Trump endorses ‘resist’ as a motto for Democrats – Washington Post

President Trump on June 13 said Republican efforts to overhaul the U.S. health-care system will result in a "phenomenal bill" and "fantastic" outcome. Trump was hosting several Republican senators at the White House. (The Washington Post)

President Trump met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday at the White House, and although the meeting and short media appearance were ostensibly to talk about Senate efforts to craft health-care legislation, Trump couldn't resist taking a few digs at Democrats.

Then he endorsed what he called their new motto.

You have the Democrats on the other side, who truly have become obstructionists, he said. Even their new motto, 'resist,' and I guess it's a pretty accurate motto. Every time I see it, I say, that's right! That does represent the Democrats.

Trump has been making the argument for a while that the Democrats are obstructionists, although he seems to be using that specific word a lot this week (on Monday, he used the word obstructionist to describe Democrats at a Cabinet meeting, and press secretary Sean Spicer repeated it at his daily briefing). He's taking this approach even though Republicans have majorities in both houses of Congress.

It's not entirely accurate to call resist a motto simply for Democrats. It has been used broadly by liberals, and not just liberals in the United States, and it's most closely associated with Greenpeace activists. Remember, just a few days after Trump's inauguration, Greenpeace activists hung a resist banner from a crane in downtown Washington.

Outside the United States, Greenpeace activists who oppose far-right French politician Marine Le Pen unfurled a resist banner on the Eiffel Tower in the run-up to last month's French elections. Another group, also affiliated with Greenpace, unfurled a similar banner in May 25 at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels.

But it has become a sort of rallying cry for anti-Trump forces in the United States, and liberals around the world. Beyond being used by environmental activists, it has become a go-to phrase for LGBTQ activists, and this year's Pride parade in Los Angeles was renamed the Resist March.

Resist has made appearances in Washington, too. It appeared on an apartment building as residents fought a sort of political banner proxy war on their balconies in April.

In endorsing resist as a motto, Trump seems to be missing a bit of the point that those who resist are resisting him personally, and seek to resist him in ways that go way beyond partisanship in Congress. And at the same time, Democrats are probably just fine with being labeled as obstructionists who won't go along with his agenda.

More here:
Trump endorses 'resist' as a motto for Democrats - Washington Post

Related Posts

Comments are closed.