Shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and...
Hard to imagine anything much weirder than wanting to present oneself as racist in front of an African-American journalists association. Pretty much guaranteed to get a hostile reception when you do that.
He literally set the tone right from the start of the interview. "You are (women, black, minorities, insert slur of choice here), and you are to be put in your place. I am better than you. I am above you. And I will treat you accordingly."
And he did that multiple times through the interview. When talking about Harris being a "DEI Hire", not only did his answer seem to side with racists, but he attacked the interviewer. When being asked one question he didn't like, he responded by randomly attacking one of the other interviewers about absolutely nothing in particular. Even when one of them started kowtowing to him, he still attacked her over random "equipment issues" that she had nothing to do with. When trying to get the interview back on track, he snapped at one and told her no, he'll do what he wants.
And one of the things that I noticed that made me particularly uneasy. At the end of the interview, one of the interviewers tried to ask about Project 2025, only to immediately be cut off by another interviewer "per the Trump team." There could be a scheduling reason if they ran out of time, but go back and watch it. It's at the very end. It gives off the impression that under absolutely no circumstances was Project 2025 to be discussed, based on Trump's demands. That's very unsettling.
And honestly, I don't even think this was ever supposed to even appeal to black voters. I can't see a single minority watching that interview and saying "Yup, that's my guy!". But think of the message it does send. It's telling the people that he's relying on most that "Watch me put these women in their place, just like I'll put the <racial slur of choice> in their place. This time, I will hurt the right people!" (Edit: this seems to be the prevailing opinion; Al Sharpton among others is saying that the real purpose was to show the MAGA base that he's willing to bring the racism to "them" on their own turf, in order to throw some red meat their way and make sure they stay in line.)
It's beyond even racism. For someone have the utter mayonnaise to gatekeep someone's inclusion in an identity that you're entirely outside of, that sense of entitlement has to come from somewhere. A sense of superiority, perhaps. Supremacy even.
And if we know anything about Donald at this point, it's that he has mayonnaise pumpining through his very veins.
I mean, to be fair, his base probably came watching him do it.
He enjoys it and it reassures the Republican base he's their GodEmperorDaddu or whatever they're calling him this week. The out in the open, practiced, enthusiastic hatred is what made him their guy to begin with.
He had to hire extras to attend his rallies in 2016 until he opined about wishing Republicans could "beat the shit" out of their political enemies, that moment basically stole the entire Republican party out from under their establishment that was just about manipulating Republicans and their hatreds using dog whistles for corporate profit.
I still don’t understand why he was speaking there in the first place. I read the press release that he would be there, as well as the statement by a Black author/presenter that because of his presence she would not be - it doesn’t sound like it was planned out much in advance. So does anyone know what NABJ’s purpose was with this interview? (I assume Trump’s was chaos and/or intimidation.)
Beep boop. This action was performed automatically. If you dont like me then please block me.💔
If you have any questions or comments about me, you can make a post to LW Support lemmy community.
There are enough true criticisms of Trump that these false headlines are embarrassing. He attempted to deny being racist. He did quite a poor job, but if this is "full racist" then what would an explicit and unapologetic claim of racial superiority be?