Donald Trump racism continues, now anti-Sharpton

This 29 July 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

“This is not new”: How Trump’s Baltimore comments harken back to slavery

Two community leaders from Baltimore speak out against Trump’s recent barrage of racist tweets in his criticisms of Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings. In the tweetstorm, Trump called the city of Baltimore a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human” would want to live.

Dayvon Love, director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and Kaye Wise Whitehead, local radio host and professor at Loyola University Maryland, point out that Trump’s comments are nothing new. “It goes back to a time of slavery,” says Whitehead. “That is how Black people have been categorized in this country. That is at the root and heart of white supremacy and white nationalism.”

By Tom Hall in the USA:

Trump continues racist diatribe with tweets against Al Sharpton

30 July 2019

Donald Trump doubled down on his racist diatribe against the city of Baltimore with a barrage of tweets directed against MSNBC commenter and Democratic Party activist Al Sharpton.

Responding to a tweet Sharpton sent about his arrival to Baltimore for the previously scheduled Black Economic Agenda conference, Trump denounced Sharpton as a “con man” and “troublemaker” who “hates [w]hites and [c]ops.”

Pointing to his long association with Sharpton in Democratic Party circles in New York City (Trump was a long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, and even invited Bill and Hillary Clinton to his wedding), Trump declared, “Al Sharpton would always ask me to go to his events. He would say, ‘it’s a personal favor to me.’ Seldom, but sometimes, I would go. It was fine. He came to my office in [Trump Tower] during the presidential campaign to apologize for the way he was talking about me. Just a conman at work!”

Trump launched his tirade against Baltimore, which he described as a “disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess” that “no human being” would ever want to live in, after Representative Elijah Cummings made certain criticisms about the horrific conditions in the administration’s immigrant detention camps. He continued his attacks on the Baltimore congressman, combining it with anti-communist incitement and attacks on the press: “If the Democrats are going to defend the Radical Left ‘Squad’ [the four Democratic congresswomen targeted by Trump for special abuse] and King Elijah’s Baltimore Fail, it will be a long road to 2020. The good news for the Dems is that they have the Fake News Media in their pocket!”

Trump is operating with a definite political strategy. His social media broadsides against socialism, immigrants and impoverished majority-black urban areas are aimed at inciting violence from his right-wing base (who will no doubt respond in particular to Trump’s claim that Sharpton “hates whites and cops”). He is adding fuel to an already explosive political environment in order to legitimize dictatorial methods. This political logic has already been demonstrated by his threat to have Antifa declared a terrorist organization, effectively making it illegal.

The use of such abusive and crude language against political opponents has no precedent in the history of the American presidency. Such rhetoric will undoubtedly find an audience among layers willing to employ violence within the right-wing milieu that Trump has drawn around himself. This was exposed by the recent mass shooting in Gilroy, California, where gunman Santino Legan praised Might Is Right, a 19th century tract popular among neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

This danger was touched on in an MSNBC interview with Karine Jean-Pierre, chief public affairs officer for liberal activist group MoveOn.org. “I don’t know where Donald Trump wants to take this, but wherever it is, it’s going to be dangerous,” she said. “It could lead to some sort of horrible civil war. He is testing us. He’s testing the democracy. He’s shredding the Constitution.”

One possible reason for Trump’s decision to single out Baltimore for his racist diatribes is the fact that the House Republican Conference is planning to hold its annual retreat next month in downtown Baltimore. If Trump’s tweets provoke angry protests against the gathering, he could use this to justify a police-state crackdown. The city was already occupied by heavily armed National Guard troops in response to mass protests against the police murder of Freddie Gray in 2015.

Trump’s pick to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, the former GOP Rep. Jason Lewis, once used his radio show to proclaim “White Lives Matter” while pushing an argument about gun violence used by white supremacists, according to audio obtained and reviewed by HuffPost. [HuffPost]