Women for Trump will not only highlight the President’s clear record of success during his first term but will share a vision of empowerment and prosperity for every person in every corner of our country.
On Tuesday Lara Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and campaign adviser, stumped on his behalf in Montgomery County, PA. According to Newsweek:
Trump’s 2020 campaign, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., this week announced the launch of “Women for Trump,” a coalition to court female voters in supporting the second term reelection of Trump.
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and one of the key leaders of the campaign, launched “Women for Trump” at a King of Prussia casino in the Philadelphia suburbs on Tuesday. In front of several hundred women Lara Trump asked the crowd: “Is your life better now than it was before Donald Trump got elected? Do you have a little more money in your bank account, did you get a break on your tax return this year?”
Lara Trump was joined by other leaders of the coalition, including Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who’s now serving as a top adviser to the campaign, American Tea Party activist Katrina Pierson, as well as Trump 2020 reelection campaign staffers Mercedes Schlapp and Kayleigh McEnany.
“Because of President Trump’s policies, women have seen large gains in employment numbers, in securing our communities and most importantly in equipping the next generation of female leaders” Lara Trump said, in a statement emailed to Newsweek. “‘Women for Trump’ will not only highlight the President’s clear record of success during his first term but will share a vision of empowerment and prosperity for every person in every corner of our country.”
The Trump campaign noted that the president had more female donors than any of his Democratic opponents in the first quarter of 2019. These contributions accounted for nearly half of the total received during that period.
“There never has been a president that has worked so hard on behalf of American women as President Trump,” Guilfoyle, who’s currently dating the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said. “People can argue politics all day long, but the numbers are the numbers and they simply cannot be debated nor ignored. It is an honor for me to be part of this movement.”
For those interested in following “Women for Trump,” use #womenfortrump on twitter, or click here for more information.
The purposeful misrepresentation of Trump by the mainstream media is both shameful and dangerous.
In July of 2016, while Hillary Clinton was doing damage control at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia after the world found out she rigged her own primary, Trump said sarcastically during a press conference, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
It was obviously a joke, and Trump said so. But the American media, out to destroy Trump’s candidacy, pretended it wasn’t. The press went bananas, calling Trump a traitor and a spy and demanding that he be tried for treason. It was quite disturbing, the fact that seasoned journalists would suddenly fail to understand sarcasm. But fail to understand it they did.
A similar thing happened in August of 2017. When violence started to escalate during a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Va., Trump tweeted, “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one!” Later, after a 32-year-old female was hit and killed by a white nationalist’s car that ran into counterprotesters, Trump made the following statement: “We condemn in the strongest most possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.”
Because Trump’s short impromptu response – made during televised remarks about a bill signing already underway – failed to specifically condemn white nationalism, this could only mean one thing: Trump was defending white nationalists, or was perhaps even a white nationalist himself. Again, the media went bonkers with such accusations, even after Trump later clarified his statement by explaining that yes, such hatred from neo-Nazis was wrong. Interestingly, such standards weren’t applied to President Obama when he failed to specifically condemn Islamic extremism in the Fort Hood terrorist attack that killed 13 people; no one in the mainstream media suggested Obama was a Muslim terrorist, or was defending Islamic extremism.
But this was the kind of media Donald Trump was facing when he decided to run for president in June of 2015. A media that was not only careless with their facts and reporting, but a media that was willfully duplicitous in their coverage – a collection of “advocacy” journalists with little integrity, who purposefully misrepresented information for political reasons.
The purposeful misrepresentation of Trump by the mainstream media is both shameful and dangerous. Manipulating information to provoke resentment is like playing with fire. Case in point: Travon Martin.
In February of 2012, a nearly six-foot tall, 17-year-old black kid named Trayvon Martin sucker-punched a five-foot-seven Hispanic man named George Zimmerman because Zimmerman was following him around his development in the rain. After knocking Zimmerman to the ground (whom Martin described as a “creepy-ass cracker”), Martin proceeded to ground-and-pound Zimmerman’s head off the cement mixed martial arts style (according to eye-witnesses at Zimmerman’s trial). But then something unexpected happened: Zimmerman managed to pull out his gun and shoot Martin in the chest.
The media reported the tragedy this way: Racist white man kills black middle school child for carrying a bag of Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. CNN reported that Zimmerman called Martin a “coon,” but later corrected the story, explaining that Zimmerman simply had said it was “cold.” ABC News reported that there were no visible cuts or lacerations on Zimmerman’s head (based on grainy cellphone footage falsely listed as a “security camera” at the police station), but later retracted the story, as medical evidence showed there were indeed major cuts and bruises on his scalp. And NBC News, using a nonemergency 911 call that was selectively edited by news producers, played an audio to show that the “white-Hispanic” Zimmerman was indeed a racist.
