Commentary

COMMENTARY: President Trump: Destroying the American idea

WESTSIDE GAZETTE — “It is clear that it does not matter how many people are assassinated, how many buildings are invaded by some deranged person who believes he is doing the will of the President or how many letter bombs are put into our mail delivery system. He has shown the ranting and lies will continue. Simply put, President Trump does not care what he looks and sounds like…” — Rasheed Z. Baaith

Published

6 years ago

February 9, 2019

Oakland Post

Pastor Rasheed Baaith

“Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.” (Jeremiah 34:17)

By Rasheed Z. Baaith

While it has not been surprising, it has been interesting to watch President Trump do all that he can to destroy the dream of America’s Founding Fathers. At least destroy it for those who do not look like, behave like or think like him. He does not want his supporters to just label those unlike them. He wants his supporters to hate them. He believes the foundation for your political activism should be the deepness of your hate for someone.

His core supporters, like him, have decided to close off America both from within and without. They have decided to make this happen employing the political process and unleashing as much verbal hatred as they can. Faces contorted with anger, voices raised as loud as possible, and fists punching the air, they believe they are making America great.

It is clear that it does not matter how many people are assassinated, how many buildings are invaded by some deranged person who believes he is doing the will of the President or how many letter bombs are put into our mail delivery system. He has shown the ranting and lies will continue. Simply put, President Trump does not care what he looks and sounds like. Nor do those who imitate what he says and behave as he does. There is on his behalf, a complete aversion to decency and veracity.

President Trump has made it undeniably clear he does not represent all American people nor does he want to. He is not interested in broadening his political base, or closing political divides. Neither does he want to unify America. His goal to govern through a policy of “them vs. us.” All who are considered “them” in the minds of President Trump and his supporters, deserve as much odious vilification as his lips can utter.

We are living in a very dangerous time. People believe it is within their right to question the legitimacy of Black people to shop, eat dinner in public, lease an apartment, wait for tow trucks or enjoy a park. Let alone be in the environment of good college. Even our children are not excluded from this race based behavior.

It is not just the depiction of a caravan of desperate people as “invaders” or his refusal to even mention the Black people shot down in Kentucky, which happened the same week as the mail bombs and the Synagogue murders that should scare us.

What should scare is how welcome many Americans are of accepting the vision of an intellectually diminutive man whose vision is like that of a kindergartner. He only sees in colors.

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This article originally appeared in The Westside Gazette.

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

4 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.