More lies and bigotry and racism from Trump

Another day, another appalling spectacle of dishonesty and bigotry.  Here is the dishonesty:

Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump explained to an interviewer for the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christians in Syria were “horribly treated” and alleged that under previous administrations, “if you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible.”

“I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them,” the president said.

In fact, the United States accepts tens of thousands of Christian refugees. According to the Pew Research Center, almost as many Christian refugees (37,521) were admitted as Muslim refugees (38,901) in the 2016 fiscal year.

As far as bigotry, Trump announced that he will favor Christian refugees over Muslim refugees:

In an executive order that he said was part of an extreme vetting plan to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists,” Mr. Trump also established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations: He ordered that Christians and others from minority religions be granted priority over Muslims.

And here’s the racism:

More details are emerging about the 23 January meeting between President Trump and the leaders of the House and Senate, where the premier [?] was said to repeat false claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.

If true, Trump’s claim would amount to the largest electoral fraud in American history. When one of the Democrats questioned what proof Trump had of this massive voter fraud, he defended his claim by telling an anecdotal story that German golfer Bernhard Langer, who Trump described as a friend, had told him.

Trump said the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer – a German citizen who is ineligible to vote – told him recently of how he was standing in line at a polling station on Election Day, near Boca Raton, Florida, when he was turned away from the voting booth by an official.

Trump said that Langer witnessed people in line that didn’t look like they were legally allowed to be at the polls as evidence to support his voter fraud claim.

Now some will argue that’s not racism, perhaps Trump and Langer assumed that fat people were illegals, or people wearing white after Labor Day. But I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that race had something to do with the “look” of people who obviously were not qualified to vote.

It may be hard to believe, but there actually are some Hispanics and Asians who are here legally.  Indeed there are Hispanics whose families were living here before the Mayflower arrived.

BTW, here’s how many refugees we take in per capita, relative to other countries:

Screen Shot 2017-01-28 at 10.35.43 AMUpdate:

Alphabet Inc.’s Google delivered a sharp message to staff traveling overseas who may be impacted by a new executive order on immigration from President Donald Trump: Get back to the U.S. now.

Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai slammed Trump’s move in a note to employees Friday, telling them that more than 100 company staff are affected by the order.

“It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues,” Pichai wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. “We’ve always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so.”

I’m running out of things to say.


Tags:

 
 
 

22 Responses to “More lies and bigotry and racism from Trump”

  1. Gravatar of Devin Devin
    28. January 2017 at 08:30

    Agree with most everything in this post, but to be clear, Langer says this story was misconstrued and he wasn’t with Trump (and can’t even vote himself!). Instead, it was actually a second/third-hand story involving someone Langer knew that somehow made it to Trump. So even beyond showing Trump to be a racist, it also hammers home the already well-known fact that he is a perpetual liar.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/trump-bernhard-langer-voting-fraud.html?_r=0

    http://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/german-golfer-bernhard-langer-voter-fraud-story-used-by-trump-misconstrued/

  2. Gravatar of Tom Dougherty Tom Dougherty
    28. January 2017 at 10:14

    Scott Sumner’s lies, bigotry, and racism are once again on display. Trump was talking about refugees from Syria. Scott then lies and shows his bigotry and hatred toward Christians by lying about the number of Christian refugees. Of the 2,099 Syrian refugees entering Jan through May of 2016 only 6 were Christian, which is much lower than the Christian portion of the population of Syria. Trump is right and Scott is a deranged lying, racist, bigot.

    http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/1037-syrian-refugees-admitted-may-two-christians-1035-muslims

  3. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    28. January 2017 at 10:57

    FTA:

    “The story and details were told to The New York Times by three staff members who were in the room during the meeting between Trump and the lawmakers.”

    THE NEW YORK TIMES IS FAKE NEWS

    Sumner is so out to lunch.

    Brainwashed as brainwashed can be. Still totally clueless about the MSM. Two posts in a row on this. Lol

  4. Gravatar of Scott Freelander Scott Freelander
    28. January 2017 at 11:02

    My formal education is in neuropsychology and I honestly believe Trump is mentally ill. Not only is he a textbook case of extreme narcissistic personality disorder, but I think it’s highly likely he’s also suffering from some form of senility. Whether it’s Alzheimer’s or some less common form of ,senility, I don’t know, but Trump is mentally significantly less sharp then he seemed 10-15 years ago.

    I also suspect there’s an interaction effect between these two conditions. The severe insecurity underlying his narcicism grows with the slipping of his mental faculties, but only because people begin to doubt him more. He is personally unable to properly recognize his slipping mental faculties due to that very narcissism.

    As a result, I believe it likely Trump is not strategically lying or somehow strategically appearing to be unstable, but he in fact has severe problems determining what the truth is and is reacting very sincerely, given his condition. His emotional and mental instability is all too real and will only get worse. Republicans need to replace him with Pence as soon as possible, as Trump is medically unfit to serve.