President Obama, being biracial himself, was in the perfect position to be a neutral arbitrator, and could have attempted to unify the country. Instead he took sides, stating, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” and later saying, “I could have been Trayvon,” the latter statement being totally ridiculous; Obama was raised by his affluent white grandparents, and given the best education money could buy. Still, President Obama, along with his advisor on race relations, Al Sharpton (who was caught in 1987 faking a race crime with Tawana Brawley), used the tragedy to galvanize voters for the upcoming election and stoke racial tension, sparking riots and violent protests across many cities in America.
Then there was Michael Brown. In August of 2014, a six-foot-four, 290-pound Michael Brown stole a box of cigarillos and assaulted a store owner. When Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson tried to stop Brown (who was walking down the middle of the street), Brown shoved Officer Wilson back into his patrol car, punched him in the face, and tried to take his gun. The gun went off, hitting Brown in the hand, and Brown ran. When Officer Wilson got out of his car and ordered Brown to stop, the 290-pound man turned around, charged at Wilson, and was ultimately shot and killed.
The media reported the tragedy this way: Racist white cop kills unarmed black man execution style in the street. Soon came the phony phrase “hands up, don’t shoot,” which was based on a completely fabricated version of events. But the media made no attempt to verify any information, and simply ran with the bogus account of the tragedy, prompting Time to put an unrelated picture of a young black male kneeling in the street with his hands up on the cover of their magazine, with the caption, “The Tragedy of Ferguson.”
President Obama, along with his advisor on race relations, Al Sharpton (who never paid restitution for defaming Steven A. Pagones in the Tawana Brawley case until 2001), again used the tragedy to galvanize voters for the upcoming midterm election and stoke racial tension, sparking riots and violent protests in a number of cities across America.
Although the intensity of racial unrest under President Trump pales in comparison to the kind of rage fermented under Obama (remember also the killing of the five Dallas police officers during the Black Lives Matter Rally in 2016), today’s media consistently proclaims Trump’s America is more racist and hateful than ever. Yet besides the violence perpetrated by the hard-left group Antifa – and the annoying activist mobs that pop up after things don’t go the way of the Democrats – there has been no major riot under Trump; not a single city has been destroyed like Baltimore in 2015 or Ferguson in 2014.
Not that the media isn’t trying their damnedest to incite racial unrest and provoke resentment against Trump. The constant reference to Trump’s “family separation policy” on the border is one example (Trump signed an executive order to stop the law that requires minors to be detained separately from adults), and the recent manipulation of Trump’s “go back home” tweets is another.
Here were Trump’s initial tweets concerning The Squad:
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!
Although only one member of The Squad wasn’t born in the United States (Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia), this still doesn’t excuse the willful misrepresentation of the tweets by the media. Notice that’s there’s two parts: Trump invites the congresswomen to go back to their home countries, and he also invites them to come back, as well. It’s the second part of the tweet that the media (and the Democrats) conveniently ignore. Trump is basically saying, Put your money where your mouth is. In other words, if you want to constantly criticize the way I do things, let’s see you do better. Go to the broken places where you come from (like Somalia), fix them, and then COME BACK TO AMERICA and tell us how it’s done. That’s what Trump tweeted.
Of course, that’s not how the media is spinning it. The press, in conjunction with The Squad and fellow Democrats, are claiming the tweet was a racist call by Trump for the women to get out of the country and “go back” to where they came from (notice the phrase “go back” is always isolated in quotes and taken out of the context of the rest of the tweet), because they’re not really American, and they’re not really welcome here.
But that’s not at all what Trump meant. And even when he clarified his statement in a press conference, the mainstream media still kept the original spin, proving they care more about maligning Trump than accurate reporting.
This is exactly what is meant by the term fake news. It’s irresponsible, shameful, and very dangerous.
The following is an excerpt from my commentary in today’s American Thinker:
During the recent spat between President Trump and “The Squad” – Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts – Trump asked when the four women would atone for their anti-American and anti-Semitic behavior. Early Monday morning, Trump tweeted:
“When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!”
For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this involves making amends for disparaging the officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – the men and women who risk their lives to keep both Americans and immigrants safe – as well as asking forgiveness for disrespecting the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
“The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are. That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram video. “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Mark Morgan was insulted by the comment. “It’s completely inappropriate, it’s reckless, it’s irresponsible, it’s misinformed, and it’s flat out wrong,” Morgan said in an interview. Josh Holmes, former chief of staff for Mitch McConnell, called Ocasio-Cortez’s comments “an alarming and dangerous false equivalence that suggests a breathtaking lack of appreciation for the unparalleled evil of the Holocaust.”
