Merriam-Webster’s Top Search After Trump’s Campaign Rally: ‘Racism’

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary announced on Wednesday that during and after President Donald Trump‘s campaign rally that day the top definition searched was “racism.”

“Tonight’s top searches, in order: racism, socialism, fascism, concentration camp, xenophobia, bigot,” the dictionary’s official Twitter account shared.

This Sunday the president posted a string of tweets in which he said that four congresswomen of color, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts), should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” His suggestion caused outrage over its xenophobic nature and its implications that people of color are not loyal to the United States. His statement confused many as well, since three of the four representatives he was referring to were born in the United States, and all four of them are American citizens.

In the days following his initial tweets, Trump has only doubled down on his remarks, standing by his claim that if they don’t like what he was to say and what state the country is in, then the lawmakers should leave. The House voted this week to formally condemn the president for his racist remarks, with four Republicans joining the Democrats.

For the most part, the GOP has been silent on this issue. Many of the president’s closest aides and advisors have chosen to either avoid commenting on the issue or to support the president’s remarks.

White nationalists and neo-Nazis have been delighted by Trump’s new, extremist rhetoric, championing him as the ethnic cleanser that they have wanted for so long.

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In a campaign rally on Wednesday, the president continued to attack the four congresswomen, attempting to frame them as the face of the new, radical Democratic Party and to exploit the racial tensions that he has been so adept at sowing over the past three years.

Article by Daniel Knopf