Donald Trump has tried to present every critique, every dissenting voice to his presidency and to his actions or inaction, as a form of “sour grapes,” or as a way to cover up for what he presents as Hillary Clinton’s “embarrassing” defeat.
That trend continued this morning on Fox & Friends as Trump addressed charges made by Jimmy Kimmel and others that he is a racist. He said, “Whenever the other side is losing badly they pull out the race card.”
"I can't [take racist accusations personally]…I have to write it off as purely politics." –@POTUS pic.twitter.com/vxSM1ztsVu
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017
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And as he always does when forced to talk about anti-Semitism or racism, Trump launched into a spiel about his win, as though it is somehow an answer to the charges:
“The fact is, I did pretty well, better than past people in the Republican party in the recent election, having to do with Hispanics, having to do with African-Americans. We did pretty well or I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Instead of asking Trump how this is in any way an answer to charges of racism because, in fact, Trump did not do well with either Hispanics or African-Americans, Brian Kilmeade asked,
“You don’t take it personally?”
“I can’t because I take it as a very serious violation when they say it and I have to write it off as being purely politics.”
Of course, he does take it personally, very personally indeed, as when he told off a Jewish reporter at his press conference, saying, “See, he said he was going to ask a very simple, easy question, and it’s not…Not a simple question. Not a fair question.â€
That is taking it personally. The fact is, Hillary Clinton won the election and even Trump’s electoral win was one of the historically lowest. Clinton did better with minorities but Clinton had neither the FBI director nor Vladimir Putin in her corner.
He can claim it’s “purely politics” that these questions crop up but they are in fact good questions that arise out of his own behavior.
Donald Trump is very sensitive to suggestions that his presidency is not legitimate because he knows he is on very thin ground and just one independent investigation away from being kicked back to Trump Tower.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