Ilhan Omar must also apologize. In January Omar tweeted that Israel had “hypnotized the world,” and later stated that American support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” and involved “allegiance” to a foreign country. As David French wrote in the National Review, “Each of these statements represents a classic anti-Semitic trope, and the latter statements were made after she came under fire for her previous comments. She knew she was under scrutiny and yet doubled down.”
At a CAIR event in the spring, Omar callously described the 9/11 terrorist attacks as “some people did something,” which sparked a large pro-Israel protest; according to an article in the National Review, CAIR was listed by the Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, although to this day CAIR vehemently denies this.
Rashida Tlaib, too, must make amends for her callous comments. Last June she tweeted, “ICE is terrorizing our communities with zero accountability. ICE is a recent invention that makes our neighborhoods less safe, vindictively and cruelly tearing families apart. I’m proud to stand with the growing movement to #AbolishICE!”
Incredibly, just hours after being sworn in, Tlaib said in reference to President Trump, “When your son looks at you and said ‘Mamma, look, you won — bullies don’t win.’ And I said, ‘Baby they don’t, because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf**ker!’” . . .
To continuing reading the full article, please click here.
Most 2020 Democratic candidates stayed clear of the hard-left event. Not so for Elizabeth Warren.
Netroots Nation, which hosts the largest annual agitprop convention for progressives who hate Trump, the Koch Brothers, and now Nancy Pelosi, set up shop this past week at the Convention Center in Philadelphia. The three-day event, which took place from July 11 – 13, offered more than 70 panel discussions and 60 hands-on training sessions, along with progressive film screenings, caucuses, networking opportunities, and social events.
Just four Democratic hopefuls traveled to the City of Brotherly Love to address the progressive faithful Saturday at Netroots Nation. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made the trip. All rank at less than 1% support in the polls. The only top-tier candidate to attend: Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The fact that only a handful of presidential candidates attended the convention suggests there’s a clear fracture between the more mainstream members of the party, like Joe Biden, and the hard-left Democrats, like Warren.
Still, it was quite a convention, at least according to the Netroots Nation online agenda. On Thursday morning, angry activists were invited to begin the day by doing some light yoga to help channel their rage against an oppressive, racist America, where unemployment rates for minorities are at an all-time low. After some breathing and relaxation exercises, the program turned its attention to a panel discussion on impeaching Trump. “No greater modern threat exists to modern American democracy than the administration of Donald Trump,” the agenda description read, detailing how Trump was responsible for voter suppression and the appointments of lower court and Supreme Court judges “with little to no regard to the law.”
The Trump bashing workshop was just one of many offerings. In another room, there was a separate panel discussion about how big tech is inherently racist. According to the agenda:
Large corporations and our government are using digital tools that further cement a white racial hierarchy in our society in the pursuit of profits and political power. Companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google are providing a megaphone for racists to spread hate speech and algorithms that discriminate against people of color. Government agencies are also using the tools of surveillance to criminalize communities of color.
After a short break, where activists were encouraged to gather their morning coffee and recharge for more fear-mongering and race-baiting, there was a lecture on how to use the “Daily Action” app to shut down streets, and how to create resistance and rapid response through the use of digital media. Still another morning training was titled “How the Future is Organizing Us: They’re Texting in Class,” a program designed to recruit and teach youth “to utilize the online tools that are a part of their daily life” for progressive causes and additional agitprop campaigns.
At 11:20 a.m., there was a “mid-day mindfulness moment,” moderated by MoveOn strategist Reggie Hubbard, who claimed to “simplify chaos, build and nurture relationships, inspire others and execute stated objectives while maintaining calm focus and a positive attitude.”
The afternoon portion was rife with pandering to identity groups, like the screening and discussion of the film “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook,” which insisted voter ID laws were oppressive, and that updating voter rolls (removing the names of people who have moved or who are dead) was racist. Then there was “Strategies and Tactics for Targeting Corporations—and Winning,” which taught activists how to harass companies to bring about change. “Want to use social media, ads and direct action to disrupt and annoy companies?” the training description asked. For those curious about “brand-jamming, astroturfing and other clever tactics,” this was the workshop for you.
Then there was this panel discussion: “Can We Evict the Bigots from Congress Once and For All?” This forum claimed to shed light on why “notoriously bigoted politicians seem weaker than ever,” and how activists could remove “some of the most entrenched bigots in Congress,” like Ted Cruz, Steve King, Duncan Hunter, Mark Harris, and Dave Brat.
At 5:00 p.m. was the opening keynote address, given by several progressive speakers, one of whom was Alicia Garza, co-creator of Black Lives Matter, the organization that praised cop-killer Assata Shakur and human rights violator Fidel Castro.
To end the night, there was the “Laughing Liberally Comedy Jam” and “Netroots After Dark: Sex, Politics and Karaoke Sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund,” where you could unwind, mingle, and relax after a full day of trashing America and coordinating ways to annoy corporations, call people bigots, indoctrinate children, and indirectly pay homage to murderous dictators and cop killers, and successfully shut down streets.
