In a Monday interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, former President Donald Trump said China is laughing at the United States over the U.S. focus on “woke” political issues and thinks the U.S. is “stupid” for focusing on those issues.
“When China looks at woke, they see the biggest problem we have is Dr. Seuss,” Trump said. “In the meantime, they’re building factories and trying to kill us in so many different ways. They laugh at us.”
Trump’s comments reference a decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that manages publication of the deceased author’s works, to discontinue six of his books deemed to have racist or insensitive imagery. President Joe Biden added to the controversy surrounding the cancelation of the Dr. Seuss books when he omitted any reference to the author on his March 2 Read Across America Day proclamation. Read Across America Day is a national reading initiative that coincides with Dr. Seuss’s birthday and past presidents have honored his legacy in their proclamations.
“Frankly, they think our country is stupid, when our competitors look at what’s going on in our country, taking down the statues to great heroes and so many other things,” Trump said, in apparent reference to statues of American figures that were removed by demonstrators and local governments amid national unrest following the death of George Floyd.
Statues that were removed included monuments honoring Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Statues to Confederate generals were also removed.
Trump said he was speaking up about the issue “because I want to do what’s right and they are destroying our country.”
During his interview, Trump also criticized efforts led by Democrat lawmakers to create legislation in the style of the “Green New Deal” proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in 2019. Her 2019 legislation set forth several goals aimed at stopping climate change, such as creating “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, switching the entire U.S. power grid over to zero-emission energy sources, upgrading all buildings in the country to be more energy-efficient, among other goals.
The Hill reported that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) will oppose a Democrat-led infrastructure bill, which he said was being used to push through some of the Green New Deal proposals. Cotton said the bill “will be geared towards big tax increases and the Green New Deal” and spends too much money on “things that are not roads, or bridges, or broadband access.”
During his interview, Trump called the proposed Green New Deal-style legislation “nonsense.”
