Donald Trump laughs about Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” in White House ceremony with Native American veterans in 2018
Insulting Democrat politician Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump throws a Twitter jab invoking racism and mass killing of Native Americans.
Warren formally declared her candidacy for the 2020 Presidential race on Friday. She promoted an increase in the minimum wage, Medicare for All, support of diversity and immigration, and advances in women’s and workers’ rights.
“This is the fight of our lives. The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone,” the US Senator from Massachusetts said.
Rather than responding to Warren’s policies or record, Trump — with a long history of deriding her — Trump tweeted about her claim to Native American ancestry.
Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019
Amid forced relocations of Native Americans, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee people were moved from the southeast US on the “Trail of Tears” between 1830 and 1850. Thousands died on the journey — in the Cherokee removal of 1838, prompted by the discovery of gold in northern Georgia, between 2,000 and 8,000 of 16,543 perished.
Far from retreating when the tweet was criticized, Trump’s family doubled down on the slur. Donald Trump Jr. responded on Instagram that his father’s insult was “savage”: “I love my president.” (On Twitter, perhaps realizing he had gone too far, Trump Jr. replaced “savage” with “amazing”.)
Trump Jr. also circulated a post that joked about “Native American genocide” which “continues with another murder by the President”.
Last year, at a White House ceremony for Native American veterans of World War II, Trump gleefully told them, “we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
Last month he tweeted, after Warren informally launched her candidacy with a home video, that she should have filmed it at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of an 1890 massacre of hundreds of unarmed Native Americans by US troops.
Trump’s “Vicious” Tweet Stream
Trump’s insult was part of a day of 14 tweets and retweets, many of them betraying concern over the Democrat challenge in 2020 — and of the Trump-Russia investigation that might prevent him standing for re-election.
Trump assailed the Democrats as “vicious”. He displayed nerves over the pursuit of investigations by the House Intelligence Committee, now that it is under Democrat control. He insisted the US would be in a depression if it wasn’t for his leadership, and then appeared to challenge a Republican-Democrat deal on border security — reportedly imminent — to avert another Trump Shutdown of the Federal Government on February 15:
The Democrats just don’t seem to want Border Security. They are fighting Border Agents recommendations. If you believe news reports, they are not offering much for the Wall. They look to be making this a campaign issue. The Wall will get built one way or the other!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019
TrumpWatch, Day 750: Congress Nears Border Security Deal to Avert Trump Shutdown
In a bizarre end to the day, Trump — a climate change denier — portrayed Democrat proposals on the environment as an abolition of services, utilities, and even cattle.
I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so-called “Carbon Footprint” to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military – even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019