Friday and Saturday was more of the same. There were dozens of panel discussions and trainings on how to successfully agitate and spread divisive propaganda to people in mass quantities; ironically, Nancy Pelosi was the target of some of this progressive venom because she recently dared to criticize Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s juvenile behavior. And speaking of AOC, one of her “squad” members, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, proudly attacked Trump at a breakout session by proclaiming, “We’re going to impeach the MF’er, don’t worry!”
The kicker, though, was the grand appearance by Elizabeth Warren. As reported by Real Clear Politics:
The Massachusetts liberal was the undisputed favorite at Netroots, and the conference was clearly her home turf. So much so that when protesters interrupted her, complaining about the treatment of illegal immigrants under the Obama administration, the crowd self-policed, shouting, “Let her finish.”
“This is our moment to live our values and that means down at the border when people come here who are desperate,” Warren said, “then we need to treat them with humanity, and we need to follow the law.”
Follow the law. Yeah, that’s rich.
Nonetheless, the crowd erupted over the presence of the liberal senator, and Warren solidified her status as a radical progressive whose agenda has gone completely outside the mainstream.
Despite efforts to disparage the Betsy Ross flag by Nike and Colin Kaepernick, Philadelphia stood by the patriotic seamstress, flying her flag high during a special ceremony where African immigrants became American citizens.
Thank you, Philadelphia! Thank you for choosing to see the good in our country’s history at a time when so many liberal American elites are trying to divide us by peddling a constant story of oppression. Thank you most importantly to Christopher Tremoglie, an Intercollegiate Studies Institute intern at National Review and a student at the University of Pennsylvania, who covered this story at the Betsy Ross House last week.
As Tremoglie wrote so well in his latest article for National Review:
Fode Bade did not know he was supposed to feel oppressed in the United States. However, as a native of Guinea, he certainly knew what oppression was. Entrenched poverty and periodic political violence plagued the African nation, and Bade’s survival to the next day was not guaranteed. In 2005, he came to the United States as a political refugee and was granted asylum. Free from the oppression of his native land, Bade prospered in America. And on July 4, he brimmed with pride as his four daughters and son became legal citizens of the United States at a special naturalization ceremony at the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.
On July 1, at the behest of Colin Kaepernick, Nike recalled their special Betsy Ross Flag Air Max 1 USA sneakers after the former quarterback expressed concerns over what “he believed are its associations with an era of slavery.” A billion-dollar corporation and a millionaire ex-athlete declared the patriotic flag as a symbol of racial oppression. Yet, on July 4, an African family, from a country victimized by the transatlantic slave trade, eagerly became citizens of a country under that very flag. Bade proudly stated, “I’m so grateful to this country.”
As part of “Welcome America,” Philadelphia’s annual weeklong July 4 celebration, 13 children became American citizens at a special ceremony at the Betsy Ross House. Thirteen children are selected to commemorate the original 13 colonies, and the venue is chosen in honor of the seamstress of the first United States flag featuring the stars and stripes. The ceremony is in its 15th year and features a swearing-in ceremony, patriotic decorations, colonial reenactors, and the symbolic ringing of a bell — one time by each of the children — to honor the 13 original colonies. “Coming here, being an American citizen is the greatest thing someone can have on this earth,” Bade told National Review. . . .
Continue reading Tremoglie’s piece by clicking here. He captured some amazing pictures of the celebration (including the photo at the top of this post). And a special shout goes out to the Betsy Ross House, who continue to stand by the original flag and its intended message, which is not about slavery or oppression, but about freedom and liberty for all people.
As folks like Megan Rapinoe, Colin Kaepernick, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez curse and stomp their feet in the corner, President Trump is reaching across the aisle and getting things done; enacted bills with bipartisan support are at a 20-year high.
Megan Rapinoe isn’t going to the “f**cking White House.” Colin Kaepernick, outraged by the hateful symbol otherwise known as the American flag, isn’t going to honor a country that made him a multimillionaire. And freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, well, she’s going to label everyone on planet earth a racist – including Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and all of the Democrat’s centrist “segregationists” – and when that’s done, she’s going to speak with NASA about looking for some racists on Mars, too.
That’s the behavior of the American Left. We’ve entered a hyper-politically correct age driven by divisive identity politics – where the content of a person’s character is secondary to their race, gender, and sexuality. Which means when liberals don’t get their way, they throw a temper tantrum like John McEnroe or Lou Piniella. They curse, pout, scream and hold their ears until the person they disagree with grows tired of trying to reason with them. When that doesn’t work, they start using the failsafe words: racist, sexist, homophobe, Islamophobe, xenophobe, and the hottest new phobia, straight out of Frankenstein’s linguistic laboratory, transphobe.
