Elizabeth Warren lashes out at Donald Trump: He is a 'thin-skinned, racist bully'


Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) excoriated Donald Trump Thursday during a speech at a legal conference, calling him a "thin-skinned, racist bully" prone to "nasty temper tantrums" who should be ashamed of himself for using "the megaphone of a presidential campaign to attack a judge's character and integrity" simply because he thinks he has "some God-given right to steal people's money and get away with it."
The presumptive Republican nominee, Warren said, is "just a guy who inherited a fortune and kept it going by cheating people. When that's your business model, sooner or later you're going to run into legal trouble, and Donald Trump has run into legal trouble." Trump University targeted the most vulnerable people and left them in debt, Warren said, and "in America, we have the rule of law that means no matter how rich you are, no matter how loud you are, no matter how famous you are, if you break the law you can be held accountable, even if your name is Donald Trump."
By attacking the judge presiding over the Trump University fraud cases, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Warren says it shows Trump is upset that Curiel is "following the law instead of bending it to suit the financial interests of one wealthy and oh-so-fragile defendant." Curiel is bound by the federal code of judicial ethics not to respond to Trump's comments, and Trump picking on him is "exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully," Warren said. Trump is "race-baiting a judge" who is "one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country, sometimes at great risk to his own life," Warren added. "Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one buy himself, and that is just one of the many reasons he will never be president of the United States."
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.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
May 31 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include how much to pay for a pardon, medical advice from a brain worm, and a simple solution to the national debt.
-
5 costly cartoons about the national debt
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on the USA's financial hole, rare bipartisan agreement, and Donald Trump and Mike Johnson.
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
White House tackles fake citations in MAHA report
speed read A federal government public health report spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was rife with false citations
-
Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
speed read Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard against the Trump administration's attempt to block the admittance of international students
-
Trump's trade war whipsawed by court rulings
Speed Read A series of court rulings over Trump's tariffs renders the future of US trade policy uncertain
-
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
speed read The former DOGE head says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies
-
Trump taps ex-personal lawyer for appeals court
speed read The president has nominated Emil Bove, his former criminal defense lawyer, to be a federal judge
-
US trade court nullifies Trump's biggest tariffs
speed read The US Court of International Trade says Trump exceeded his authority in imposing global tariffs
-
Trump pauses all new foreign student visas
speed 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 bribery
speed read Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges