America’s current president is a bit of an odd duck, with a bottomless well of unexpected and often alarming eccentricities. One of his strangest? His obsession not only with Senator Elizabeth Warren, but with her claims — since largely verified by a DNA test — that she has Native American ancestry going back about six-to-ten generations ago. Because of this — and because he doesn’t much like women in general, and vice versa — Donald J. Trump likes to call her “Pocahontas,” which is definitely not racist. He also likes to repeatedly point out that he came up with the name, which delights and amuses his definitely not racist supporters.
Only a few weeks after making a joke about the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre that was probably distasteful, to put it lightly, Trump is back at it again. Saturday Warren formally added herself to the Democratic presidential line-up for 2020. It was only a matter of time for Trump to bust out some “Pocahontas” action. It only took a couple hours.
Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019
“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President,” tweeted a repeatedly bankrupt businessman who lost the popular vote and had to rely on the very Electoral College he used to disparage before it put him in the most powerful position on the planet. “Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!”
Why the all-caps? It didn’t take long for social media heads to figure that one out.
The joke here is that the Trail of Tears was a genocide. Get it? Get it? https://t.co/6wC5uwKnTa
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 9, 2019
Thousands of Native Americans died on the Trail of Tears, which Trump appears to be jokingly referencing here https://t.co/zfM6SSUxCs
— Cristiano Lima-Strong (@viaCristiano) February 9, 2019
Is this a Trail of Tears reference? https://t.co/glijmR1WQc
— Chris McElveen (@chrismcelveen) February 9, 2019
Trying to figure out if the president is referencing the Trail of Tears, on which thousands of Native Americans died, in his tweet about Elizabeth Warren. Quite a reference, if so.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 9, 2019
You didn’t really just make a trail of tears reference, did you? https://t.co/UBNw46CTYO
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 9, 2019
The President of the United States just made a joke about the Trail of Tears, which was when Native Americans were forcibly moved. Roughly 4,000 Native Americans died. https://t.co/ND68J8UAXW
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) February 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1094372848896897024
Once it was all but clear the trail in question was the Trail of Tears — the forced relocation by the U.S. government of Native Americans to the West in the 19th century, which resulted in thousands and thousands of deaths — people were not, shall we say, amused.
Nice to see the president having fun again on Twitter and workshopping some new genocide jokes.
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) February 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/Yeggo/status/1094374458666700801
I mean in addition to how awful this tweet is in general…is Trump making light of the Trail of Tears here? Because if so, that is sick. https://t.co/y0vUIQbPsW
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) February 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/misslaneym/status/1094383247612669953
I try to never dignify this man’s tweets, but there is little doubt here that he uses “TRAIL” to evoke the genocidal Trail of Tears, and does so to land a political jab. Warren has taken justifiable heat on this issue—but he used the murders of Indigenous people as a punchline. https://t.co/LiyK2iruDF
— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) February 9, 2019
I Would Never Gloss over Slavery.
The Trail of Tears Was not only walked By Cherokees, and Many of the Slaves that Walked the Tail were Escaped Slaves.
Not Sure if you saw that this was a Thread and it Doesn't loss Over Slavery or Buffalo Soldiers. https://t.co/JNsmIB5zTY
— Delores Schilling (@DelSchilling) February 9, 2019
Some were shocked the former reality TV host knows what the Trail of Tears was to begin with.
tbh i'd be kind of shocked if trump even knows what the trail of tears is
— Ashley Feinberg (ashleyfeinberg.bsky.social) (@ashleyfeinberg) February 9, 2019
There are only 2 possibilities:
Trump just mocked the Trail of Tears OR Trump is too ignorant to know what the Trail of Tears is and it was just a coincidence. Either way what the actual fuck?
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 9, 2019
Or maybe they shouldn’t be shocked. After all, this is a president whose favorite predecessor is Andrew Jackson.
https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1094380169119199232
https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/1094372944925655045
https://twitter.com/4everNeverTrump/status/1094383156772229120
Actually, perhaps it was simply his former staffer Steve Bannon who taught him this historical tidbit.
And yes, I think Bannon read a book about Andrew Jackson to him once and Trail of Tears was filed away in his subconscious as, “Good Indian themed slam.”
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 9, 2019
And of course, there’s Trump’s aforementioned crack about Wounded Knee.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1094384972847349760
Just a reminder that it’s not just Trump making questionable Native American jokes, in 2019, no less. Another famous person getting in on the race-based humor craze is a certain beloved Parks and Recreation alum who once made a sex tape of him having sex with a 16-year-old girl.
Folks, we're watching it happen to @ewarren in real time. This is why I was such a staunch Clinton defender in 2016, because I understood from very early on what would be done to her.
P.S. The sitting president mocking the Trail of Tears is beyond heinous. pic.twitter.com/Q3WKzAtEeZ
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) February 10, 2019
Meanwhile, one of the president’s sons thought it was cool to Instagram a screengrab of a Trump fan cheering on the continued “Native American genocide.”
https://twitter.com/fiondavision/status/1094400353762721794
Anyway, does any of this mean Trump has finally gone too far? To quote Cher: As if. Trump’s mien can be summed up by a stray line in the Blur deep cut “Moving On”: “No matter how low there’s always somewhere to go.”