And what is President Trump doing while all this nonsense is happening? While AOC is screaming at the border about policies that existed since President Clinton and passing around pictures of caged children taken during Obama’s presidency? Why, Trump is getting things done, that’s what. Lots of things, in fact. And not just ramming legislation down everyone’s throats, either. He’s reaching across the aisle and coming together with his political opponents and finding common ground.
According to the Pew Research Center, “Between its inception in January 2017 and its final day on Jan. 3, the GOP-led 115th Congress enacted 442 public laws, the most since the 110th Congress (2007-09).” And most notably, almost 70 percent of these bills were bipartisan, the most in 20 years. As noted by Pew Research:
Perhaps its most significant law was the $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December 2017. Besides reducing income taxes on individuals and businesses, the law repealed the tax intended to enforce the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s mandate that most Americans carry health insurance.
On the international front, Trump has also been working his magic on foreign policy. As reported by The Hill:
On the biggest stage, he excoriates our NATO allies and yet comes home with a larger NATO budget and an unprecedented visit from the European Union (EU) to seriously negotiate a trade deal. He pulls the same stunt with Canada and Mexico, with similar results. But that, of course, is not the trick. The real stunt is that he then begins to negotiate a much more important deal with China without needing to watch his back from Europe, Canada and Mexico.
And the economy, according to the Wall Street Journal:
“The job market doesn’t get much better than this. The U.S. economy has added jobs for 100 consecutive months. Unemployment recently touched its lowest level in 49 years. Workers are so scarce that, in many parts of the country, low-skill jobs are being handed out to pretty much anyone willing to take them—and high-skilled workers are in even shorter supply. All sorts of people who have previously had trouble landing a job are now finding work. Racial minorities, those with less education and people working in the lowest-paying jobs are getting bigger pay raises and, in many cases, experiencing the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for their groups.”
Today, the stock market reached an all-time high, closing above 27,000 for the first time ever. In short, Trump is getting things done. Ironically, the so-called “divisive” president is making deals and finding common ground. And he’s doing it despite the histrionics of outraged liberals like Rapinoe, Kaepernick, and the teary-eyed AOC.
Soccer star Megan Rapinoe continues to spread misinformation about Trump, despite his efforts to protect the integrity of women’s sports and to end the criminalization of homosexuality in dozens of nations.
Megan Rapinoe, the co-captain of the United States women’s World Cup team, is an extremely talented soccer player. But like many professional athletes and celebrities, her fame and fortune have impacted her ability to accurately process reality, and she lives in an alternate universe where she projects her own intolerance onto others and manufactures acts of oppression out of whole cloth.
For all of her incessant talk of “inclusion,” she’s ironically big on the theme of exclusion. She excluded herself from participating in the national anthem during the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament, she excluded herself from accepting Trump’s invitation to visit the White House (I’m not going to the f**king White House, were her exact words), and has apparently persuaded her teammates into excluding themselves from visiting Trump, too.
During a recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Rapinoe had this to say to President Trump:
“Your message is excluding people. You’re excluding me, you’re excluding people that look like me, you’re excluding people of color, you’re excluding Americans that maybe support you. What you’re saying about Make America Great Again, I think that you’re harking back to an era that was not great for everyone. It might have been great for a few people and maybe America’s great for a few people right now but it’s not great for enough Americans. . . .”
Anderson Cooper then followed up with this comment:
“The idea of Make America Great Again if it means going back to an America from the ‘40s or ‘50s, that’s an America where you could be imprisoned for being gay or you could be sent by your family to a mental hospital where you could not walk down the street holding hands with your loved one or I could not walk down the street or go dancing or anything.”
Now, excuse me if I’m a little confused, but what in God’ name are these two talking about? Anderson Cooper can’t possibly believe that “Make America Great Again” means going back to the time “where you could be imprisoned for being gay or you could be sent by your family to a mental hospital,” can he? Of course not. This is exactly the kind of blatant, misrepresentation of information that is ruining CNN’s reputation, and has prompted Trump to declare that they are “fake news.”
Likewise, what does Rapinoe mean when she says Trump is “harking back to an era that was not great for everyone”? She provides no examples, making her rhetoric meaningless, propagandistic blather that celebrities like her spout to convince themselves they’re fighting against injustice, even if that injustice needs to be created by them (think Jussie Smollett).
Economically, everyone is doing better under Trump, especially minorities, whose unemployment rates are the lowest in 50 years. In terms of social issues, Trump is doing much to reform the criminal justice system, and passed the “First Step Act,” lauded by both Republicans and Democrats, which provides prisoners with a second chance through rehabilitative programs, fair sentencing, and smart confinement, and helps inmates successfully transition back into society.
