As most Americans already now know, President Donald Trump recently posted on his social media account a picture portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. Although the White House at first tried to blow off the anger over this brazenly bigoted image (which Republican South Carolina Senator called "...the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House") by saying it was just part of Lion King internet meme, the post was eventually taken down. Trump, as usual, refused to apologize for posting this image, saying it was the fault of an unnamed staffer.
While it's good to at least see the image taken down, this hardly should have been a surprise given the history of bigoted statements and actions Trump has taken over the years. Way back in the early 70's, Trump and his father Fred were fined by the Nixon administration for refusing to rent their properties to Black people. Years later, in 1990, he took out a full page ad slamming the 5 teenage boys (none of whom were white) who confessed to raping a woman in Central Park, New York. He even called for them to get the death penalty. When the five were later exonerated and released from prison, he refused to apologize. And, of course, his main entrance into politics came when he was still a TV star and he decided to latch on to the so called birther strategy, repeatedly saying without an ounce of proof that then president Barack Obama was not a legitimate president. And then in his first term, he infamously said that there were "wonderful people on both sides" about a white supremacist rally and again refused to take it back. And then in the 2024 campaign he latched onto an offensive stereotypical lie about Haitian immigrants in Ohio, saying that they were eating dogs and cats.
More recently, on December third, Trump went on what can only be called a bigoted, xenophobic rant about Somali immigrants, saying "we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.” and adding some cruel insults about Somali immigrant and House member Ilhan Omar, a frequent target of his hatred. Race, and again, hatred of Somali immigrants, was the main factor in his decision to send ICE to the city of Minneapolis; that decision came in the wake of an investigation into possible government fraud that was in progress in which 98 people, mostly Somali immigrants, were charged. Latching onto this investigation, Trump has had ICE specifically go after the Somali population in that city, even though, according to the Minnesota Reformer, over 90% of the Somali immigrants there are American citizens.
And Trump has continued his hateful tirades against Somalis; recently, while speaking on Dan Bongino's podcast, he said that "...we’ve got to get them out...Ninety-two percent don’t work." In actuality, according to the 2024 Census Bureau, only 28% of Somali immigrants are not working, but when has Trump ever let the truth stop him from building a hateful head of steam?
Really, racism matched with xenophobia has been the keystone for the entire Trump era of the past ten years, as he opened his presidential campaign in 2016 saying that Mexican immigrants were "...bringing drugs, bringing crime, they're rapists...", and has pledged to deport every undocumented immigrant in the country, stating offensive lies all the while. And as if there was any more need to see just how bigoted Trump's entire movement has been, look to the only group of immigrants that he has welcomed to the country with open arms: white South Africans that he claims are fleeing persecution in their country, even though there is no evidence of such persecution. (In an utterly cringe inducing moment, last year Trump berated South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House meeting, forcing him to look at what he claimed was evidence of White South Africans being targeted, even though that evidence was later proven as false according to the BBC News and other outlets).
Given all this history of hatred from Trump, is his latest example really such a surprise? If the video had been an isolated incident, one that he apologized for, it wouldn't matter as much, but it's really just part of a pattern of behavior that goes back decades. And, sadly, his bigotry and xenophobia is seen as good not bad by the Republican faithful. It's what they want in a leader.
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