April 27, 2011: Trump’s Call for Obama to ‘Get Off’ the ‘Basketball Court’ Seen by Critics as Veiled Racism

In what some critics say is a veiled racial allusion (see March 2011 and April 27, 2011), billionaire television host and rumored Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump responds to President Obama’s release of his “long form” birth certificate (see April 27, 2011) by advising Obama to “get off the basketball court” and address the nation’s issues. Trump has attacked Obama’s citizenship for weeks (see February 10, 2011, March 17, 2011, March 23, 2011, March 23, 2011, March 28, 2011, March 28-29, 2011, March 30, 2011, April 1, 2011, April 1, 2011, April 1-8, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 7-10, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 10, 2011, April 14-15, 2011, April 21, 2011, April 26, 2011, and April 26, 2011) and has recently implied that the only way Obama got into Ivy League universities was through affirmative action (see April 26, 2011). Trump says he is “claiming victory” over the “long form” release, and then says: “If you look at what he’s doing in Libya, which is a total disaster. Nobody even knows what’s going on in Libya. If you look at what’s happening with gasoline prices where he said he has no control over prices, which he does if he gets on the phone or gets off his basketball court or whatever he is doing at the time.” Lee Fang of the progressive news Web site Think Progress writes: “Many have alleged that Trump’s nonstop, unsubstantiated smears about Obama’s birth and legitimacy are coded racial language designed to inspire hatred against Obama’s identity.… After Trump’s claims about Obama’s birth certificate were further discredited, he is moving on to even more transparent racist language.” [Think Progress, 4/27/2011]