Donald Trump, Politics

Donald Trump Slams Federal Judge In That Racist Way Only Trump Can

In Trump's world, no insult, no matter how slight or deserved, can stand.

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Donald Trump (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

Donald Trump (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

You know who has to deal with lawsuits? LOSERS, that’s who — at least according to The Donald. It seems Mr. Trump is super irritated because he lost a motion for summary judgment in a case brought against his Trump University. Does he place the blame on his lawyers or whoever came up with the idea for Trump University or even on the plaintiffs? No way, that just reeks of common sense. Nope, the focus of Donald’s ire is the judge.

The judge in the case is Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Judge Curiel became an Article III judge in 2012 after being approved by a voice vote without opposition. Despite the judge’s stellar credentials, Trump took the loss of the summary judgement motion (mind you — he hasn’t actually lost the case yet, this is still in the early stages of litigation) as a personal insult. In Trump’s world, no insult, no matter how slight or deserved, can stand. He has to come back over the top in a way designed to be mean and picking at whatever perceived weakness his foe may show. In Trump’s twisted mind, Judge Curiel’s Hispanic heritage is the mark of otherness which becomes the focus of his attacks. The Associated Press reports on what Trump said on Fox News about the jurist:

I think it has to do perhaps with the fact that I’m very, very strong on the border, very, very strong at the border, and he has been extremely hostile to me.

He has even taken to making it a political issue, integrating the fact that he has to defend the lawsuit into a campaign rally in Arkansas:

Trump claimed the case should have been thrown out years ago, “but because it was me and because there’s a hostility toward me by the judge – tremendous hostility – beyond belief.” He then noted, as an aside: “I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He’s Hispanic — which is fine.”

Trump actually went on a mini-press junket, touting his tale of the the meanie judge that is picking on poor Mr. Trump.

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Lest anyone think that Trump’s railing against a judicial system that is forcing him to defend a “frivolous” suit is justified, remember this isn’t the only suit about Trump University:

[New York Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman sued Trump University in 2013 alleging it committed fraud and fleeced 5,000 people out of millions of dollars.

“I will not engage in a debate about ongoing litigation,” Schneiderman said in a statement issued after Trump made his comments. “But there is no place in this process for racial demagoguery directed at respected members of the judiciary.”

Schneiderman noted that New York’s state Supreme Court ruled that Trump University operated illegally in New York as an unlicensed educational institution.

Certainly seems like there is enough smoke at Trump University to justify discovery into whether there’s a fire too.

But you don’t need to worry about Judge Curiel, he’s made of some pretty stern stuff. In the course of his career, he has taken on drug cartels and even received death threats, as Yahoo! News reports:

[Judge Curiel’s] confirmation followed a lengthy legal career that included 13 years as a federal prosecutor in San Diego, starting under President George H.W. Bush, and ultimately rising to become chief of the office’s Narcotics Enforcement Division in charge of prosecuting narcotics cases involving Mexican drug smugglers. (At one point, Curiel’s efforts to extradite a top smuggler from Mexico led to a cartel threat to assassinate him.)

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Judge Curiel strikes me as an actual badass, tough enough to withstand some bitter comments from a reality TV star with White House ambitions. The only self-styled victim in this story is none other than The Donald himself.

Trump: Judge’s ethnicity matters in Trump University suit [Associated Press]
Trump plays the victim card against Hispanic judge [Yahoo! News]

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