Trump Kicks Off Black History Month by Scolding Black People Who Didn't Clap for Him
LatestIn a speech at a Republican congressional retreat on Thursday, President Trump implied that perhaps the Democrats who didn’t applaud his touting historically low black and Hispanic unemployment rates—a group that included seemingly the entire Congressional Black Caucus—actually like seeing people without jobs.
“That’s something very special,” Trump began, after again patting himself on the back for those unemployment statistics, which he has almost nothing to do with. “And when I made that statement the other night, there was zero movement from the Democrats. They sat there, stone cold, no smile, no applause.
“You would have thought that on that one, they would’ve sort of at least clapped even a little bit,” the president reasoned, likely with full awareness that he was shaming black lawmakers for not appreciating this good thing he’s done for their communities.
While it is true that the employment rate among black Americans is at a historic low, that’s the continuation of a trend which began in 2011, years before Trump got into office, and racial disparities in unemployment rates still persist.
The president continued the speech in full Grandpa Simpson mode, proudly declaring that his administration has “fulfilled far more promises than we promised,” which sounds like a riddle but means nothing. (He then nonsensically used the phrase “promises plus.”)
Trump also managed to massively embarrass Utah Senator Orrin Hatch by revealing that Hatch once told him he was a better president than both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, a recollection Hatch’s camp immediately disputed.
Credit where credit is due, though: at least he managed not to declare war on North Korea (yet!) or tell that story about the homeless woman’s baby again.