Name: Perspective | Donald Trump is the king of cancel culture
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Perspective | Donald Trump is the king of cancel culture

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This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift Share“President Trump stands against … cancel culture, which seeks to erase our history,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday.Talk of “cancel culture” — as the “popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive” — is everywhere these days. “Social justice warriors are waging a dangerous 'Cancel Cultural Revolution,’” the headline in the New York Post. “Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, who’s next on the statue cancellation tour?” Fox’s Greg Gutfeld. Democrats are being “driven by this radical 'cancel culture’ left,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the left-bashing president has jumped on this particular “” bandwagon.AdvertisementBut here’s the hypocrisy: Donald Trump has embraced “cancel culture” his entire life. I cannot think of another politician, or public figure, who has spent more time trying to “cancel” critics than the thin-skinned former reality TV star in the Oval Office. Over the years, Trump has called for the boycott of leading U.S. brands such as Macy’s, Apple, and Harley Davidson, among others, because they displeased him in one way or another. He forces those around him into nondisclosure agreements and then threatens them with legal action if they dare speak out against him — including his own niece Mary, whose forthcoming tell-all book the president is desperately trying to … cancel.This approach has only been amplified since he came into office, a period that has found him publicly and repeatedly trying to cancel both social media companies () and network news channels () while calling for prominent journalists who have upset him, such as and , to be fired. (In private, Trump has gone much further: according to his , the president wants some journalists to be “executed.”)Then there is Colin Kaepernick. The president not only supported the benching of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback but insisted NFL owners sack other players, too. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” he at a rally in September 2017.AdvertisementTrump’s interest in silencing his opponents — the very thing cancel culture’s conservative critics decry — is more pronounced when he’s targeting members of his own political party. Take Mitt Romney. The sole Republican senator to in February faced an intense backlash from both the president and his ideological allies — especially after Trump him an “ass” and a “fool” and Romney’s impeachment. The president’s son the Utah senator be expelled from the GOP. The chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference he could not even guarantee Romney’s “physical safety” should the senator decide to attend the organization’s annual event. In short, at Trump’s behest, the Republican Party canceled their own former presidential candidate.Romney, of course, wasn’t the first independent-minded GOP member of Congress to endure such mistreatment at the hands of the Canceler-in-Chief. Remember Jeff Flake? . Bob Corker? . Justin Amash? . Mark Sanford? .It’s no secret that Republican officials now live in fear of having their careers ended by Trump, and/or his base, if they step out of line. After Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate, dared to vote against Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, in March 2019, he was from a local dinner by a Missouri county GOP committee. After Anthony Scaramucci, the president’s former communications director, described Trump’s attack on four congresswomen of color as in July 2019, he was by the Palm Beach County GOP from its annual Lobsterfest fundraiser.AdvertisementEven loyalists aren’t safe from a potential cancellation. After Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), voted in favor of limiting Trump’s authority to start a conflict with Iran, in January, a White House official that it was “quite unwise” for him to have cast such a vote and “added that White House officials would not be returning Gaetz’s phone calls, text messages, ‘smoke signals or his kneelings in the snow.’”Then there are the public servants who dared to testify against Trump during the House impeachment hearings. Ambassador and were both canceled by the president for having the temerity to speak out. Trump even Vindman’s brother for the crime of being his identical twin.The dead aren’t spared, either. The late Republican Sen. John McCain is such an objectionable figure to the president that White House officials asked “the U.S. Navy to move ‘out of sight’ the warship USS John S. McCain ahead of President Trump’s visit to Japan,” according to the in May 2019. (The ship was named after the father and grandfather of the late Republican senator — so much for Trump standing against the “erasing of our history”!)AdvertisementWhile Trump has taken “cancel culture” to new and authoritarian heights, the conservative moment as a whole has spent years loudly withdrawing support for those deemed “objectionable or offensive.” The Republican National Committee boycotted and even the conservative . A conservative group tried to boycott and for (what it claimed) were offensive ads. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) tried to cancel and the . Fox News fans tried to cancel by smashing the company’s coffee machines. Right-wing pundit Erick Erickson tried to cancel the — by shooting bullets into a copy of it!Recall also what happened to the Dixie Chicks — now known simply as the . In March 2003, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the band said they were that President George W. Bush was from their home state of Texas. In response, conservatives them as “Saddam’s Angels,” “Dixie Sluts, and “traitors,” and them from hundreds of conservative radio stations across the country. In Bossier City, La., hundreds of pro-Bush protesters used a to physically crush the band’s CDs.The list of conservative “cancel culture” targets stretches back decades, long before the dawn of the Internet. In 1966, right-wing Christians tried to John Lennon, after he claimed the Beatles were than Jesus. The British band received death threats in the United States and a Birmingham, Ala., radio station a bonfire and invited teens to burn their Beatles records.AdvertisementSo ignore the hysterical attacks on “cancel culture” from the right. Not only because they are a and endless talk of a leftist “cancel culture” mob is a “joke” and a “con,” as Osita Nwanevu has in the New Republic, but because they are a product of bad faith and brazen hypocrisy.Right now, in 2020, here in the United States, we have an anti-free speech, authoritarian egomaniac sitting in the White House, backed by a steeped in , constantly cracking down on critics, dissenting voices, and unpopular opinions. Donald Trump and the Republican Party have never stood against “cancel culture.” To the contrary, they embody it. CommentsGift ArticleTOP STORIESAdvice for Real LifeAdvice for the relationships in your life and how to boost your own well-being.Try a different topic or to save your preferences

This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift Share“President Trump stands against … cancel culture, which seeks to erase our history,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday.Talk of “cancel culture” — as the “popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive” — is everywhere these days. “Social justice warriors are waging a dangerous 'Cancel Cultural Revolution,’” the headline in the New York Post. “Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, who’s next on...

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Perspective | Donald Trump is the king of cancel culture

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