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In a "listening session" Wednesday for Black History Month, U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated his incredibly shallow knowledge of Black history in the United States while spending most of his speech lashing out at the news media, complaining to a group of his supporters that most reporters who cover him are a "disgrace."
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“I'm speechless,” journalist Shaun King said in a Facebook post reacting to Trump’s speech.
“It's like a very young child who hardly knew that Black people existed wrote these remarks. He actually thanks Frederick Douglass and then speaks about him in present tense saying ‘He has done an amazing job.’”
Douglass, an African-American revolutionary, abolitionist and statesman, died in 1895.
Trump then mentioned Martin Luther King, Jr. “whose incredible example is unique in American history,” before he started slamming the media over the false story that King’s bust was removed from the Oval Office.
“You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. It turned out that that was fake news. Fake news. The statue is cherished," he told a group of supporters from the Black community.
Shortly after his speech, social media users began to poke fun at Trump and the way his speech lacked any substance on Black history. On Twitter, many started writing hypothetical quotes of how Trump would talk about other Black heroes and events.
“Malcolm X was great. Good man. Loved that movie based on his life. American History X. Huge film,” Twitter user Matt Laughery wrote. “I love the Black folks who invented the Underground Railroad. Fastest way to get around New York City,” another user wrote.
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The Black community in the United States is arguably the demographic which least supported Trump as many saw his rhetoric during the campaign as giving rise to white supremacism and feeding into racism. Trump and his “Make America Great Again” slogan gained the endorsement of former leader of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke.
As the country engaged in a national debate over police brutality and killings of Black people, he pledged during his campaign to improve the lives of Black residents of inner cities by supporting more policing. Last month, Trump threatened to "send in the Feds" if Chicago did not get its murder rate under control.
“Rosa Parks? I like all parks. Orchid Parks? Bigly! Daisy Parks? The best! Pansy Parks? Sad! I build the best parks,” another Twitter user wrote Wednesday.
The social media ridicule of his speech on Black History Month is far from unfounded. Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he lacks the knowledge and respect for the African-American struggle in the United States.
Critics pointed to Trump’s recent Twitter spat with Representative John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and civil rights leader who marched with King. Last month, Lewis called Trump an “illegitimate president,” prompting Trump to go after the civil rights leader describing him as “all talk, talk, talk — no actions or results. Sad!”
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