A New Trump Tweet about Elizabeth Warren Triples Down
This time with more ethnic insults.
Trump photo via AP/Evan Vucci | Warren photo via AP/Michael Dwyer
In a new tweet amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and after fresh scandal over interactions with Russia, President Trump once again turned his attention to Elizabeth Warren Sunday night, mocking the senator and possible presidential hopeful over her claims to Native American heritage.
The tweet includes a clip from the widely discussed Instagram Live video that Warren shot inside her home on New Year’s Eve, which featured her talking directly to voters, hanging out with her husband, Bruce Mann, and drinking a Michelob Ultra.
Relishing a chance to both point out the awkwardness of the video while also using more ethnic insults, Trump on Sunday night repeated his favorite insult for Warren, “Pocahontas,” and suggested sarcastically she should have filmed it “from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb.”
Trump appears to be referencing the sites of historic battles with Native Americans: The Battle of Little Bighorn was a clash between U.S. troops and natives in 1876 that is also known as Custer’s Last Stand (The Little Bighorn River runs through Montana and Wyoming), and the Wounded Knee Massacre was a confrontation in 1890 that left 150 natives dead (Wounded Knee Creek is in South Dakota). Both places are significant to Native American groups—Little Bighorn is now home to a popular memorial, and Wounded Knee was once the site of a 71-day occupation and civil rights battle.
This came not long after the president shared a “1/2020th” meme, an apparent joke about Warren’s DNA.
Warren this weekend was generating headlines during a swing through New Hampshire, where she pitched voters on a promise of “systemic change,” including legalized marijuana and closing for-profit prisons.
If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash! pic.twitter.com/D5KWr8EPan
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2019
Trump’s tweets also added some commentary about Warren’s dialogue with Mann. At one point in the video she can be heard saying to her husband, “Thank you for being here. I’m glad you’re here,” which Trump critiqued. “It’s their house,” he wrote. “He’s supposed to be there!”
Best line in the Elizabeth Warren beer catastrophe is, to her husband, “Thank you for being here. I’m glad you’re here” It’s their house, he’s supposed to be there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2019
Instagram Live has become a popular means for politicians to get free exposure to potential voters and as a way to humanize themselves while bypassing traditional media. The format lends itself to gaffes and weird moments, though, and it sometimes it goes better than others—a portion of live video of Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke getting his teeth cleaned went viral and was widely lampooned even though the clip had much of its context stripped away (he was interviewing a dental assistant about life in a border community) when shared on social media.
This appears to be the first time the president has weighed in on the phenomenon. Does he have a lot of other stuff to think about right now? Of course he does. Was the video in Warren’s kitchen old news by this weekend? Yep. But I guess he couldn’t resist getting some 2020 jabs in, even now.
