President Donald Trump was criticized in the past week for his speech celebrating Black History Month, particularly for his comments on Frederick Douglass.
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore (Flickr)
Does it really surprise anyone at this point when they hear that President Donald Trump is under fire for some sort of comment that he made? At this point, Trump saying something that the public majority praises would come off as the actual surprise.
In the past week, Trump has come under fire for a speech he made at an event to celebrate the beginning of Black History Month. In the speech, Trump essentially took a speech regarding figures of black history and made it about his own personal tribulations. In the speech, he talked about how “fake news” outlets were creating false stories about him removing a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of the White House.
People are trying to cite this as an example of Trump being too conceited to acknowledge any figure of history outside of himself. Yet Trump did go on in his speech to show respect to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks for their contributions to black history in the United States.
There really is nothing to get worked up about if you read the entire speech and understand the context of what he was saying. Trump did talk too much about himself in this speech, but he was trying to make a point about how Ben Carson is going to continue the positive legacy of African-American culture as the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the speech, Trump was talking about his desire to win over more African-American voters so as to try and unite the American public. Trump used himself and his organization to discuss how they want to further progress the work done by generations of African-American people in the United States.
People will argue as to why Trump would take it upon himself to try and help the cause of African-American people. The simple answer is because Trump is the President of the United States. The job of a president is to help every person in the country and not just a specific group of people. No president will ever be able to help the entirety of the American population, but they will always aspire to help as many people as they can.
Trump made the speech about himself in many ways because he is full of himself. Yet we knew that Trump is full of himself long before he ever announced his candidacy. Someone who creates a billion-dollar empire and has a hugely successful television show is more than likely to have a big ego.
People are trying to act like his speech is some sort of shocking misdeed or that Trump is trying to undermine the efforts of African-American culture. It is an overreaction on the part of the public and another attempt to make Trump look like an evil villain. This speech is completely harmless especially when compared to some of the far more offensive and nasty things Trump has said in the past.
Trump produces a lot of the controversy surrounding himself, but the public also tries to amplify everything he does to the most dramatic degree. In most cases, Trump’s actions are worth being torn apart by the public because of how shallow and oblivious he comes off. Yet, it is stories like this that prove the public has a personal vendetta against him that will make them hate anything that he does.
Whether you like someone or not, you should give them their due when they do something right. Trump’s speech was ultimately designed to talk about positive progress as Black History Month begins. Yet, most people will move on from this controversy when Trump makes another controversial statement in the following week.
