On Monday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) explained — as she has since her successful 2012 campaign to unseat Sen. Scott Brown (R) — that she believes she has Cherokee ancestry because "I learned about my family's heritage the same way everyone else does — from my parents and grandparents. I never asked for and never got any benefit from it." The prompt for this was President Trump trotting out his "Pocahontas" epithet during an event to honor Navajo code talkers, heroes of World War II.
Trump has used his nickname for Warren several times since 2016, usually suggesting incorrectly — as White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did on Monday — that Warren used her claimed Native American ancestry for professional gain. Trump himself claimed, wrongly, to be of Swedish heritage as least until 1987 — he wrote in The Art of the Deal that his grandfather had come to the U.S. from Sweden. Actually, The Boston Globe reported last year and Axios recalled on Monday, Trump's father, Fred Trump, made up the Swedish ancestry after World War II so he wouldn't have problems selling apartments to Jewish buyers on account of his German heritage. (Friedrich Trump immigrated to New York from Germany in 1885.)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from traditionFeature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden loveFeature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more
-
France and Indonesia promote a contentious bid for an Israel-Palestine two-state solutionTalking Points Both countries have said a two-state solution is the way to end the Middle East conflict
-
Trump pauses all new foreign student visasspeed read The State Department has stopped scheduling interviews with those seeking student visas in preparation for scrutiny of applicants' social media
-
Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of briberyspeed read Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges
-
Germany lifts Kyiv missile limits as Trump, Putin sparspeed read Russia's biggest drone and missile attacks of the war prompted Trump to post that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!'
-
Tied Supreme Court blocks church charter schoolspeed read The court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision to bar overtly religious public charter schools
-
GOP megabill would limit judicial oversight of Trumpspeed read The domestic policy bill Republicans pushed through the House would protect the Trump administration from the consequences of violating court orders
-
Judge scolds DOJ over Newark mayor arrestspeed read Ras Baraka was arrested during a May 9 surprise visit to a migrant detention facility
-
Trump lectures South Africa president on 'white genocide'speed read Trump has cut off aid to South Africa over his demonstrably false genocide claims
-
Trump twists House GOP arms on megabillspeed read The bill will provide a $350 billion boost to military and anti-immigration spending and 'cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs'
