February 9, 2019

Donald Trump Appears to Joke About Native American Genocide in Tweet Mocking Elizabeth Warren

A new low, even for Trump.

Chris Kleponis//picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

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Hours after Elizabeth Warren officially announced her presidential bid on Saturday, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to antagonize the Massachusetts senator. As he has in the past, the president referred to her as “Pocahontas,” mocking her claims of Native American ancestry.

But this tweet seemed to take his hostility to an entire new level: “See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!” he added, a potential reference to the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of Native Americans from their ancestral lands in the 1800s that led to the deaths of thousands of people.

Trump is known for being a fan of President Andrew Jackson, who supported the removal of Native Americans from their home. Trump has repeatedly referred to the late president on Twitter and put a portrait of him in the Oval Office. He also traveled to Jackson’s tomb in Tennessee after being sworn in. 

The Washington Post reported this week that in 1986, Warren listed her race as “American Indian” on a Texas bar registration card, continuing the controversy Warren has struggled to overcome for months. She revealed last October that she had taken a DNA test showing that she was between 1/64 and 1/1024 Native American. Last week, she apologized to Cherokee Nation leaders for “not having been more sensitive about tribal citizenship.”

Update: Donald Trump Jr. certainly seems to agree with the worst possible reading of his father’s tweet. On Saturday night he posted the following on Instagram: 

View this post on Instagram

Savage!!! Love my President.

A post shared by Donald Trump Jr. (@donaldjtrumpjr) on

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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