美国国家公共电台 NPR Twitter Analysis Shows How Trump Tweets Differently About Nonwhite Lawmakers

Twitter Analysis Shows How Trump¹ Tweets Differently About Nonwhite Lawmakers

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When President Trump holds a campaign rally today in Minneapolis, Minn., he will be inside the congressional district of a lawmaker he often criticizes. It is the district of Democrat² Ilhan Omar. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe has been looking at the president's Twitter feed, where he has criticized Omar, among many other people. She found the president's attacks on lawmakers are growing more personal, especially against people of color.

AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE³: President Trump's tweets can set the wheels of government in motion and set the tone for his supporters. Back in July, Trump was eagerly attacking Ilhan Omar at a rally in Greenville, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.

RASCOE: In response, the crowd chanted, send her back.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED TRUMP SUPPORTERS: (Chanting) Send her back. Send her back...

RASCOE: Omar was born in Somalia but is an American citizen. The chants were prompted by Trump's tweets a few days earlier. Using racist⁴ language, Trump tweeted that Omar and three other Democrats⁵ - all women of color - known as the squad⁶ should go back to the, quote, "totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."

Trump has always used Twitter as a weapon against his political opponents. But these tweets and the dozens that would come in the weeks following against the squad and against African American Congressman⁷ Elijah Cummings represented an escalation⁸ of the president's attacks.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

TRUMP: These are people that, in my opinion, hate our country.

And AOC plus 3, that's what I call it.

Elijah Cummings has not helped the people.

If you're not happy here, then you can leave.

RASCOE: NPR examined Trump's tweets about members of Congress through October 4. Since becoming president, Trump has tweeted more than 700 times about current lawmakers. While Trump hasn't been restrained about insults, his negative tweets have increased in volume. And the nature of insults have become more extreme since July.

In the case of the squad, which includes Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, Trump has tweeted about them collectively nearly 20 times in about three months. That's more negative tweets than Trump has aimed at presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. Among other things, he's called the squad a very racist group of troublemakers⁹. That language speaks to some white Trump supporters who may be worried about their place in America, says Niambi Carter. She's a political science professor at Howard University.

NIAMBI CARTER: When he says make America great again and points to these women as the sort of embodiment of everything that America isn't - it's not black, it's not a woman, it's not Muslim, it's not Latina - these women become perfect vehicles for all of that anxiety that these white voters feel.

RASCOE: The only lawmakers with more negative tweets than the squad and Cummings are top Democrats - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. But his tweets about them are more general criticisms about the Democratic Party.

BRIAN OTT: The president chooses his targets pretty carefully, but he doesn't always choose them for the same reason.

RASCOE: That's Brian Ott, a communications professor at Texas Tech University and co-author of "The Twitter Presidency¹⁰." He says Trump uses Twitter to discredit¹¹ politicians he views as a threat and to distract from other matters.

OTT: Then there's this other motivation, which is trying to define the opposition¹². And it's clear that he takes tremendous pleasure and is particularly vitriolic¹³ when it comes to characterizing women and ethnic¹⁴ minorities on Twitter.

RASCOE: On Twitter, Trump says the face of the Democratic Party is the squad, Pelosi and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who is African American. He never says white men are the face of the Democratic Party. The White House didn't respond to interview requests, but Trump's supporters argue he's a counterpuncher. Paris Dennard is a prominent African American conservative who backs Trump. He said it's not race or gender¹⁵ that motivates the president.

PARIS DENNARD: If you are a worthy¹⁶ opponent - meaning you have a large social media following, meaning you can attract a lot of people to whatever it is you're talking about - he is going to engage with them because he thinks it's worth the fight.

RASCOE: Trump has targeted both Cummings, who is chair of the House Oversight¹⁷ Committee, and Schiff with a flood of tweets. But while the tweets against Schiff have focused on his actions as chairman, Trump's tweets against Cummings focus on the mostly black district he represents in Baltimore. Ott says the rhetoric¹⁸ about Cummings in particular is meant to set him apart as different.

OTT: The president's discussion of Baltimore as rat-infested is really meant to convey that he's not quite human.

RASCOE: With an impeachment¹⁹ probe in full swing, the president has tweeted about the squad less. Cummings hasn't gotten a mention in weeks. But Trump hasn't forgotten about these lawmakers. He told reporters on Friday that AOC plus three, as he likes to call the squad, are the real leaders of the Democratic Party.

Ayesha Rascoe, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF THRUPENCE'S "FOREST ON THE SUN")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

7 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

8 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

9 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

11 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 vitriolic   

adj.硫酸的，尖刻的

参考例句：

• The newspaper launched a vitriolic attack on the president.这家报纸对总统发起了一场恶意的攻击。
• Vitriolic impurity is contained normally in the sewage that vitriolic factory discharges.硫酸厂排放的污水中通常含有硫酸杂质。

14 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

15 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

16 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

17 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

18 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

19 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。