No, I don’t view it as benign. Do you? Trump meant it as a malign taunt to Elizabeth Warren, who thoroughly deserves it. He throws out barbs like that intentionally, so the media will spread the point he is making, by acting all outraged over nothing.
I prefer calling Warren “Fauxcohantas” since “faux” makes the point that she is a fraud more obvious for idiots, plus it’s harder for the media to pretend it’s an insult to Native Americans. But Trump WANTS the reaction.
I’m not into being offended by PC crap, like shouting Geronimo. It’s hardly surprising that Navajos would not care either, since Geronimo is a Spanish-Italian name. Whites applied it to the famous Chiricahua Apache whose name was something like “Goyaate”, hard for us English-speakers to say.
My beef is Trump USING the Code Talker ceremony to make irrelevant political gibes, even if they were about Mitch McConnell. I’ll admit being bothered by the stupidity of Trump bringing up Warren, just because he is with some Navajo guys, since it makes him look like a moron. But mostly I hate seeing old people disrespected by the distraction. They should have mattered more than politics for a few minutes. Feel free to disagree.
For the most part, yes.
Any doubt in my mind was totally erased when one of the Codetalker recipients mentioned "Geronimo".
I share a concern that those being honored should not feel slighted. I expected that they wouldn't be. I expect that they are supporters of Trump and share your values and mine.
I think the assessment of whether the comment is benign or not is meant to be made relative to the audience intended. You and I and the Codetalkers were the audience. From everybody else we expect outrage. Their hope is that the Codetalkers and other Trump supporters will feel the same.
As time has passed I have become more and more convinced that Trump's actions are far, far more purposeful than they appear. I think he is using a verbal "rope-a-dope" strategy on the liberals. They keep punching with little or no effect and more often than not make themselves look ridiculous. This is especially true of any defense of Elizabeth Warren.
Also, the problem I see with "Fauxcahontas" is that it depends upon an understanding of "faux" which I don't think is as universal as you might think. Virtually everybody has heard of Pocohantos.