Trump accused of racism over his ‘Pocahontas’ jab
WASHINGTON: It was a solemn White House occasion to honour surviving Native American code talkers from World War 2, but US President Donald Trump turned it into a raging controversy, repeating a racially-charged taunt about Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren by referring to her “Pocahontas”.
Addressing the Navajo veterans, Trump discarding his written speech, saying :“I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people... You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
He didn’t name anyone, but it was clear who he had meant.
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, has been long critic is ed for a questionable claim that she was partly of Native American descent. Trump started calling her Pocahontas during the 2016 campaign to slight her.
The fact that Trump’ s remarks were delivered from under a portrait of Andrew Jackson—a former US president who signed into law the Indian Removal Act, which led to the mass displacement of Native Americans — didn’t help matters.
“It’s unfortunate that President Trump would refer to Sen Warren as Pocahontas ina jo king way,” Mihio Manus, a spokes- man for the Navajo National told The Washington Post.
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that Trump did not mean to be offensive or use a racial slur
Warren told The New York Times: “This was a ceremony to honour war heroes — Native Americans who had put it all on the line to protect our country and to save lives of Americans and our allies... It should have been a celebration of their incredible service, but Donald Trump couldn’ t make it through without tossing in a racial slur.”
You were here long before any of us were here... We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas. But you know what, I like you.
DONALD TRUMP, US president