There are many things that make Donald Trump the most fascinating politician in United States history, but one of the more remarkable ones is his tendency to make shocking and offensive statements. In many cases, these are the kinds of statements that would completely end the political ambitions of anyone else. However, Trump’s tendency to bluntly speak his mind in the most offensive way has actually made him more popular with his supporters over time.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this because Donald Trump has decades of experience saying awful things. But just what are the most shocking statements this former president ever said? Keep reading to find out!
Frequent denials over losing the 2020 election
It’s a well-known fact that Donald Trump is a sore loser. He was a sore winner before, falsely claiming there was no way that Hillary Clinton earned as many votes as she got in the 2016 election. And after Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, he flat-out refused to admit that he didn’t win.
As Bloomberg Television reports, his frequent election denial claims include telling supporters that the election was a “fraud on the American public [and] an embarrassment to our country,” and that “we were getting ready to win this election, frankly, we did win this election” This led to the attack on the nation’s capitol (more on this later) and threatened America’s peaceful transition of power (which has been a hallmark of our democracy from the very beginning).
To this day, the majority of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen despite no evidence of this whatsoever. In this way, Trump continues to divide the country long after getting voted out of office.
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Very willing to date his own daughter
Donald Trump has never tried to hide the fact that Ivanka Trump is his favorite child. This is one of the reasons that she featured so prominently as an advisor in The White House during Trump’s presidency. But over the years, Trump’s attempts to compliment Ivanka have been gross and insanely creepy.
For example, as CNN reports, he once appeared on The View and said that “I might be dating her” if she wasn’t his daughter. Even more shockingly, he appeared on Howard Stern and agreed with the radio host that Ivanka was “voluptuous” and that it was ok to call her “a piece of ass.”
Calling Black people lazy
Understandably, most of Donald Trump’s shocking claims came from his time as a politician. But one of the worst things he ever said happened back in the ‘90s, and it appears in the book Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump. The book was written by former Trump employee John R. O’Donnell, and it contains an alleged conversation with Trump where the former president says some insanely racist things.
Specifically, the book alleges that Trump was discussing a Black employee when he suddenly said, “I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in Blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”
Genuinely gross stuff from allegedly coming from someone who was once the most powerful person in the world.
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Dissing all POWs everywhere
Before securing the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump had to fight off a crowded field of competitors. His most bitter rival was Senator John McCain, and in his attempt to diss McCain, Trump ended up insulting veterans and POWs all over the world.
As the New York Times reports, he told a Republican forum that John McCain “is not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Now, soldiers who served their country during Trump’s presidency know exactly how little their commander-in-chief valued their contributions and sacrifices!
Calling Mexicans “rapists”
Over the years, illegal immigrants from Mexico become a convenient and perpetual boogeyman for Donald Trump to “warn” people about. Whenever criticism of his administration got too intense, he’d just make noise about a spooky “migrant caravan” that we mysteriously never hear about after the controversy passes.
And we got a sample of Trump’s attitude towards Mexico when he announced his presidential run from Trump Tower. As CBS News reports, Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.” Continuing, he said that “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
This was, in retrospect, Trump showing us who he really was: a racist and a bigot who would run for president off the fear he could generate rather than the hope he could inspire.
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Grabbing women by their anatomy
Speaking of retrospect, Donald Trump had so many offensive statements that would have instantly ended the career of any other politician. And the most infamous of these remain his unaired comments to Billy Bush when he appeared on Access Hollywood in 2006.
As reported by The New York Times, Trump basically admitted to regularly sexually assaulting women. “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them,” he said. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ’em by the p****. You can do anything.”
Trump later successfully deflected this as mere “locker room talk,” though he never seemed to figure out the notion that men regularly try to impress other men with stories of sexual assault almost as offensive as the original statement.
Instigating the January 6 attack on the nation’s capitol
One of the controversial Trump statements we are still feeling the impact of boiled down to three little words: “fight like hell.” In the context of Trump’s false claims of election fraud, these words effectively encouraged his supporters to attack America’s capitol on January 6.
As NPR reports, his speech to supporters that day contained an apparent encouragement to take violent action. “And we fight. We fight like hell,” he said. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore … Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about … We will stop the steal.”
Later, after this attempted coup was unsuccessful, Trump tried to claim that he wasn’t encouraging any kind of violent action. Considering that his supporters fought “like hell” to “stop the steal” right after he told them to do so, this defense remains as convincing as Trump’s complexion.