  5. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    28. January 2017 at 11:18

    Devin, Good point.

    Tom, CNS News? Seriously? Has my blog sunk this low? In any case, that story doesn’t in any way support Trump’s claim, which is a lie.

    Scott, I don’t think mental illness is a useful term, but I will say that Trump has a deeply flawed mind.

  6. Gravatar of Scott Freelander Scott Freelander
    28. January 2017 at 12:07

    Scott,

    I don’t know what you mean by mental illness not being a useful term, but it is the one that likely applies, in my view. Obviously, the MMPI and some cognitive testing would be required to confirm. I think it’s useful because I think he has a severe medical condition that means he lacks the capacity to serve. Unless I’m misunderstanding something, this could be a solid basis for this cabinet to go to Congress with, and Trump can be removed from office, should he either refuse to undergo medical testing or should he test as sufficiently mentally ill.

    When first out of college, I used to perform 50 or so intake evaluations some days, and we would follow-up in many cases with the MMPI to confirm. There was almost always a great deal of agreement between my initial diagnoses and the MMPI results.

  7. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    28. January 2017 at 13:12


    “I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them,” the president said.
    In fact, the United States accepts tens of thousands of Christian refugees. According to the Pew Research Center, almost as many Christian refugees (37,521) were admitted as Muslim refugees (38,901) in the 2016 fiscal year.

    Regarding this point the NYT is actually cheating way more than Trump. The POTUS is explicitly talking about Syria. The NYT knows the numbers from Syria and decides that they don’t like them, so they looked for other numbers that have nothing to do with Syria at all.

    Nevertheless the Pew Research Center (the center that the NYT seems to like so much) got the real numbers about Syria:

    Refugee status was given to 12,587 Syrians in 2016. Nearly all of them (99%) were Muslim and less than 1% were Christian.

    You can interpret those real numbers how you want but not stating the real numbers from Syria and giving the impression that the other numbers they gave have anything to do with Syria and with what Trump said is fake news.

  8. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    28. January 2017 at 13:25

    I have to admit that I’m a bit surprised by Trump. I was part of the group who tended to say that you have to take him seriously but not literally. Now it seems more and more as if you have to take him seriously AND literally.

    I’m also surprised by his pace. I tended to think that he would take things more slowly but the opposite seems to be true. I’m curious how long he will be able to sustain that killing pace. At this rate I can’t really picture him lasting more than a year. I don’t mean healthwise but from a counter-revolutionary aspect.

  9. Gravatar of Viking Viking
    28. January 2017 at 15:28

    Hi Guys,

    Trump should not lie, that is the wrong thing to do.

    Why are there so few comments lately? Where did the alt-right commenters go?

  10. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    28. January 2017 at 16:09

    Christian, You completely missed the point. The data provided shows that we do not discriminate against Christians, unless you want to claim we discriminate against Christians from Syria, but not other countries, which would be really weird. The data refutes Trump’s claim. As far as why the recent imbalance from Syria, perhaps many more Muslims than Christians applied for refugee status from Syria. Ever consider that possibility? By now I’d guess there aren’t many Christians left in Syria, after so many years of discrimination. Many migrated in previous years. Trump has no evidence showing discrimination against Christians, and there’s lots of evidence against.

    I do agree that he won’t keep up this pace in a substantive sense, but he may keep making wacky statement for his entire period in office.

    He may want to get the controversial stuff out of the way early, so that he can appear to “moderate” later on.

    BTW, notice the four countries where all 19 of the 9/11 bombers came from are not on the list. I don’t suppose that’s because Trump has business dealings with these countries, is it? I mean seriously, is the next Islamic terrorist attack in the US more likely to be an Iranian or a Saudi? Even if you believed in this sick policy, it’s incompetent to a degree that’s almost beyond belief. It’s like Trump is purposely trying to look like an incompetent buffoon. But why?

  11. Gravatar of T. Okoye T. Okoye
    28. January 2017 at 16:32

    My own hypothesis is that Syrian Christians are also allied with the Assad regime. It is those who are not allied with the regime, like Sunni Muslims who have more cause to flee.

  12. Gravatar of foosion foosion
    28. January 2017 at 17:54

    “It’s like Trump is purposely trying to look like an incompetent buffoon. But why?” Good question. Consider:

    – Defending 7 country travel ban, snr admin official cites San Bernardino attack. Shooters were US citizen & Pakistani. Pakistan not on list.

    – Trump WH shielded ban order from “formal review by NSC lawyers, or by any agency, including DoD”

  13. Gravatar of Pcash Pcash
    28. January 2017 at 21:15

    https://mic.com/articles/166845/the-list-of-muslim-countries-trump-wants-to-ban-was-compiled-by-the-obama-administration#.xwFHjgqjZ

    Coincidence? Not sure.

