It’s Monday, which means there’s still plenty of time for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to go on the record with a really dumb comment. So far, some of the day’s biggest stories about the GOP front-runner came from a horrific cover of “Stand By Me” and a trending hashtag — that is, not Trump himself. Never fear, for after Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unleashed a string of tweets and a Facebook post criticizing the New York real estate mogul, the Donald we all know and love made an appearance.
As Politico notes, the fireworks began when Warren used her official personal accounts at Twitter and Facebook to warn potential voters about the dangers of a Trump nomination and presidency. The 66-year-old academic-cum-politician co-opted Trump’s surprisingly un-trademarked insult, “loser,” and let loose with her social media diatribe.
Let’s be honest – @realDonaldTrump is a loser. Count all his failed businesses. See how he cheated people w/ scams like Trump U.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
See how @realDonaldTrump kept his father’s empire afloat using strategic corporate bankruptcies to skip out on debt.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
Listen to experts who say @realDonaldTrump might have more money today if he’d put his inheritance in an index fund & left it alone.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
Direct insult aside, much of Warren’s criticism of the Republican candidate had to do with his repeated claims about being a successful and independent businessman. Because if there’s anything Trump’s many, many boasts have taught us, it’s that his father’s “small loan of a million dollars” is just one of several indications of his financial prowess.
Yet Warren wasn’t finished, as her attack on Trump continued for several more tweets warning against his divisiveness as a candidate, likely Republican nominee and possible next president.
.@RealDonaldTrump knows he’s a loser. His insecurities are on parade: petty bullying, attacks on women, cheap racism, flagrant narcissism.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
But just because @realDonaldTrump is a loser everywhere else doesn’t mean he’ll lose this election.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
.@RealDonaldTrump stands ready to tear apart an America that was built on values like decency, community, and concern for our neighbors.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
Many of history’s worst authoritarians started out as losers – and @realDonaldTrump is a serious threat.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
The way I see it, it’s our job to make sure @realDonaldTrump ends this campaign every bit the loser that he started it.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
She also repeated and expanded upon her criticisms in a much longer Facebook post.
Meanwhile, Trump was too busy to mind his direct Twitter mentions from Warren’s account. Why? Because he was hosting a press conference at the location of what will soon become an international Trump brand hotel in Washington, D.C. Most of the action was supposed to be about the new venture, but because the businessman is a presidential candidate, and his presser was happening smack dab in the middle of Washington, journalists swarmed him with questions about Warren’s polemic.
That’s when, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman (and countless others), Trump uttered this gem:
"The Indian? You mean the Indian?" Trump says of Warren, who hit him on Twitter.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 21, 2016
Just in case you didn’t vote in the 2012 congressional elections in Massachusetts, Warren sometimes discussed her Native American heritage while on the campaign trail. This became a major subject of scorn per the maneuverings of the incumbent Republican senator, Scott Brown, and others who took issue with Warren’s claims.
Hence Trump’s delightful “the Indian” jab, which — despite the immediate alarm it caused online — isn’t the first time the White House hopeful has called Warren’s ancestry claims into doubt.
As soon as news of Trump’s backhanded response to her social media stream went viral, Warren returned to Twitter to add more to her previous criticisms. She didn’t address his “the Indian” line directly, but the senator did call attention to the candidate’s perceived “racism, sexism, xenophobia and hatred”:
Why is it that @realDonaldTrump can call himself the “unity” candidate while basing his campaign on racism, sexism, xenophobia & hatred?
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
.@RealDonaldTrump is “cool with being called an authoritarian,” isn't upset at Hitler comparisons & thinks we won’t fight back? WRONG!
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
We cannot elect wannabe tyrants to the White House. Not now, not ever. It’s up to all of us us to stop @realDonaldTrump .
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 21, 2016
(Via Politico, The New York Times and The Atlantic)