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There’s an old adage that says when you’re in a hole, stop digging. But when President Donald Trump is deep in the dirt, he always reaches for a new shovel.

This month, Trump hit a new low.

The president was embroiled in a war of words with three women of color: Carmen Yulín Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico; U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson; and Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, soldier who was killed in Niger.

Trump is a bully who routinely picks fights with women and this month was no different: Trump specifically targeted women of color in an endless series of misguided rants.

He openly bickered with Rep. Wilson, a Democrat from Florida, after Wilson accused Trump of disrespecting Johnson during a condolence phone call from Trump to Johnson.

Wilson, who said she listened to the call on speakerphone, said Trump told Johnson that her husband “knew what he was getting into.”

Meanwhile, Johnson said Trump didn’t remember her husband’s name during their phone call.

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America last week, Johnson said Trump stumbled on her husband’s name and made her cry.

But Trump disputed Johnson’s account of the condolence call and defended himself — essentially calling Johnson a liar.

“I was really nice to her. I respect her, I respect her family, I certainly respect La David, who I, by the way, called La David right from the beginning,” Trump said. “They put a chart in front, La David, it says La David Johnson.”

Why did Trump need to wage a war of words with Wilson? And why didn’t Trump just say “I’m sorry” to Johnson instead of disagreeing with her publicly? Why can’t he show respect to a grieving widow? What kind of insensitive, mean-spirited person argues with the widow of a fallen soldier?

It’s inconceivable that the President of the United States can be so callous, tone-deaf and disrespectful to women of color – and also women who serve in leadership roles.

 

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Responding to Mayor Cruz’s plea for help after Hurricane Irma devastated the island, Trump took to Twitter to criticize Cruz for weak leadership and challenged her assessment that some of Puerto Rico’s residents were dying because of the federal government’s slow response to a humanitarian crisis.

“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” Trump tweeted. “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

What a shameful response to a catastrophe. Instead of offering comfort to residents, Trump basically calls them lazy.

Here’s a update: Much of Puerto Rico is still without power and some residents are still without fresh drinking water. The storm knocked out 80 percent of the island’s power transmission lines, As of October 16, some 86 percent of the island’s 1.57 million electricity customers were still without power, 20 percent of gas stations are still closed, and fresh drinking water is still scarce. Trump, the most insensitive president in modern memory, blamed the media for exaggerating the crisis in Puerto Rico.

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Trump also infuriated African-American NFL players after he called for players who kneel during the national anthem to be cut from their respective teams.

Trump said NFL owners should respond to players who kneel by saying, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired!”

But a new poll by HBO Real Sports/Marist University shows that more than two-thirds of respondents said President Donald Trump was wrong to call for the firing of NFL players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said Trump was wrong by calling for the firing of NFL players who protest during the national anthem.

Trump weighed into the NFL controversy the same week that Puerto Rico was experiencing the early devastation of Hurricane Maria. Trump blasted NFL players on Twitter even as officials in Puerto Rico were pleading for help from the federal government, saying residents of Puerto Rico were dying.

Trump is incapable – or unwilling – to express empathy for those who are suffering and he has no respect for issues remotely related to social justice.

He’s a menace to American decency.

What do you think?

 Tavis Smiley talks Trump: 

PHOTO: AP

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