  14. Gravatar of Bob Bob
    28. January 2017 at 21:20

    You are doing your part on this, and so is Tyler at MR.

    One of the saddest part of the election was to see how much of the right folded to Trump in topics where they know better, like immigration. Everyone expects the left to freak out in situations like this, and Trump will go unchecked if the only people that speak against this kind of thing are from the left or academic libertarians. Now, if we hear well known conservative voices speak against nonsense like this, we might force congress’ hand, and turn this administration into just something quite conservative, instead of the freakshow we are seeing here.

    GMU has plenty of rich conservative backers that conservative politicians can’t ignore. When it comes down to immigration, along with telling us what you think, you all should see if you could put some pressure in said backers. After all, they want to see a congress controlled by Paul Ryan for 8 years, but Trump’s behavior in immigration, along with the craziness of increasing trade barriers, seems like a recipe to lose seats and further corporate backing.

    Today large tech companies, some of the biggest in the nation, are very liberal and yet not necessarily pushing for liberal candidates everywhere. What if Trump’s behavior on immigration, which goes completely against Tech’s interests, makes them decide that they really have to go all in electing Democrats, because Republicans just bow to Trump in matters tech cares about?

    It’s in the right’s best interest to get Trump to back down on this kind of crap, and dedicate his efforts on building pipelines, putting conservatives in the supreme court and disenfranchising poor people. The kind of things that don’t really mobilize people.

  15. Gravatar of Scott Sumner Scott Sumner
    29. January 2017 at 07:38

    Okoye, That’s possible.

    foosion, Why am I not surprised?

    Pcash. Possible.

    Bob, Good points. Another option would be for libertarians to join the Dems, and try to make it a more business friendly party. Personally, I’ll always stay independent.

  16. Gravatar of Lawrence D’Anna Lawrence D'Anna
    29. January 2017 at 11:47

    I don’t think giving priority to jewish refuges from Nazi Germany would have been bigotry. I think it would have been the humane, utilitarian thing to do. And I don’t think giving priority to kuffir refugees from a genocidal Islamic tyranny like ISIS is bigotry either.

  17. Gravatar of Massimo Heitor Massimo Heitor
    29. January 2017 at 12:45

    BTW, in Austin TX, people have lost their minds. I have my upper division math professors from UT seriously contacting me and his other recent students to organize some anti-Trump resistance. The president of UT is criticizing Trump and siding with the citizens of foreign nations over the interests and preferences of US citizens. Any pretense of the university not being an overtly political tool has been discarded. The university system is, as Mencius Moldbug would say, “the cathedral” of modern day.

  18. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    30. January 2017 at 08:22

    Lawrence, I disagree.

    Massimo, You don’t seem to even understand your own leaders. If Moldbug read your comments he’d disassociate himself from you.

  19. Gravatar of Lawrence D’Anna Lawrence D'Anna
    30. January 2017 at 08:43

    Scott you disagree on one count or both? If only one, what the heck is the difference?

  20. Gravatar of JayT JayT
    30. January 2017 at 12:14

    The reason that I’ve heard for why there are so few Syrian Christian refugees is that the refugee camps are very inhospitable to them, so they avoid the camps. However, the camps are where the refugees come from, so almost no Christians are being brought over. I don’t know how accurate that assessment is, but it’s one I’ve seen around a lot. Here’s one example:
    http://www.newsweek.com/us-bars-christian-not-muslim-refugees-syria-497494

    I do agree though that the quote you chose is very disingenuous. It’s obvious that Trump was talking about Syrian Christians in particular, and as such bringing up how many Christians were allowed in from other countries is a non sequitur. I’ve seen a lot of reporting like this, and it drives me crazy. It’s not like Trump hasn’t done enough bad things to report on, but so much of the media seem to think that they need to dial everything up to 11, even if it isn’t correct.

  21. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    31. January 2017 at 14:15

    Lawrence, I don’t think refugees should be admitted on the basis of religion, rather it should be based on other factors. That’s not to deny the obvious, that it may be correlated with religion. But to take one example, gypsies were equally deserving in 1940, weren’t they?

    Jay, You and others are missing he point. The aggregate numbers show that the US does not discriminate. That suggests that the disparity in Syria is due to other factors. You may not agree with my argument, but that argument seems very reasonable to me.

    Unless you believe that the US is bigoted against Syrian Christians but not Iraqi Christians. Seriously, how likely is that?

  22. Gravatar of Lawrence D’Anna Lawrence D'Anna
    31. January 2017 at 16:34

    Scott, yes of course gypsies would be equally deserving. The criterion is “which refugees are in the greatest danger?” The reason religion comes into it is because genocidal bad guys like Nazis and ISIS target people to kill based on religion. If they’re also killing based on ethnicity then that’s just as important.

Leave a Reply