While many of us thought Donald Trump couldn't get any more racist, he proved us wrong (again) this past week. The Muslim-American parents of deceased U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, Khizr and Ghazala, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia two weeks ago. The couple called out Trump for his Islamophobic hate speech and Mr. Khan told the GOP presidential nominee to "look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one."
Since the iconic speech, many have urged Mr. Khan to run for the Virginia legislature through the fundraiser "Yes We Khan." The fundraiser was started by veterans activist Tom Keefe and hopes to persuade Mr. Khan to run for office. Mr. Khan has yet to respond to Keefe and fellow supporters of "Yes We Khan."
In response to the speech, Trump told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News during an interview on the following Sunday, "I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot." Based on his answer, Trump equates the "sacrifices" of employing people with the sacrifices of serving in active-duty, even though there is no logical comparison between the two.
As though targeting a fallen soldier's grieving parents wasn't outrageous enough, Trump also went after Mrs. Khan's "silence" during her husband's speech. In the same interview with ABC News, Trump said, "If you look at [Khizr's] wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably - maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."
Trump's implication that Mrs. Khan was quiet beside her husband because she wasn't allowed to speak is both obscene and offensive. His inability to display empathy, understand the traumatic loss the Khan family relived at the DNC, and use of the speech as another platform to spread Islamophobia is further proof of his dangerous ignorance toward the Khans and Islam. Mrs. Khan responded to Trump's idiocy in a letter to the Washington Post, where she elaborated on her silence and appropriately shut down Trump's offensive suggestion.
This isn't the first time Trump has made racist comments toward other races. Among countless other instances, Trump claimed the presiding judge in the case filed against him by former students from his Trump University scam, "happens to be, we believe, Mexican." Trump suggests that because of Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel's Mexican heritage (and the previous unflattering comments Trump publicly shared about Hispanics and Latinos), the judge may allow personal bias to influence his decision in the case.
Amid growing outrage for his comments from figureheads belonging to both major political parties, Trump took to social media to further criticize Captain Khan's parents. In an effort to gain support from sympathizers, he claimed Mr. Khan "viciously attacked" him in his DNC speech. Trump also attempted to change the conversation from his disrespectful remarks about the Khans to "radical Islamic terrorism," a dangerously misguided concept Trump has been barking at his followers for months.
Trump's relationship with veterans has been increasingly strained after it was revealed he received five deferments during the Vietnam War after he became eligible to register for the draft. One was for "bad heels," although Trump never provided a letter of proof for the "temporary condition" that no longer exists today.
Not only is Trump unable to demonstrate a basic respect toward the parents of military personnel, but he has exploited the Khan's grief to continue to dehumanize Muslims. There's nothing more disheartening than hearing a grown man trying to win the presidency of the United States target a fallen soldier's family, and then attempt to justify his actions by scapegoating a religion he knows nothing about. I am severely disappointed in Trump and his supporters for causing the Khans more emotional pain, and continuing to spread the same dangerous misconceptions about Islam.