Trump even opened his administration to the concerns of the African American community, inviting Kanye West – who actually went to the White House – to lead a forum designed to ease the relationship between black citizens and police. Perhaps Rapinoe might want to watch the video, “The Young Black Conservatives of Trump’s America,” which has 3.2 million views, and features conservative actress Stacey Dash and pro-Trump activist Candace Owens, who also went to the White House to meet with Trump about important issues in the black community.
As for Rapinoe’s ridiculous statement that Trump is excluding people that look like her, this is another example of her complete isolation from real world events, and of her penchant for gobbling down the latest anti-Trump agitprop. Not even six weeks ago, Trump became the first Republican president ever to recognize LGBTQ Pride Month, Tweeting:
“As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.”
In February of 2019, Trump even launched a global effort to end criminalization of homosexuality. According to NBC News:
The Trump administration is launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality in dozens of nations where it’s still illegal to be gay, U.S. officials tell NBC News, a bid aimed in part at denouncing Iran over its human rights record.
U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump administration, is leading the effort, which kicks off Tuesday evening in Berlin. The U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner to plan to push for decriminalization in places that still outlaw homosexuality — mostly concentrated in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.
Despite Trump’s pro-LGBTQ policies, the effort to paint him as “homophobic” by people like Rapinoe continues. Specifically, LGBTQ activists bring up the fact that Trump opposed the LGBTQ nondiscrimination bill (The Equality Act, H.R. 5), but there were two reasons for this. One, the bill, which was passed in May, gives males who identify as females the right to women’s spaces, which, according to Rep. Mike Johnson, “eliminates sex-based protections for women by forcing rape crisis centers, lady’s locker rooms, female prisons, women’s sports leagues and other sex-based organizations to admit biological males.”
Two, the bill allows biological males who identify as females to compete in women’s sports, and gives them access to athletic scholarships and Title IX funding set aside for females; Republican legislators tried to amend The Equality Act to protect women’s spaces and sports, including Title IX funding, but Democrats pushed the bill through unchanged.
Ironically, it’s Trump who’s actually protecting the integrity of the U.S. women’s World Cup team by refusing to support a bill that gives biological males who identify as females the right to compete with women. I wonder how Megan Rapinoe would feel if she – or any of her teammates on the World Cup soccer team, for that matter – lost their spots on the roster to transwomen (that is, biological men who identify as women)?
This could happen sooner than you think. In April of 2017, the FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women’s National Team in a scrimmage, 5 – 2. And yes, Megan Rapinoe was on that team. Allow me to repeat: the FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women’s National Team, 5 – 2. Basically, with The Equality Act now on the books, it’s only a matter of time before transgender women at any level – high school, college, or even pro – start plucking away the U.S. women’s World Cup roster, one by one.
And what would Rapinoe have to say about that, once she’s unemployed? Would she still hate Trump with the same level of passion?
Only time will tell. The universe and Mother Nature don’t take sides, and they don’t care a wit for self-righteous, uninformed soccer players, either.
Zack Ford, a writer for Think Progress, says you can’t wear a MAGA hat and still be a loving person. I respectfully disagree.
Zack Ford, an LGBT advocate who covers the Trump administration for Think Progress, is having trouble feeling the MAGA love. Recently, Zack broke off a friendship with an old high school acquaintance because the woman posted a picture of herself on Facebook wearing a MAGA hat while holding her daughter in her lap. Although Zack and this woman, who is an evangelical Christian who believes in traditional marriage, had respectful disagreements in the past, seeing the woman “proudly wearing a MAGA hat in public – and with her daughter no less,” was too much for this man to take.
It’s not just a hat. It’s a symbol of all of the oppression and injustice the Trump administration is responsible for. It’s an endorsement of caging kids, banning Muslims, firing trans people, and dozens of other ways Trump has undermined our democracy – up to and including the fascist military display that graced the National Mall last night. More than anything, “MAGA” represents the idea that some human lives are worth more than others.
Now, that’s a lot of stuff to project onto a hat. Especially when these projections are not totally accurate representations of reality. Trump doesn’t endorse caging kids or separating families, but has signed an executive order to keep illegal immigrant families together during the detention process (the law that prohibits minors from being held in adult detention centers has been on the books for decades, which is why Trump has been fighting so hard to pass legislation that will keep children and families safe by ensuring immigrants and refugees come through legal ports of entry).
Trump never banned Muslims, either. The countries on his travel ban were the exact same countries on President Obama’s list, which included two non-Muslim nations and excluded Indonesia, which has over 225 million Muslims, more than any other country in the world. In 2018 the Supreme Court agreed with the legality of the ban, and upheld Trump’s executive order. As for the statement of a “fascist military display that graced the National Mall” on Independence Day, Zack should watch Trump’s full “Salute to America” on YouTube, which is actually pretty cool. I don’t consider celebrating the history behind the birth of our great nation, as well as honoring the brave men and women who died for our freedom, “fascist.” I consider it patriotic, but that’s just me.
