TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump took a moment Monday [11-27-17] to cite his Indian nickname for a political nemesis during a White House event honoring a group of Native American men for service during World War II.
Speaking in the Oval Office and standing beside the three veterans, Mr. Trump said: ‘You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.’
Pocahontas was a 17th-century Native American woman and a figure in American colonial history. Mr. Trump uses her name sometimes to refer to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who has criticized him and his policies…
Mr. Trump’s reference to ‘Pocahontas’ elicited no reaction from the Native American men. They had served as code talkers during the war, using their native language, Navajo, to foil enemies trying to intercept U.S. military messages.
Ms. Warren, who wasn’t at the White House event, criticized Mr. Trump’s remark in an interview Monday with MSNBC. ‘It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur,’ she said.
At a press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president didn’t use the name ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur and called Ms. Warren’s response ‘ridiculous.’
In a statement Monday, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, who was in the Oval Office during the ceremony, cast the president’s remarks as ‘insensitive.’ “
-Peter Nicholas, “Trump Refers to ‘Pocahontas’ While Hosting Native-American Veterans,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 27, 2017 06:24pm