President Donald Trump continues to stun the world with his
tweets and racist, denigrating remarks. In fact, The New York
Timespublished a list of “487 People, Places and Things Presi-
dent Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter.” Trump decried the
migration of citizens from “shithole countries,” and worked hard to
ban Muslims from entering America. As a candidate, he said he
would consider surveillance of mosques—shutting some down—
and suggested the establishment of a national database to register
Muslims. During a June 2015 speech announcing his candidacy,
Trump referred to some Mexican immigrants as “rapists.” He’s dis-
paraged women, almost every ethnic or racial group, and regularly
dehumanizes his enemies by using canine insults.
His tweets on Aug. 14, regarding Omarosa Manigault New-
man, his former reality TV protégé and White House staffer, au-
thor of a tell-all book, Unhinged, hit a new low: “When you give
a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White
House, I guess it just didn’t work out.” Trump added, “Good work
by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”
Washington Postcorrespondent Philip Rucker noted, “Animal-
istic slurs come easily to Trump, who over the past few years has
likened a long list of perceived enemies to dogs—including for-
mer FBI director James B. Comey, former acting attorney gen-
eral Sally Q. Yates, former chief White House strategist Stephen
K. Bannon, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney,
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), journalist David Gregory and conser-
vative commentator Erick Erickson....
“The president’s calling a woman a dog—and not just any
woman, but the highest-ranking African American who has
served on his White House staff—drew stern condemnations,”
Rucker continued.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) tweeted: “Mr. President, it is
beneath you and the office of the presidency to call any woman
a dog...It is degrading and demeaning, and I pray that you will
stop this vulgar behavior. Our country is better than this.”
Rucker quotes David Livingstone Smith, a philosophy profes-
sor who studies dehumanization and racism and wrote a book
on the subject, Less Than Human: “In the fascist style of politics,
one of the crucial elements is distinguishing ‘us’ from ‘them.’ We
are intrinsically good; they are intrinsically bad, defective, sub-
human, etc.” Rucker paraphrases Smith who says leaders use
dehumanizing rhetoric to elicit fear and solidarity against some
perceived existential threat from “others.”So many Americans believe that our president has crossed
the threshold as he divides our country into “us” and “them.”
They’re writing, blogging and running for office. They’ll register
their dismay at the ballot box.
At what point do the slurs, violence and racist legislation that
have taken place in Israel since its inception cross the threshold
for American supporters? Many Jewish Americans criticize Is-
rael, but too many non-Jews hang back for fear of the “anti-se-
mitic” accusation. U.S. taxpayers and leaders continue to
bankroll and support Israel, turning a blind eye to stomach-turn-
ing statements. A longer list will be printed on our website, but
here are just a few:PRIME MINISTERS OF ISRAEL
Ehud Barak, prime minister of Israel 1999-2001:
“The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them
meat, they want more.”....speech on Aug. 28, 2000, reported in
the Aug. 30, 2000 Jerusalem PostMenachem Begin, prime minister of Israel 1977-1983:
“[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs.” Speech
to the Knesset in June 1982David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, 1948-
1953:
“We must expel Arabs and take their places.” 1947
“We must do everything to ensure they[the Palestinians]
never do return.” 1938 letter
Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come
back to their homes: “The old will die and the young will forget.”
1948
“What matters is not what the goyimsay, but what the Jews
do.” Recorded in theJerusalem Post, May 22, 2009Golda Meir,Israeli prime minister, 1969-1974:
“How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody
to return them to. We can't send it to Nasser by parcel post.”
March 8, 1969
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian people...It is not as if
we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t
exist.” A statement to The Sunday Times, June 15, 1969
“We can forgive[them] for killing our children. We cannot forgive
them from forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace
Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report. with [them] when they love their children more than they hate us.”33Leaders Who Dehumanize Cross the
Threshold
By Delinda C. Hanley
Special Report
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