Zack Ford (Twitter)
Still, if Zack wants to portray these events in a bitter, resentful and negative light, that’s his prerogative. His life experiences shape the seeds of his perceptions, and he has every right to water these seeds. As the French novelist Anaïs Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” So touché, Zack. Project all of this stuff onto the MAGA hat, and get yourself worked into a tizzy.
But back to Zack’s inability to tolerate his friend’s MAGA hat:
I explained all of this to my old friend. To those inclined to reject the humanity of any particular group, a MAGA hat is a symbol of affirmation – license and encouragement to continue holding those beliefs. To members of those many rejected groups, it’s a threat – a warning that such prejudice is welcome in that person’s vicinity (and may come from them directly). It’s unacceptable to me to be subjected to that symbol from someone with whom I hypothetically have mutual trust.
So Zack gave the woman an ultimatum: he’d end their friendship, unless she apologized for wearing the MAGA hat and promised to never post it on his social media feed again. At this point Zack’s friend defended herself, saying she was equally offended by the Pride flag, which Zack said in turn was a “false equivalency,” because the MAGA hat was a symbol of “exclusion,” and the Pride flag was a symbol of “inclusion.” Not that a single group of people has ever been prevented from voting for Trump or supporting his MAGA agenda. In fact, the number of blacks and Hispanics backing Trump is steadily rising, as minority unemployment levels are the lowest in American history. The same goes for American Muslims and legal immigrants: many are glad Trump is keeping them safe from terrorists and reserving jobs for actual citizens. As for the “inclusiveness” of the Pride flag, I don’t think those who support traditional marriage – like Christian baker Jack Phillips or Chick-fil-A – are invited to the rainbow party.
We have free speech, but we don’t have freedom from accountability for that speech. Anyone reading this is free to wear a MAGA hat, but you can’t both wear a MAGA hat and claim to “love thy neighbor.” You can’t both wear a MAGA hat and claim to respect me or millions of other Americans. You can’t both wear a MAGA hat and believe that you’re not reinforcing hate and oppression against others. We’re way too far past such naivete at this point, and I certainly want no part in helping you to convince yourself otherwise.
That’s the best part of Zack’s letter: We’re way too far past such naivete at this point, and I certainly want no part in helping you to convince yourself otherwise. Loose translation: Zack’s right, and everyone who disagrees with him is wrong. Period. End of discussion. He doesn’t really want to have a dialogue, anyway. He wants a monologue, a lecture, where he does all the talking and those in MAGA hats do all the listening. Where he not only gets to define who he is and what his beliefs are, but where he also gets to define MAGA people and their beliefs, too. See, folks like Zack want total control of the conversation. And right now, Zack’s telling everyone that Trump’s a racist pig, and so are his supporters, and so is that stupid, maddening MAGA hat.
So don’t wear it. Ever.
The nerve of this guy, really. But I’m not here to hate. I’m not here to project anger and division and bitterness onto the world like Zack, I’m here to love. If you’re reading this, Zack, allow me to apologize on behalf of the 63 million people who voted for Trump, including your old high school friend. We’re sorry, brother. We really are. We’re sorry you’re so infuriated by a hat, and that when you see this hat, you have the kind of meltdown that warrants the breaking up of a friendship that goes all the way back to high school (yes, the woman chose the hat over her friendship with Zack). We’re sorry you project so much contempt and antipathy onto this hat, so much anguish and pain.
But there is another way. It’s the way of Gandhi, and the Buddha, and Jesus, and Martin Luther King. You could open yourself to MAGA people like us, and actually listen to what we have to say. And when I say listen, I mean really listen, as in seeking first to understand, and then be understood. As in not projecting all your own baggage onto others, or onto a hat, or onto anything else. As in not making broad generalizations about tens of millions of people, or stereotyping every MAGA hat wearer as some hateful bigot, despite the fact some may exist. I mean this with all due respect, because I don’t know you from Adam, and all I have is this letter you posted on your blog. But know this: we’re probably the same, you and I. We both love our neighbors and want to help make the world a better place.
Trump people are good people, at least most of us are. We’re not “reinforcing hate and oppression against others,” like you insist. And there is more than one interpretation of that red hat, believe it or not. To me, MAGA is about loving America, and freedom, and God, and the Constitution. It’s about doing everything we can to improve the country for ALL people of ALL backgrounds, no matter their race, religion, gender, or sexuality.
But if you want to see the MAGA hat as hateful and oppressive, that’s your right, and I respect that. Just know there are millions of Americans, myself and your old high school friend included, who see the MAGA hat much, much differently, and you should respect that, too.
God bless you, Zack. May you find peace in the world and may your life go well.
