Trump 'the laughingstock' of polite society: NYT editorial

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the announcement of new fuel economy standards, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 3, 2025. REUTERS Brian Snyder

New York Times Columnist Jamelle Bouie says the easiest way to read the motivations of an insincere person like President Donald Trump is to see him “at his most unfiltered.”

That involves his late-night posts on social media, far away from the eyes of handlers.

It was late Thursday night when Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account depicting President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. It’s a post Bouie described as “the most flagrant display of presidential racism since Woodrow Wilson screened D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” in the White House in 1915.

A smattering of Republicans were offended enough to speak out, beginning with endangered blue-state Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y), who called the post “wrong and incredibly offensive,” followed by Rep Michael Turner (R-Ohio) who slammed it as “heart breaking and unacceptable.”

But getting back to what motivates Trump, Bouie said — in addition to ego and raw self-interest — is obviously racism. After all racism is the brand an “ideology that papers over feelings of inadequacy.”

“Let’s suppose you’re the spoiled son of a self-made man,” said Bouie. “Let’s suppose … that you’re the laughingstock of polite society, a punchline for the privileged.”

In truth, Bouie said Trump’s “entire political career — from his embrace of birtherism to his hatred of birthright citizenship — cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism.”

“Trump is not profound,” said Bouie. “He has been the same person this whole time. The question is why so many others have refused to see what he has never bothered to hide.”

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