President Donald Trump has denounced a Gold Star family, a prisoner of war, and the Pope― but not the neo-Nazis and other white supremacists who sparked violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend.
Three people were killed in the aftermath of Saturday’s “Unite The Right” rally, a congregation of various groups comprising the so-called alt right. A 32-year-old woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, and two Virginia state troopers on duty died when their helicopter crashed on the outskirts on Charlottesville.
Trump criticized “violence” and “hate,” but did not denounce white supremacists directly. Instead, he blamed “many sides” for the unrest, seemingly referring to the anti-fascist activists who were protesting the bigotry.
The White House said in a statement on Sunday that the president “of course” condemned the white supremacists, but Trump as of early Sunday afternoon had yet to personally respond.
The lack of ire from the president is striking, given his penchant for hurling insults at his opponents and detractors. According to the New York Times, Trump is on track to insult in tweets at least 650 people, places, and things by the end of his term. Below is a brief, but by no means comprehensive, list of people that Trump has denounced:
A Gold Star family
Trump took aim at Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004, after their 2016 appearance at the Democratic National Convention. Khizr Khan spoke out against Trump in a passionate speech, asking the then-presidential candidate, “Have you even read the United States constitution?”
Trump responded by calling the speech “vicious” implying that Khizr Khan wasn’t allowing his wife to speak (she later explained that she was too emotional to give an address.)
The Pope
During the 2016 campaign, Pope Francis criticized Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out undocumented immigrants, saying that erecting such barriers “is not Christian.” Trump reacted by calling the Holy See’s comments “disgraceful.”
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I’m proud to be a Christian and as president, I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now with our current president,” he said. “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion and faith.”
Meryl Streep
Trump called the 68-year-old actress “overrated” after she lambasted him in a speech at the Golden Globes earlier this year.
“She is a Hillary [Clinton] flunky who lost big,” he said.
Top Republican lawmakers
The president has lashed out at several prominent members of his own party, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Last week, Trump suggested McConnell should give up his leadership post if the GOP fails to pass several key pieces of legislation.
The media
Journalists are of the president’s most frequent scapegoats. Trump has referred to the media as an “enemy of the people” and vowed to strengthen libel laws to make it easier to sue outlets.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan
Trump has a had long-running feud with Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, who has been outspoken about the president’s executive order banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries to the U.S. Tensions reached new highs in June after Trump criticized Khan’s response to terror attacks in London as “pathetic.”
A spokesperson for Khan shot back that the mayor “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet.”
POWs
In 2015, Trump implied that Arizona Sen. John McCain (R), who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, wasn’t a hero because he was captured.
“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said.
A reporter’s disability
Trump in 2016 mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski with a cruel imitation of his disability. Trump was resoundingly criticized for the impression.