Trump should never have invited Ted Nugent to White House

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Far-right rock star Ted Nugent visited Donald Trump in the White House on April 19. He came to the Oval Office in the company of Sarah Palin and Kid Rock, another old pop star.

Ted Nugent has insulted Jews, Hispanics and African-Americans. In Facebook posts, he called our former mayor, Mike Bloomberg, “Jew York City Mikey Bloomberg.” He wrote about U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Chuch Schumer and Richard Blumenthal and other gun control advocates: “Know these punks — they hate freedom, they hate good over evil. Tell everyone you know how evil they are. Let us raise maximum hell to shut them down!”

Nugent posted their photos on Facebook with a Jewish Star of David/Israeli flag in the bottom left corner. He has likened Jews to Nazis, because he believes Jews are primarily responsible for gun control efforts.

Nugent also has written that “black people … lie. Like, really, a lot.” He wrote, “I don’t hate black people. They just have this weird permanent skin disease which somehow affects their behavior.”

Nugent called former President Obama “a subhuman mongrel.” Additionally, Nugent called a Hispanic fan a “beanochimp.”

President Trump would welcome this man into the White House. He took pictures with him. He took him on a tour.

The president has given sanction to the racism and Jewish hatred Nugent spreads as casually as a kid putting peanut butter on a sandwich. 

Is this what America has become? A place where this one-man spigot of racism and prejudice can brag that he is now White House-approved? That the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, treated him like an old friend?

About 46 million people in this country are of African-American heritage, out of a total population of 322 million. There are about 55 million Hispanics, and about 5 million Jews. These three populations represent almost one-third of the country.

The American people do not deserve a president willing to let Ted Nugent within 100 yards of the Oval Office. It sends a vicious message that it’s OK to slur entire groups of people. Do we really need a country with more racism and hatred?

The definition of racism, from Merriam-Webster, is, “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”

It seems pretty clear that by this definition, Ted Nugent is a racist. 

Someone should remind Trump that the father of our country, President George Washington, once wrote to a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island: “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens …”

The only thing Trump should have shown Ted Nugent in the White House is the door.

Mike Gold,

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