The face of the 2016 presidential election has without a doubt been Donald Trump. He has been controversy personified with reckless abandon. Like most candidates, he takes to Twitter to make political points and address current events. To no surprise, Donald Trump's Twitter is full of the same xenophobia, racism and bigotry that has sparked this political success in the race to be the next president of the United States. As March is coming to a close, let's take a closer look at 10 of Donald Trump's most insensitive, controversial and just plain stupid tweets about some of the key political issues over the past four years. Enjoy!
1. The Ebola Crisis
That's right. Donald Trump said that those who travel to Africa to assist the hundreds of millions susceptible to the Ebola crisis need to "suffer the consequences." I'm sorry, but what!? You can't say that people that are helping out are just wonderful and then tell them that they need to suffer what they are trying to help and stay out of the United States. Indeed, that caution is necessary with keeping Ebola out of the US, but this is utterly unacceptable and insensitive. That would be analogous to sending a firefighter to save people in a burning building only to "suffer the consequences" of suffering burn injuries or dying himself/herself.
2. 9/11
Congratulations, Donald! You celebrate 9/11 like it's Christmas or Easter wishing ALL people a Happy September the 11th...even all the haters and losers. This isn't really all that controversial; it's just really stupid with the language chosen. Since the most notorious "haters and losers" to the U.S. are terrorists, I hope they wished you a happy 9/11 back...considering they were the ones who got it started 15 years ago.
3. Global Warming
Just to be clear, global warming and climate change is real. It is as real as the Earth you stand on. The earth is getting hotter, and instead use it as a political point about China? Let me tell you: if China really wanted make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive, it doesn't need a concept like global warming. As a matter of fact, thank you, China! Having the world's interest in mind by trying to get us to stop burning coal and fossil fuels that emit the Greenhouse effect that is global warming.
4. 2012 Presidential Election
Barack Obama won the popular vote....by a lot. Next.
5. Paris Terrorist Attack
Now here's something surprising: Donald Trump makes a point about gun control in France. First of all, he's correct that France and almost all Western European countries have the strictest gun laws in the world. However, the fact that he is correct makes everyone's argument about him being a total moron. Laws are created by the people of these countries for they understand that gun control is vital to the society they now live in. So the "terrorists" apart of ISIS decided to break these laws. ISIS has strongholds in the Middle Eastern countries of Syria and Iraq...thousands of miles from France. So he is telling the world that ISIS has to follow France's gun laws? Terrorists? They broke the international and moral laws of murder and destruction. So nice try, Donald.
6. Women in the Military
Now what makes these tweet terrible is not the fact that it is utterly disgusting, but the fact that the first sentence is a claim that there is a problem but with no solution. Women fighting for our country is one of the greatest milestones of gender equality in our nation's history. Instead of providing a solution, he spreads blame that women should not even be in the military. Are you kidding me? You had a perfect opportunity to support women in their time of need with a great sexual assault statistic, and you respond with "what did these geniuses expect?" My lord.
7. Immigration
The irony here is just plain hilarious. His grandparents literally saw the United States get taken over by immigrants. As a matter of fact, they were a part of the immigration that Trump claims they did not come to see.
8. Black President
If you are claiming that the American people will base their presidential choice based on the color of their skin I would agree with you....in 1965. However you feel about President Barack Obama or whatever kind of job he has done, we will have another African-American president in the White House. Why? Because if this is the country I love and have grown up to love, I know it is full of people who will make their choice based on their own circumstances and not the color of their skin. America is not as racist as you, Donald Trump.
9. Protesters at Rallies
So you're telling me that protestors, who also have First amendment rights, cannot use their first amendment rights to protest, assemble, and protest on your racist xenophobic hate speech, your tolerance of violence at your rallies, your disgusting opinions on women's rights, and just ignorant claims that you know everything there is about terrorism, the economy, foreign diplomacy, and mental health? Screw you. These are working class citizens who have an opinion about you. Get over it. If thugs really showed up at your rallies, it would be a very different headline.
10. Disabilities and Mental Illness
We all know about his attack to the mentally handicapped journalist he made last November, and this tweet really got to me. First of all, the phrase "properly functioning brain" is an utterly pathetic attack on someone. You are pretty much saying that Rand Paul is mentally challenged. Well Donald Trump, there is vast population of people out in this country who were born without a "properly functioning brain." Kids born with down syndrome lack a "properly functioning brain." A war veteran who suffers from night terrors due to post-traumatic stress disorder lacks a "properly functioning brain." A man suffering from cerebral palsy is too without "properly functioning brain." You claim that living mentally incompetent is a bad thing and will result in bad outcomes. How can that be true when I've seen soldiers overcome PTSD, watched children with down syndrome win homecoming queen and go on to college, read of an autistic man discover the theory of relativity, and witnessed kids who can't walk or talk like I can do the impossible. They have just as much of an ability to be great in this country. Taking them down will only make this country worse again.
If Donald Trump is elected president, I can only hope that this truly isn't who he is. I hope that he does in fact care about women, condemns racism, believes in equal opportunity and sees illegal immigrants as working class people who only want a better life...or not. Do we want a president whose Twitter looks like a thread on a Facebook about Fox News coverage on Bengazi and Black Lives Matter. If that is America's choice, then so be it. But if America's choice is based on a Twitter account as radical and controversial as Trump's, I suppose we can lock in Kanye West for the 2020 election.