President Trump took aim at Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) official 2020 presidential announcement on Saturday, mocking her claims of Native American ancestry in a tweet claiming that Warren would run as the country’s first potential “Native American presidential candidate.”
In the tweet posted hours after Warren’s presidential campaign announcement earlier in the day, Trump joked that he would “see [Warren] on the campaign TRAIL,” which many said was a reference to the “Trail of Tears” forced relocation of Native American tribes that led to the death of as many as 8,000 Cherokee between 1830 and 1850.
“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!” he wrote.
Trump has frequently mocked Warren for her claims of Native American ancestry, dubbing the Massachusetts senator “Pocahontas” and making jokes aimed at past statements she has made referencing unspecified Native American ancestry.
His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reacted to the joke on Instagram on Saturday by sharing a response from right-wing media personality Michael Malice, who tweeted that “The Native American genocide continues with another murder by the president.”
“Savage,” Trump Jr. said. “I love my president.”
Warren announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination Saturday at a rally in her home state, taking aim at both Trump and a “rigged system” she said of which the billionaire GOP president was a “symptom.”
“Hard-working people are up against a small group that holds far too much power, not just in our economy, but also in our democracy. Like the women of Lawrence, we are here to say enough is enough!” Warren said. Trump is a “symptom of what’s gone wrong in America,” she added, calling out a “rigged system that props up the rich and the powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else.”
She joins a crowded field of presidential candidates that include her fellow Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), as well as others such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and former HUD secretary Julian Castro.