Donald Trump, a deeply disturbed man, and his son, a deeply disturbed man-boy, think it’s hilarious to joke about the forced displacement and genocide of thousands of Native Americans.
On Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched her 2020 presidential campaign in Lawrence, MA, a city of immigrants and textile mills, and the site of the Bread and Roses labor strike in the early 20th century.
In introducing Warren, her colleague in the Senate, Ed Markey, accurately observed that, “No one knows how to get under Donald Trump’s skin better than Elizabeth Warren.” Turns out he was right, although Trump’s response to Warren’s speech, which he delivered hours later via Twitter, was even more disturbing than anyone could’ve guessed.
“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President,” Trump tweeted. “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!”
Trump, who toured President Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee plantation two years ago, idolizes the country’s seventh president, a staunch advocate of 19th-century policies of “Indian removal.” That entailed the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans in the 1830s from the southeastern United States. The forced migration, in which thousands died, many from horrible diseases, became known as the Trail of Tears.
“Inspirational visit, I have to tell you,” Trump said during his visit to the plantation on Jackson’s 250th birthday. “I’m a fan.” He added, according to The Washington Post, “They say my election was most similar to his.”
The implication of Trump’s all-caps use of the word “trail,” in case it needs to be spelled out, is that the president would “massacre” Warren in a 2020 presidential race like Jackson massacred Native Americans. Haha.
At least one person—Donald Trump Jr.—thought this was funny. DonJ shared his daddy’s tweet on Instagram with his own bit of racist humor, chiming in with the comment, “Savage!!! Love my President.”
We all know Trump and his family are a bunch of racists—they’re not just pretending to rile the MAGA base. It’s real. But they have reached a point in which this racism is so brazen that the president of the United States and his son are openly spreading racist jokes on social media.
Twitter’s rules governing abusive content state:
Abuse and hateful conduct
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Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Read more about our hateful conduct policy.
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As of this writing, Trump’s tweet is still up. Worse, he’s still in the White House.