And the state has just 10 electoral votes.
Finding white men with a racist grudge in the Midwest isn’t exactly a heavy lift. I lived in the region for decades. Go into any bar that serves Jägermeister, mutter something barely intelligible about food stamps or free Obama phones, and they’ll flock to you like raccoons to an Arby’s dumpster.
So it’s no surprise that Donald Trump, the laziest, dopiest, most fatuous American politician in recent memory, is going to that well — with vigor.
Last night’s Hitler doof rally in Minnesota was a copious goat shart full of cray-cray, and the spittle no doubt flowed like watermelon sludge at a Gallagher show. But amid all the dyspeptic dipshittery, Trump saved some room for dessert: the stoking of racial grievance.
He may be an awful president, but he sure can make the tiny brains run on time.
So, naturally, Ilhan Omar — who is black, an immigrant, and a Muslim (what a find!) — came up during his grudge-fest.
Buzzfeed News:
“You know, I know you people, I know you people. I know the people of Minnesota. And I want to tell you, and I also at the same time, it's both a question and a statement: How the hell did that ever happened? How did it happen?” he said to the 19,000-capacity arena, speaking of Omar’s election last year. He repeated a litany of accusations against Omar, often echoed by Fox News and other right-wing media, including that she minimized the Sept. 11 attacks and misrepresented her marriage.
“How do you have such a person representing you in Minnesota? I'm very angry at you people right now. She is a disgrace to our country and she is one of the big reasons that I'm going to win and the Republican Party is going to win Minnesota in 13 months,” Trump said. Trump lost Minnesota by just 44,000 votes in 2016 and his campaign is making a big push for the state ahead of 2020.
The almost entirely white crowd responded with deafening boos when Trump said, “As you know, for many years, leaders in Washington brought large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia.” He then said he had “reduced refugee resettlement by 85 percent” and would “give local communities a greater say in refugee policy.”
Okay, Donny, so you’ve mastered racial demagoguery. Most leaders learn how to stand by their allies and close an umbrella first, but whatever. We’ll see you next November, Cheeto Benito.
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