Donald Trump is just a poor old sod who's continually misunderstood, misinterpreted, and unnecessarily maligned according to his aides. Politico has a roundup of the top seven times he’s been treated unfairly since he entered the political arena (just over a year ago) and we’ve picked five of them.
1. His now infamous mockery of a disabled reporter, jerking his arms around wildly while impersonating him
Trump, Nov. 24, 2015: “Now, the poor guy, you ought to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said, I don’t remember, I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said."
Though Trump was referring to Serge Kovaleski, whose joint movement is limited due to a disability, he maintains he wasn't taking aim at any particular reporter: "I didn’t know what he looked like. I didn’t know he was disabled. I didn’t know it, I didn’t know it at all. I had no idea."
2. Calling on Russia to hack Hillary's emails
Trump, July 27, 2016: “I will tell you this, Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,”
Don’t worry though, he later said he was only joking: “Of course I’m being sarcastic.”
3. When Megyn Kelly dared to ask him questions
Trump, Aug. 7, 2015: "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."
Trump dismissed that as a nosebleed reference with this tweet: “Re Megyn Kelly quote: “you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” (NOSE). Just got on w/thought.”
4. That time he said women who get abortions must be punished
Trump, March 30, 2016: “There has to be some form of punishment.”
Trump later said he misspoke and didn't understand all the fuss: “The difference is that if I say something that’s off, if I say something that’s off one way or another, it gets massive publicity.”
5. His insinuation that President Obama might be in cahoots with America's enemies after the president didn’t characterize the Orlando nightclub shooting as an act of "radical Islamic terrorism"
Trump, June 13, 2016: "We're led by a man who is a very—look, we're led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind."
Just to round out Trump's remarks, he added: "And the something else in mind—you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on."
But Trump didn't mean Obama was sympathetic to terrorists, he later said, and blacklisted the Washington Post for considering the possibility that he meant what we all knew he meant.