Fox News' Andrew Napolitano blasts 'shameless' Trump for racist tweets: 'He unleashed a torrent of hatred'


Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano tears into President Trump for his recent attacks on four minority congresswomen in a new op-ed, concluding that Trump is "shameless" and not the person he has known personally.
"I have known President Trump personally since 1986," Napolitano writes in the op-ed for Fox News' website. "The private Trump I have known is funny, charming and embracing. That is not the public Trump of today."
Napolitano goes on to write that Trump "unleashed a torrent of hatred" when he attacked minority congresswomen by telling them to "go back" to where they came from, using a phrase that "implicates a racial or nativist superiority." Trump "raises a terrifying specter" with these attacks, Napolitano also says, which serve as a "dog whistle to groups around the country that hatred is back in fashion and is acceptable to articulate publicly."
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.
The Fox News host also blasts Trump for his rally crowd's recent "send her back" chant, saying Trump by seeming to embrace the chant created the image of a president "trying to divide rather than unite," especially as he praised the crowd days later even after saying he didn't support the chant.
Ultimately, Napolitano writes that the remedy for such hate speech is to shame the person who utters it, but "when the hate speech comes from a shameless president, we have a problem."
Napolitano, whose quotes have often made their way to the president's Twitter account, had previously hit Trump for his "xenophobic, racist and hateful" tweets in an op-ed, writing that he "sounds more like a Mafia don than a statesman." Read the full op-ed at Fox News.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies