisis in the South, America must open its borders and accept it's responsibilities for meddling in the affairs of central America by supporting dictators and making these states weak in the backyard of America through interference
for all that I detest about Putin, he does have a point , America did and continue to meddle in affairs of other countries and in state building, once u broke it, u own it
Actually America doesn't belong to anyone. We are all just guests here on this Earth and have made a mess of it.
Democrats are the flame retardant needed to extinguish Trump and his continuing heated flames of racial fire.
His latest words of hate and intolerance are all the more reason and justification as to why he MUST be defeated in 2020!
8
These 4 junior congresswomen show an alarming degree of political naivete.
While I loathe Trump in every waking moment, and the GOP along with him, I also loathe poorly thought-out 'feel good' extreme left liberalism. The only difference between the two is that right-wing extremism is cynical (and evil) while the left wing is simply extremely misguided.
Trump IS wrong about most things. What he is not wrong about is that family origin countries of these women are largely disasters. This isn't racist, but factual. I work in a latin country which is, environmentally, a disaster created by their own people. Criticizing that isn't remotely racist.
Faux patriotism is the refuge of GOP scoundrels. Yelling misogyny and racism in response to every single problem is the refuge of far-left scoundrels. It is the reason Democrats do not currently run the country, giving the opening to weasels such as Lyndsey Graham to run-off at the mouth yet again.
5
Trump is just egging the NYTimes and CNN, yes we all know what he. Is and what he was saying was racist. How can we get so worked up day after day over his vulgarity. Please CNN and NYTimes don’t give him any paper space and no news time, he is just eating this up. On a second thought how many times can he rile up his base before they get totally bored with TSOS.
3
The print media are doing great with lists trying to keep this criminal bigoted president contained. NYTimes keeps track of legislators who support impeachment. WaPo tallies lies. Fivethirtyeight keeps track of approval polls with their “poll of polls.”
May I suggest some enterprising investigative journalist could also pick some of the most ugly presidential tweets then track which legislators either openly support, silently support, or oppose the tweet’s ugliness? Seems like an objective way to flush out just where candidates, nominees, and other leaders stand on the issues.
While 43% side with the Dopey Don no matter what, I have to believe each of these putrid messages creates a deeper separation between true believers and those right-leaning independents who *don’t* want to be thought of in the same terms as the wannabe dictator.
1
Dear Republicans,
Mr. Trump has eventually turned on everyone who has ever supported him. Most of his cabinet members. His building contractors. His first two wives.
It's like the scorpion and the frog. It is his nature.
You are naive if you think he won't turn on you.
---
First they came for the Mexicans, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Mexican.
Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Muslim.
Then they came for the Democrats, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Democrat.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
6
Divide, conquer and destroy. These are Putin's goals for America.
6
I believe Trump is racist. But I think that's besides the point. I believe his delusional narcissism is the dominant feature of his personality and his presidency. His politics are 100% opportunistic: whatever gets and keeps power is useful to him. I think the racism and cruelty reside in his staff and alt-right support network -- notably Stephen Miller. Trump seems willing to say or do anything to stoke his base and preserve his delusions of grandeur. He is entirely incapable of appreciating the Dunning Kruger nature of his incompetence.
5
The GOP might as well call itself the White Nationalist Party. Trump is just a summation of what his supporters think but don't say out loud. They have Trump to do that for them coupled with an unethical political party hell bent on a power grab. Meanwhile billionaires buy campaigns and politicians and the corporate media run by billionaires fund millionaire pundits to espouse their political propaganda whilst the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Incredibly referring to the left wing faction of the the Democratic Party as radical for proposing what other countries who by the way have a higher quality of life consider just normal practice. America is on a slippery slope and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where this is heading. I can honestly tell you it is anything but great and if you don't believe me just read your history books.
2
Lindsay Graham, in his fawning, disgustingly submissive style, just chimed in in support of his master's slurs, calling the four Congresspersons "communists'.
They're democratic socialists, not communists.
The man lost every last ounce of spine he had when McCain died.
20
Trump's racism was established decades ago when he and his dad declined to rent apartments to black applicants here in New York (for which he they were duly fined by the authorities). His racism is matched only by his misogyny which is matched only by his misanthropy which is matched only by his xenophobia which is matched only by his Islamophobia which is matched only by his transphobia which is matched only by his stupidity.
17
I will comment with two quote, hoping the NYT will not censor them.
"It's more important to be morally right than factually correct." - Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, US representative.
"It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance." - Thomas Sowell, African-American economist.
5
@Evelyn S.
But Trump supporters have no problem supporting a compulsive liar. Got it.
