On Thursday, January 3, Donald Trump shared a meme via Twitter — one attacking Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Many on Twitter responded by reporting the meme to Melania Trump’s anti-cyberbullying campaign. In the post, Trump mocked Warren’s small fraction of Native American blood, one of his favorite points of criticism concerning the Democratic senator.
The meme shared a picture of a Warren campaign sign, but the Warren 2020 was replaced with Warren 1/2020th — insinuating that she did not have the Native American heritage she had claimed. Trump frequently attacked Warren for allegedly inventing her Native American heritage, but Warren released the results of a DNA test last year that showed she owed between 1/64th and 1/1024th of her ancestry to first nations individuals, per CNN . This would mean that Warren’s aboriginal ancestor would predate her by somewhere between six and 10 generations, according to Forbes .
Trump still has not relented on his attacks against Warren, which have intensified as she has emerged as one of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination.
Donald Trump’s meme immediately caught the attention of left-wing Twitter, which noted that his bullying seems to go against the spirit of Melania’s “Be Best” campaign to end cyberbullying.
“While Donald Trump attacks Elizabeth Warren this morning to his millions of followers… I would like to thank Melania Trump for her amazing anti-bullying Be Best campaign, which is doing amazing in 2019!” wrote comedian, and frequent Trump critic, Tony Posnanski via Twitter .
Hey @FLOTUS … is this #BeBest ? Shame on you for being such a hypocrite… preaching to the rest of us about the evil of cyber-bullying while you live with and feed off the CyberBully-in-Chief… #Melania #Trump #ElizabethWarren
— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) January 3, 2019
Others didn’t find it so funny, however.
“This is a serious matter,” wrote political scientist and MSNBC contributor Joyce Alene, via Twitter .
“If the GOP feels it’s appropriate to have a President campaign at a name-calling, bullying level an elementary school principal would feel compelled to shut down, they should let him keep on. Otherwise, hold him accountable as the leader of your party.”
Donald Trump has frequently used Twitter to attack enemies, both real and perceived. The New York Times even maintains a list of the 551 people, places, and things that Trump has attacked on the social media platform — a list that includes everything from Colin Kaepernick to Saturday Night Live to Facebook. The attacks have been particularly harsh against Democrats who oppose him.
Elizabeth Warren had announced this week that she had formed an exploratory committee to look into a presidential run. She has been among the front-runners in early 2020 presidential polls, and has attracted a disproportionate number of attacks from Donald Trump.
Trump and Warren have shared an antagonistic relationship, dating back to the 2016 campaign — when Warren was one of the most vocal surrogates for Hillary Clinton.
