Trump staffer responds to Warren dropping out with racist 'Trail of Tears' joke

A staffer on Donald Trump’s reelection campaign tweeted a racist joke about Native American genocide on Thursday after Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary.

Mike Hahn, who identifies as a Trump digital aide, shared a New York Times tweet about Warren’s decision to exit the race, writing, “Campaign Trail of Tears.”

Hahn eventually deleted the tweet, which makes light of the forced removal of Native Americans from their land in the 1800s, leading to thousands of deaths.

American Bridge, a progressive opposition research organization, first flagged the tweet on Thursday afternoon.

Trump and his supporters have long made Native American jokes when referring to Warren — who was forced to apologize after she identified as Native American when she applied for a job at Harvard University.

Warren said identified as such thanks to stories her parents told her, but since admitted that she was wrong for claiming Native American ancestry and apologized to tribal groups she offended.

The Trump campaign did not immediately return request for comment on whether it thought Hahn’s joke was appropriate.

While Hahn deleted his “Trail of Tears” joke, he did leave up a racist slur referring to Warren as “Pocahontas” — referring to Trump’s inappropriate nickname for Warren.

“Going to miss the Pocahontas jokes tbh,” Hahn tweeted.

Native American leaders have said Trump’s use of the Pocahontas nickname as a slur is offensive.

“The reference is using a historic American Indian figure as a derogatory insult and that’s insulting to all American Indians,” John Norwood, general secretary of the Alliance of Colonial Era Tribes, told NBC News in 2017.

Norwood also told Trump to, “stop using our historical people of significance as a racial slur against one of his opponents” — a plea Trump ignored.

Trump again used the racist “Pocahontas” quip after Warren dropped out, while at the same time trying to gin up animosity between Warren and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders — a campaign strategy meant to sow discord in the Democratic Party to help his own reelection chances.

“Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren, who was going nowhere except into Mini Mike’s head, just dropped out of the Democrat Primary…THREE DAYS TOO LATE,” Trump tweeted. “She cost Crazy Bernie, at least, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas. Probably cost him the nomination! Came in third in Mass.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.