Speaker Pelosi says AOC, Ilhan, Ayanna Pressley
and RashidaTlaib “have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
Very disrespectful.
And according to Liberals, racist.
2
II believe his incendiary, aggressive, stupid comments excite his supporters. That Trump is racist has never been a secret- his fans admire his refusal to be "politically correct:" He tells it like it is!" I think many would read this article as laudatory. Be careful, NYT-
2
Boo hoo hoo.
At what point will people tune out this guy. All the -- predictable -- caterwauling from the Left and the Pavlovian, pearl-clutching media responses simply give him more oxygen. He thrives on such disruption, on keeping his opponents off-balance.
Learn to brush it off, and move on -- nothing will rattle him more. It takes courage to do that, folks.
4
Of course Trump is racist. Pretty much ALL while people participate in and benefit from racism, so we all have at least one "racist bone in our bodies" and many of us have more.
What Trump is that most white people are not is a out-and-out bigot.
5
No president has stoked such racial divisions as Trump has.
No President has tried to alienate allies, especially the UK, as Trump has.
No President has shown such admiration for autocrats like Putin, Ben Salman, Kim Jong Un...who are notorious for trampling on human rights.
No President has so openly attacked and degraded anyone, who shows 'one word' of disagreement with his inane decisions.
No President has forced so many Cabinet members to leave his administration, in such short order.
A true malignant narcissist!
16
The UK spied on the Trump campaign on behalf of Clinton. We don't need. friends like that. Five eyes is just set up so they can illegally spy on each other with zero accountability.
@Christian Estrada - but wait a minute. Are you saying that the U.S. shouldn’t, and perhaps doesn’t have political spies imbedded within allied countries ?
@Kenell Touryan, one cannot stoke a furnace that's not already hot and on fire. All Trump has done is open the furnace door to let everyone see what's obvious.
With his racist remarks, trump is appealing to his base. His base consists of 40 million plus people. It's very good for the rest of us to seriously consider why racism and anti-foreign prejudices have
persisted for so long in a nominally democratic country.
Can it be the schools in so many parts of our country pay little or no attention to rectify those atrocious ideas from the past? Why should a poor white person in the South hate blacks? Is it because he is taught from birth that blacks are inferior and is his chief enemy in securing employment?
in arousing the general population to how far the nation has degenerated toward racism and anti-liberal bias, trump may, if and when he is dispensed with in the next election, have actually done the nation a benefit.
7
As the Trump Influenza spreads, keep in mind Trump is the trademark and product of the Republican Party. He is fully warrantied by the GOP, so if you haven't been sickened enough by this man, they have plenty more waiting in line.
Every Republican candidate for office - who does not honestly, firmly and repeatedly denounce Trump and all he stands for - carries this stain and stench with them.
The only thing that can kill this deadly virus is your vote.
23
The fact is that we, people of color, immigrants, are never good enough no matter what. We can achieve as much or more than a white person and there is still doubts. Pelosi, catholic Maureen Dowd, and others exercise the same logic on us. Are they racist? I don't know. Would they pass on us for someone that looks like them, YES.
3
I honestly didn't think my opinion of Trump-loving Americans could get any lower. I was wrong. And polls show you're likely to re-elect this despicable human being next year? There are no words.
21
The silence of the Republicans is an endorsement of Trump's racist tweets. In not saying anything they're implying that there's nothing wrong with his racist tropes.
Trump's words, the Republican party's refusal to condemn them and Twitter's refusal to ban a president who is tearing apart the moral fabric of our country is deeply disturbing and dangerous.
9
Excellent column on our racist president. Let’s clear-up the fact that President Clinton was a racist. No comment on him as you cited the racially sensitive acts of previous presidents in a second paragraph. Just think that to overlook President Clinton right now says something, too. Thanks.
“Go back where you came from” shows Trump’s true colors(no pun intended). The rest of the tweet is just subterfuge.
5
The NYT used to make the basic distinction between News and Opinion. That seems to have ended as can be seen in Mr. Baker's article. Read the first sentence: is it news or fiction? Was Baker in the president's bedroom, reporting on the "Great Awakening?"
When Trump and his gang talk about "fake news," a topic on which they are expert, the Baker article just reinforces the claim. Baker's piece belongs in the OPINION section, not in the NEWS section.
2
So sad. I have to choose between this guy and the Marxists that are usurping the Democrat message and image. I used to think they were just "Let's tax everyone more so we all have healthcare" socialists but I'm now convinced they are "Government control of the means of production" Marxists. Have we learned nothing? Government is a necessary evil, not your benefactor. It is too prone to corruption and must be restrained. No, this will only lead to Civil war and bloodshed. Marxism is inconsistent with human nature and has never worked. So who am I supposed to choose? Democrats, please nominate a boring centrist. Please!
