In Surprising Move, Trump Promotes Racist Conspiracy Theory
Country shocked as he spreads misinformation about Kamala Harris
Donald Trump might not be known for his delicate wording, but at a press conference Friday, he sent shockwaves across the country.
“I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump informed reporters when the topic of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s newly announced running mate, came up. Harris was born in California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father and legal experts agree she is eligible to be vice president or president.
Reporters, shocked to hear a racist dog-whistle coming from the president, immediately asked for his sources and evidence.
President Trump fell back to his usual defense — that he mindlessly relays everything he hears without exercising any independent thinking at all: “I don’t know about it. I just heard about it. I’ll take a look.”
There have been other memorable times where Trump has used the same defense.
In 2017 after he claimed Mexico had a nuclear arsenal and was about to nuke Texas, the president relented in the face of scrutiny from the media, claiming “I didn’t know about it. I just read it on the internet.”
In 2019, after making allegations former President Obama murdered Jeffrey Epstein, President Trump said, “I don’t know for sure. I thought I heard Mike [Pence] say it.”
And earlier this year, the president nearly began a war with China after alleging it had attacked an American aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After this was revealed to not be true, President Trump defended the allegation: “I don’t know if they did or if they didn’t. It might have been an action movie I saw the night before.”
This time, however, experts say, the false allegations are clear racist dog-whistles, which, unlike starting wars, are clearly unacceptable in American politics.
“It’s really obvious that he is trying to say Harris is not a ‘real’ American because she is the daughter of immigrants,” said political communications scholar Diana Pierce. “There is a long, ugly strain of this in American politics. It is just surprising to hear it coming from President Trump. We all had expected more from him.”
Indeed, both parties seemed shocked by the president’s allegations.
“This is truly disturbing,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “We have never heard anything like this from the president, not even behind closed doors. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are going to stand up to him and tell him any hint of racism is unacceptable in American politics.”
“If he doesn’t apologize right away, I think the party needs to make clear it cannot in good conscience back him in November,” said Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee.
Harris herself seemed taken aback at the attack. “This is terribly disappointing,” she said in an interview Saturday. “Little girls of color in this country look up to the president for inspiration and he has just betrayed that trust.”
House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she never would have expected this from Trump.
“He is always very careful to avoid anything with a hint of racism. It is the one thing we have admired about him these past few years. Now it looks like he’s throwing out his decency in a desperate attempt to win reelection.”
Others echoed similar dismay at President Trump abandoning his decency and long-held principles.
“It’s just completely disappointing,” said Martha Emerson, a longtime Trump supporter. “I didn’t vote for the man so he would say racist things. It’s just a disgrace and I truly regret my vote in 2016 now.”
Other Trump supporters echoed her words.
“This is unacceptable and shocking,” said John Jeffries, a former volunteer for the Trump campaign. “I quit over this. I really did. If we can’t have some common decency in this country, what do we have?”
The disaffection appears to be widespread. Early polling after the announcement showed Trump’s support dropping by double-digits as Republican voters express their disapproval and shock the president would promote a racist conspiracy theory.
“It goes so much against what I thought Trump stood for,” said Jeffries, wiping back tears.
With the repercussions of the president’s words still unfolding, his reelection campaign has gone into crisis mode, and the president’s Twitter account fell silent on Sunday. As the campaign analyzes its next move, a shocked country waits for the president’s coming apology.
To help fight the epidemic of fake news while writing fake news, I am attaching a fake newsometer to my stories which will give a rating for how fake the story is. Legal disclaimer: the fake newsometer is not designed for internal use and its creator bears no responsibility for injuries that may result from its incorrect application.
Fake Newsometer Rating: 4. Except for President Trump promoting a racist conspiracy theory and defending doing so by saying “I don’t know about it. I just heard about it,” the events of this story are completely implausible.
- 0: Not fake at all. Well, the details I actually wrote are fake, but not the main topics.
- 1: Not fake, except for large sections of what I wrote. One or more main topic is true.
- 2: Not fake, in the sense that it captures the general gist of something that really happened.
- 3: Not fake, in the sense that this sounds like something that could happen.
- 4: Not fake, in the sense that one or more people in the story really exist.
- 5: Trump-level true. The events neither happened nor are plausible and any characters mentioned are either fictitious or have had their names butchered, like Tim Apple.
