美国国家公共电台 NPR 'He Says Stupid Stuff': Amid Outrage, Trump Supporters Shrug Off Racist Language（在线收听）

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump rephrased some racist remarks without changing the meaning. He said that four lawmakers should go back where they came from and then said if they don't like America, they can leave. The lawmakers, for the record, are Americans elected by Americans. And NPR's Tovia Smith visited the district of one, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: As President Trump was dismissing criticism of what he said, he was also insisting that, quote, "a lot of people love it." But in deep blue Massachusetts, not so much.

D L POLONSKY: He's racist. He's psychotic. He's destroying democracy.

SMITH: D.L. Polonsky (ph) wears a "Deport Trump" button in Allston, a gritty neighborhood of Boston that's represented by African American Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. An anti-Trump political cartoonist, Polonsky says he's offended by the president's latest comments but not surprised. He sees it as a deliberate political stunt meant to rally Trump's base.

POLONSKY: He's just trying to distract. He's just gaslighting. And he's just a disruptor.

SMITH: Around the corner at a neighborhood bar, bartender Sarah Leib says Trump has hit a new low - again. He's dragging down the public discourse, she says, and jacking up resentment among white Americans. Take the guy the other night who she refused to serve because he was already drunk.

SARAH LEIB: He's like, you won't serve me because I'm a white male. I'm like, dude, like - (laughter) there's - yeah, I've never seen anything like that.

SMITH: Leib says Trump is completely unfair to attack any member of Congress for criticizing policies.

LEIB: That's what they're supposed to do. I mean, they're doing their job, and they're doing it effectively. But his ego is so fragile and thin, he says some asinine thing, that now that's in the news.

SMITH: On the upside, 23-year-old Ana Maria Arabanos says the whole uproar is focusing positive attention on the squad, including her Congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley.

ANA MARIA ARABANOS: And I'm grateful that we do have leaders that are representative of me, like, being a woman of color, who are standing up to him.

SMITH: Across the bar, 60-year-old Republican Chris Kennedy, who voted for Trump, sees a different upside. He doesn't like the president's comments, but he is happy that Trump is drawing attention to issues like immigration policy.

CHRIS KENNEDY: I think as negative as he is and as much of a troublemaker as he is, he is contributing to a very positive forward momentum because politicians behind him will have no choice but to focus on these issues that he has pushed to the surface.

SMITH: Fifty-four-year-old Bill Rhoades, who's in town on business from Connecticut, is also a Trump fan but only, he says, because he purposely does not follow Trump's tweets.

BILL RHOADES: You can't let it bother you because, I mean, he says stupid stuff every week. But as long as he's doing a good job, then that's good. I mean, my stock has soared. The economy's doing well.

SMITH: All that counts more, Rhoades says, than what he sees as Trump's questionable comments.

RHOADES: Unless he's actually called them out on their race, I don't think it's racist. I mean, I've heard other people say stuff like that too.

ALAN WALTER: That sounds like something I'd say too.

SMITH: Sixty-five-year-old Alan Walter says he sees it as a plus that the president doesn't cow to political correctness. And he points his criticism at the Democrats, who he says are playing the race card.

WALTER: You know, the racist thing is so burnt out, man. It's such a lame label. Just - oh, just say, oh, he's a racist. It's the easiest thing to do.

SMITH: But Walter also agrees with Trump critics on one thing, that the president's controversial comments are less a slip of the tongue than a deliberate strategy he hopes will win him a second term in office.

Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.