The front page of Monday’s Boston Globe once again featured a hostile anti-Trump story by Annie Linskey, who saw racism in every turn of phrase and policy decision: “Trump's joy ride on a third rail: President turning caustic racial comments into policy.”
Linskey showed no journalistic skepticism before tying every policy or idea Trump supports into one seamless racist garment:
It started during the campaign.
Donald Trump said “Islam hates us," he called Mexicans “rapists," and he tweeted a photo of a taco bowl to demonstrate his appreciation for Hispanic culture.
As president, he said the crowd at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., included “some very fine people." He dismissed majority black nations as “shithole countries." He mocked Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas." He labeled an African-American member of Congress “low IQ" and warned illegal immigrants will “infest" the country.
What's emerged in recent months is the degree to which Trump has put some of those verbal sentiments into policy, crafting initiatives that critics call bigoted, dangerous, and sending a troubling signal to white, far right voters.
Any move by Trump, no matter the merits, comes under automatic suspicion by Linskey:
Last Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it was rolling back Obama-era affirmative action guidelines for colleges and universities -- a policy change that, while similar to one put in place by President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, raised accusations that the current president was pointedly appealing to his base of most loyal supporters.
That comes after Trump has escalated anti-immigration rhetoric at campaign rallies and touted his immigration crackdown to motivate his base for November's midterm elections.
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The Department of Justice, under Trump's presidency, has pushed tougher sentencing for drug offenses, which disproportionately affects African-Americans and reverses policies.
Trump's history of harsh rhetoric targeting minorities also taints standard-fare GOP initiatives such as cutting food stamps and imposing work requirements on Medicaid and other social services. The Trump approach allows critics to question whether the GOP is pursuing punitive measures aimed at blacks and Hispanics.
Experts who have examined mass persecutions say the “tough" talk, as Trump likes to call it, is used by leaders across the planet to get a population more comfortable with discriminatory policies -- even if they don't like the initiatives.
The reporter equated neo-Nazis with the “far right,” a label the media often uses on mainstream conservative congressmen:
Trump’s recent moves on immigration have been applauded on the far right.
“The plan is all coming together, friends,” wrote Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. That came after Trump said via Twitter that he wants immigrants turned away with “no Judges or Court Cases.”
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Trump has called himself “the least racist person" when confronted by reporters about various controversial comments, including the profane description of some black-majority nations....
Meanwhile Trump has used the symbolic power of the White House to show who is and who is not welcome. The White House disinvited the Golden State Warriors, the NBA champs whose mostly black players were critical of Trump. Likewise, Trump un-invited the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles this year after learning that many of the players, including a large number of blacks, planned to boycott the ceremony.
She escalated the rhetoric (keep in mind this is a front-page "news" story):
Democrats say that Trump is also trying to rhetorically target those who stand in his way, using a strategy they find familiar from the past.
During slavery and through the Jim Crow era, for example....