2
@Sci guy: With your saying that Government is not our benefactor, you recycle President Reagan's saying that "Government is the problem."
Do you wish for us to return to a medieval society? Lawless?
I look forward to your sole financing your health care, police protection, fire protection.
Too bad that Trump has fully come out of the closet as a racist. But in addition, Ocasio-Cortez and friends are helping Trump to find his voice, connect and ignite his supporters, and magnify his chances for re-election next year.
By overplaying and aggrandizing race & Trump, those four are undermining America.
Donald Trump is a racist. So let's stop beating around the bush with this coy "is he or isn't he?" merry go round!
More importantly is how Democrats chose to respond. Stop rising to all the bait he puts outhere. Sure, answer back when he says such repugnant things and counter his reprehensible actions. But Obama's manner of response seems, at least to me, a more appropriate manner or response instead of the expected outrage which only feeds Trump's base. Outraged faces and discombobulated expressions are exactly what he and his Republican allies want. They live for this. It's a circus and in that arena Trump excells.
Instead Ms. Cortez and the other aggrieved/insulted Representatives should discern themselves through the legislative work on behalf of their constituents and the rest of the voters they need to attract if they are to defeat Trump in 2020 and perhaps even get back the Senate. By the way this goes for the rest of the Democrats in Congress as well, not only the members of the so-called Squad. So far I am afraid they haven't succeeded.
Unfortunately instead of a coherent and unified vision which the Democrats need to put forth to voters, they only show themselves divided, infighting and quite adept at dolling out invectives and reciting slogans. That is exactly in tandem with what the Republicans expect and want.
I wonder, hasn't anybody heard about "divide and conquer"?! Because they is exactly what Trump is doing to the Democrats...
6
The President of the United States has made Twitter a medium of his hateful, racist views. Trump’s views are not very different from those of White Nationalists whose Twitter accounts have been taken down. Why is Twitter still allowing Trump to use it for his hate mongering? Twitter would do a great service to the nation by taking away his access to it.
4
I hate that everyone is jumping on this "story." Didn't you read your own coverage of Trump's social media summit, where he explained how he uses tweets to do an end run around the professional news organizations and forces them to talk about what he wants to talk about?
Likewise, all the Democrats re-tweeting his tweet and talking about how awful it is. Didn't you guys learn anything from Hillary 2016? He's dog-whistling to his base (the lunatic fringe), and you're helping him spread his message.
Also this weekend, thousands of American took to the streets to protest concentration camps on the border, and there's not very much media coverage in major news outlets. Check out USA Today if you don't believe me that it happened https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/nation/2019/07/13/lights-liberty-protests-around-country-against-ice-migrant-actions/1720696001/
6
Here’s the thing: Thinking, educated, moral old-school Republican or conservative voters already know the guy is repulsive and impulsive. They are willing to put up with it, though, because they want to be rich. That means being on his side—rich. The white/male/straight part isn’t really what they care about.
2
What have we as a nation become. To allow such a serial liar to be our POTUS. His latest remarks are grounds for treason. (the definition of treason is there for all to read) He is betraying our country by not representing all the people and instead intentionally dividing the people for political gain. Plain and simple.
He needs to go and take his 3 little helpers (Pence, McConnell and Barr) with him.
4
Peter Baker perfect.
Putin, Trump and McConnell playbook use of hatred, greed and racism to conquer and divide. Trump is indeed Putin's puppet.
Republican party (Adversary) particularly the Senate cult(unwitting agent) are destroying our democracy by focusing on their party and not our country.
3
Although I know in my heart Trump to be a racist (not just his words today, but just look at his past in business/rental policies), I look at his tweet about going back to your home countries as something else: you women are not qualified to help lead this country, so quit criticizing my genius policies. To his base, he would have them to believe that they in fact quasi-citizens and do NOT represent the citizens of our country (though they are charged with representing folks in their districts). Donald Trump is the guy at the bar who, after a few drinks, gets just lubed up enough to open that filter between his brain and his mouth and reveal what he really thinks.
2
A Russian Duma member sat in the Georgian parliament last month for a couple of minutes and it resulted in thousands of people taking to Tbilisi's streets protesting in outrage. Yet, our American president Tweets racist epithets, insults minorities, women and the disabled, abuses the press and cozies up to authoritarians on a regular basis and people go on about their lives with utter indifference. We deserve another four years of Trump.
1
Twitter needs to ban Trump asap. He's a very dangerous man who has just enough power to cause racial strife across our country. His flame throwing antics will only get worse. He's nobody special in my book. Ban that fraud in our White House.
5