Donald Trump is even more racist than you thought: Part II
This is Part II in a series. You can read Part I here. When Donald Trump announced that he was running for president, it seemed a good idea to some. After all, a successful businessman might do wonders with the country’s budget. There was one problem: Trump was never a successful businessman, and he was a staunch racist. These things would further come to light after he captured the presidency and began wreaking havoc on our country.
In the early 1990s, Trump focused his attention on blocking competition from his Connecticut and New York casinos. He fought fiercely to stop Native Americans who owned several casinos on tribal lands. Trump’s efforts were futile, as his casinos all eventually went into bankruptcy while Native Americans continue to own and operate 479 casinos in 29 states according to 500 Nations.
In his zeal to stop Native American casinos, Trump appeared before the House Subcommittee on Native American Affairs in 1993 in an attempt to modify legislation that gave Native American tribes the right to own and operate casinos, says The Atlantic. According to Bill Richardson, Trump believed that Native Americans “didn’t deserve” this legislation because “there was a lot of corruption around Native American casinos.” When Richardson asked him for evidence, Trump, of course, couldn’t produce it because it didn’t exist.
Several committee members asked for Trump’s evidence of “mafia-like” behavior on the part of Native Americans, and though he didn’t have any, Trump continued to push the issue (sounds familiar). Little did Trump know that Tadd Johnson, Democratic counsel on the subcommittee, was a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Rick Hill, another member, was a member of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin. When he was later told that he had insulted these committee members, he responded in typical Trump racist fashion: “They don’t look like Indians to me.”
As you might imagine, Trump was laughed out of the Committee and had no hope of gaining the Committee’s support. Did that stop Trump? Of course not. He and another familiar name, Roger Stone, placed advertisements in upstate New York to stop the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe from building. Their ad featured hypodermic needles and lines of cocaine in an attempt to make it appear that these items belonged to the tribe. Stone and his “New York Institute,” some front he created, ended up paying $250,000 in fines for violating disclosure rules governing political advertising.
All of this is to say that the “President” Trump we now know and despise is who he has always been. Before he came to power, however, his past stayed comparatively under the radar. Now that his behavior has become a daily, offensive occurrence, the Atlantic will likely not be the last to dig up his old dirt. The man put the “u” in unscrupulous and the “c” in corrupt. This country has never seen anything like him, nor did we know so many existed who are okay with his behavior. That is why it is so important that political and other writers continue to expose what Trump has tried to keep hidden. The more dirt that can be dug up on him, the better. He continues to skirt the law, but that won’t last forever. Keep digging and keep exposing. He needs to go.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years