Trump’s attacks on Asian Americans are not only ‘disgusting,’ but ‘politically stupid’: columnist

Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on his former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in appalling anti-Asian attacks are not only “disgusting” but politically insane, a Bloomberg columnist warned on Saturday.

Trump’s racism mindlessly alienates a powerful electoral bloc with “growing influence,” wrote Robert A. George.

If the Republican Party doesn’t have the guts to confront Trump on its “ideological or moral” failings, “how about doing it for crude political gain?” He asked.

George was clearly referring to Trump’s relentless and blatantly racist attacks on Truth Social against Chao, apparently largely as a means of revenge against his political enemy, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) – and because Chao left Trump administration after the violence of the January 6, 2021, uprising.

Trump’s attacks echo his youthful renaming of COVID-19 as ‘Kung Flu’ – but are even worse, George argued.

Calling a Taiwanese-American woman “Coco Chow”… “crosses a line rarely seen in politics (at least if you don’t count Trump),” George writes. As Chao notes, racist “name mockery” is “painfully common for many Asian Americans,” he notes.

Chao, who had been silent about the attacks for a month, finally told Politico in a statement earlier this week, “When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” she added. Trump “doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a lot more about him than he will ever say about Asian Americans.”

The blowback will be on Trump — and Republicans, George warned. Trump’s behavior and lack of Republican criticism is so “politically stupid,” he observed, because many Asian Americans seem open to Republican policies. But “Trump’s animosity is almost pathological,” and he’s unlikely to be in control of himself, or controlled by his party, George noted.

He warned that if Trump “continues to make racist comments about an Asian American woman who served more capably in four Republican administrations (including his own) — while other Republicans aren’t saying a word.” Repudiation — well, the Democrats of 2024 political ads practically write themselves, especially if Trump is the nominee.