Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ jab at Navajo event draws blowback

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. » Families of Native American war veterans and politicians of both major parties are criticizing President Donald Trump for using a White House event honoring Navajo Code Talkers to take a political jab at a Democratic senator he has nicknamed “Pocahontas.”

The Republican president on Monday turned to the name he often deployed for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the 2016 presidential campaign to mock her claims about being part Native American. He told the three Navajo Code Talkers on stage that he had affection for them that he doesn’t have for her.

“It was uncalled for,” said Marty Thompson, whose great-uncle was a Navajo Code Talker. “He can say what he wants when he’s out doing his presidential business among his people, but when it comes to honoring veterans or any kind of people, he needs to grow up and quit saying things like that.”

Pocahontas is wellknown as a Disney princess but less so for the sacrifices she made to save her people from British forces in the 1600s in present-day Virginia, descendants of her tribal community say. Whether Trump’s remark constitutes a racial slur depends on who you ask, but most critics agree it was inappropriate.

Warren said Trump’s repeated references to her as “Pocahontas” will not keep her from speaking out.

“Now he seems to think that that’s somehow going to shut me up, maybe keep me from talking about the consumer agency today,” Warren said Tuesday after a protest outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Or keep me from talking about the tax bill that would favor giant corporations instead of working families.”

“He’s wrong. It’s not going to make any difference,” Warren said.

All he “had to do was make it through the ceremony,” she said. “But that wasn’t possible for Donald Trump. He had to throw in a racial slur.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Monday that she didn’t believe the remark was a racial slur and that “was certainly not the president’s intent.”