Trump’s recent actions send a very clear and compelling message to anyone who doesn’t resemble him: I have no use for you, and I will destroy you.
Donald Trump has been on a tear recently with respect to desecrating societal norms and minorities. Recall that just last week, Trump managed to insult the entirety of Native American culture during a ceremony which was supposed to honor the Code Talkers, who helped the US military send and receive coded messages during World War II, by making a wisecrack about Elizabeth Warren — or, as Trump calls her, Pocahontas:
Native American groups have long objected to President Trump’s use of the nickname “Pocahontas” to deride one of his political foes, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
But even at a White House event specifically intended to honor the World War II Navajo code talkers — the heroic Native Americans who helped the U.S. Marines send coded messages in the Pacific Theater — Trump couldn’t resist.
“I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people,” Trump said Monday afternoon, speaking to a small group of code talkers. “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’ ”
The insult is widely considered a racial slur to Native Americans and at the very least is a great sign of disrespect. But as we all know, Trump feels no particular affinity towards anyone who isn’t a rich white male like himself. But, as it turns out, Trump wasn’t even close to being finished with our Native American population.
In Utah today, Trump signed two proclamations which dramatically roll back two national monuments in the state: The Bears Ears National Monument by roughly 85%, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 50%. The stunning rollbacks open up vast amounts of previously-protected land to development, including drilling for oil and fossil fuels. Bears Ears is considered sacred land by many Native American tribes. Bears Ears is home to over 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites, some dating to at least 700 years old. Eliminating Federal protections for this land is tantamount to stealing it from its rightful inhabitants.
Today also marked the much more formal endorsement of pedophile Roy Moore’s candidacy for the United States Senate. I was up on rare occasion before 7 AM this morning and saw this all over the news and my feed:
Trump has now put an official stamp on his approval of Roy Moore’s election to the US Senate, at all costs, regardless of what it does to his victims or to the moral integrity of the United States. The suffering of victims of sexual abuse is of no consequence to Donald Trump, because, as we all know by now, he is himself a sexual predator. Sexual predators have to stick together and have each other’s backs, especially when both have the potential to fill high-ranking positions in the US government. Trump’s endorsement is yet another insult to the mass of sexual assault victims by big names such as Trump, Moore, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein.
Recall also that last week, Trump retweeted — or shared, for those who don’t use Twitter — a series of largely-debunked anti-Muslim videos by the extremist group Britain First. The videos — which allegedly show Muslims either assaulting others or destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary — may even be fake; one has been proven as such. But this didn’t stop Sarah Huckabee Sanders from defending Trump:
“The president feels that bringing up important issues of our time like extreme violence and terrorism are important to do,” Sanders said during Thursday’s press briefing. “I think what he’s done is elevate the conversation to talk about a real issue and a real threat.”
Trump’s retweets of the videos drew an extremely rare condemnation from British Prime Minister Theresa May:
Speaking in Amman, Jordan, May said: “The fact that we work together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think that the United States have got it wrong and to be very clear with them. I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.
“Britain First is a hateful organisation. It seeks to spread division and mistrust in our communities. It stands in fundamental opposition to the values that we share as a nation — values of respect, tolerance and, dare I say it, common decency.”
The Sun has this to say about Britain First:
A far-right and British nationalist political party formed in 2011 by anti-abortion campaigner Jim Dowson and Paul Golding.
The group opposes mass immigration but says it is not racist but a loyalist movement.
They have held “Christian patrols” and “invasions” of British mosques, but have now been banned from entering any such building.
Its Facebook page has 1.9million “likes”, but their social media posts including praising a terrorist mosque attack in Finsbury Park, London, have attracted widespread criticism.
The group’s Twitter account is withheld in Germany.
And today, in a painfully fitting development given Trump’s affinity for Islamophobia, the US Supreme Court upheld the latest version of his travel ban, allowing it to be fully enforced even while appeals still work its way through the courts. Though a rare court victory for the administration on the travel ban issue, it continues the right-wing persecution of immigrants, and of minorities in general.
When one adds all of these to what we already knew about Trump’s racism from the campaign, the message is overwhelmingly clear: If you are not a rich, white male who worships Donald Trump and the conservative distortion of what it means to have Christian values, you are not wanted in this perverted version of America. Trump’s recent statements and actions, both on social media and in the real world, are also a threat to those who dare to oppose him and his agenda. Because to Donald Trump, nothing is sacred except himself and his brand. He has no qualms about using the full power of his office to utterly destroy everyone who is different than he is. I would send my own message out to the minorities of the world: Until we get rid of Donald Trump and most of the current crop of Republican lawmakers, stay far away from the United States. It is not safe. There is nothing for you here except persecution and ridicule. America is no longer a beacon of hope for those who live overseas and wish to start a new life here. America has become a corrupt cesspool of fear, hate, and oppression. The Trump Administration is out to utterly destroy the principles which have always made America strong, as well as the people who work the hardest to sustain her. The longer it takes for us to remove him from office and to punish him and his team for their crimes, the harder it will be to repair the damage they are causing. By the time they are out of office, it may be too late.