Trump supporters – 63 million strong – are good people. I’ll say it again: Trump people are good people. The phrase may sound strange when you say it aloud, but this is because there are very few places where you can say it out loud. Proclaiming positives about Trump in the public domain is pretty risky, let’s be honest.
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” California Rep. Maxine Waters said last year at a protest rally against the president. “And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
At no other time in recent history have Americans faced such intense backlash for simply supporting the President of the United States. In January, Actress Alyssa Milano compared the MAGA hat to a KKK hood. During that same month, Nick Sandmann and his Covington Catholic schoolmates were wrongly maligned by the national news media for wearing the red hats (several newspapers, including the Washington Post, have since apologized). In May, Big League Politics, a conservative news site which created a platform to keep track of violence against MAGA supporters, had its account suspended by Twitter, with no warning or explanation.
Harassment has gotten so bad that a recent app was created to help Trump supporters find MAGA-friendly restaurants. As reported by the Hill:
A new app launched this month to help conservatives find “safe” restaurants and other businesses where they won’t be harassed for supporting President Trump. The 63red Safe app, described as “Yelp for conservatives,” was created in response to reports of Trump administration officials and Trump supporters being asked to leave restaurants.
The common factor in all of this, of course, is that Trump, his supporters, and their campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” have been hijacked and redefined by a hostile political resistance made up of politicians, celebrities, journalists, and academics. Since Trump won in 2016, no one seems to care about the 63 million people who voted for him, their take on important issues, or their view of the world. Not a wit.
The resistance to Trump and his supporters is an all-out effort to delegitimize his presidency and those who elected him. The anti-Trump people not only get to define who they are, but they also get to define who we are, too. They want total control. This is what’s behind Collin Kaepernick’s push to redefine America’s most revered symbols. It has very little to do with equality and so-called “social justice,” and everything to do with power and control; he wants to set the terms so he can control the argument.
The irony here is that Collin Kaepernick is the real intolerant bigot, who refuses to acknowledge that people’s views are just as diverse as the people themselves, and that co-opting something like the American flag to mean one thing at the exclusion of all else is not only wrong but completely self-absorbed. To quote the French novelist Anaïs Nin, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” If folks like Kaepernick could put aside their anger and bitterness for just a moment, they might realize we care about the same things as they do: solving problems and making the world a better place.
Dr. Michael W. Austin, a professor of philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University, wrote an interesting piece about Trump supporters in Psychology Today. Although he’s a Democrat, he had this to say:
Many Trump supporters are not racist, they are not sexist, they are not homophobic, they are not nationalists. They have genuine moral concerns that led them to vote for Donald Trump. They are morally decent people who care about their country, their communities, and their families.
What MAGA is really about is love. Love of country; love of God; love of the Constitution; love of freedom. And unlike liberals and social justice warriors, who see everything via the lens of race, religion, gender, and sexuality, MAGA strives to see people as people.
Trump’s Executive Order 13769: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, is not about hating Muslims, but about keeping all Americans safe—including Muslim-Americans; this is why the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban. Trump’s call for a secure border is not about disrespecting Mexicans, but about enforcing legal ports of entry to help refugees and immigrants arrive in the county safely, as well as to keep out drugs, gangs, and sex traffickers.
Donald Trump loves this country, and is doing everything he can to make it stronger for all people. We should be proud to support him.
We are all blessed to live in the greatest country in the world.
Philly Teachers for Trump would like to wish all Americans a happy Fourth of July!
To liberals who are frustrated with President Trump, a quote from George Orwell: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
To conservatives frustrated with the perpetual outrage of their liberal brothers, a quote from Woodrow Wilson: “The history of liberty is a history of resistance.”
To independents in the middle, a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes: “One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation evermore!”
To Collin Kaepernick, a quote from Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican revolutionary: “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”
For those interested in celebrating Independence Day by watching tonight’s “Salute to America” festivities, coverage begins at 6:30 PM ET. It will take place at the Lincoln Memorial with a focus on celebrating our U.S. armed forces, who have made countless sacrifices for our freedom: the parade will include tanks, military units and drill teams, flyovers by the Navy Blue Angels and the new Marine One, and a speech from President Trump. The event concludes with one of the biggest fireworks displays ever in the D.C. area.
Fox News, PBS, and C-SPAN will be covering the event live and uninterrupted; as of now, the major news networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) and some cable news channels (including CNN and MSNBC) are boycotting the celebration and refusing to air the “Salute to America” live on their television channels, insisting the festivities are a partisan event led by Trump. These stations will, however, air excerpts on their primetime and late night shows, giving them the opportunity to make selective edits and provide critical commentary.
God bless and have a happy holiday, no matter how you choose to celebrate our nation’s independence!
Philly Teachers For Trump 
