Bever, Lindsey, and Abby Ohlheiser. “Baltimore Police: Freddie Gray Died from a ‘tragic Injury to His Spinal Cord’.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Jul 2015.
Dur, Jessica, and O. Network. “Donald Trump Slams ‘African American President’ on Baltimore Riots.” USA Today. Gannett, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Jul 2015.
Hilton, Perez. (@PerezHilton). “@realDonaldTrump That’s not even subtly #racist of you. It’s overtly racist and disgusting!” 28 Apr 2015, 3:15 p.m. Tweet.
“Policing Baltimore’s Police.” Baltimoresun.com. The Baltimore Sun, 4 May 2015. Web. 29 Jul 2015.
Somanader, Tanya. “President Obama on Freddie Gray’s Death: “This Is Not New, and We Shouldn’t Pretend That It’s New.”” The White House. The White House, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Jul 2015.
Trump, Donald (@realDonaldTrump). “Our great African American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore!” 27 Apr 2015, 9:38 p.m. Tweet.
Trump, Donald J. “Donald J. Trump: Biography.” Trump: The Trump Organization. The Trump Organization, 2015. Web. 29 Jul 2015.
As a 2016 presidential candidate, international business owner, and joint title owner of The Miss Universe Organization, Donald Trump successfully created a name for himself economically in society (Trump 1). Recently, the media set its attention on the presidential race. One specific thing that has caught the media’s eye are the twitter posts made by Donald Trump over controversial topics and personal attacks towards others.
During the month of April, a young man by the name of Freddie Gray was pronounced dead a week after he was brutally acted upon by local police officers. In response to that incident, riots occurred that caused the city of Baltimore to undergo a strict set of temporary rules, like setting a city-wide curfew and having police in the streets to manage the riots (Bever 1). President Barack Obama, former law student at Harvard University and member of Illinois State Senate, also responded to this incident with how he planned to go about changing the police brutality issue in America (Somanader 1). After all of this occurred, Donald Trump resorted to Twitter sharing his views on Obama’s actions, regarding this issue.
Trump’s response to President Obama’s actions, regarding the police brutality issue and rioting in Baltimore, is not credible, because he addressed the president in a disrespectful way. He tweeted, “Our great African American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore!” (Trump). Trump could not possibly understand or relate to the “thugs’” lives and the environment that they live in everyday (Trump). As a multi-billionaire, Trump came from an affluent family of five and his parents could afford to send him to boarding school. Throughout his whole life, he has always been affluent and never had to worry about the problems that “thugs” in Baltimore face everyday (Trump).
The sarcasm in “our great African American President” is very apparent and comes off as a racist notion from Trump (Trump). With his twitter post, he means to say, “If the president is so great, why did he not end the rioting and positively tried to impact that city, as opposed to allowing policemen to guard the area? Why did he allow the citizens, specifically people of color to ruin the city with riots?” Our President, Barack Obama, is indeed African American. Race should not have been a factor to bring up if one was to speak about this issue. Race has nothing to do with leadership effectiveness. One could be white, black, green, or blue and still be a great or even bad leader. Condoleezza Rice is an African American woman who was deemed one of “America’s Most Influential People” by Forbes because of her political and military related contributions to society promoting peace between many different nations. Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina to be promoted to the Supreme Court. She impacted society through her votes on major issues in defining major laws in the Constitution. Her being a Puerto Rican and American has not affected her ability to serve as a Supreme Court Justice in our country. Our president has served two presidential terms, unlike Trump. Which shows that he knows exactly what he is doing and what he can and cannot do, regarding this issue. He also has so many issues that pull on him daily, so for Trump to call him out on this one issue when clearly Trump hasn’t done anything to reduce his issue, makes him look like a joke to others.
Blogger and Television star, Perez Hilton, responded to Trump’s post, “@realDonaldTrump “That’s not even subtly #racist of you. It’s overtly racist and disgusting!” (Hilton). Hilton also is Caucasian, has been affluent all of his life, and can relate to Trump’s life, but his views on this tweet are different. Perez Hilton discrediting this post highlights the pure ignorance of Donald Trump’s tweet and discredits it, even more than it has discredited itself. Also, writing a tweet about a very sensitive issue, such as Baltimore riots and police brutality comes off as an immature move for a politician. Twitter generally has a younger, “hip” and “up-to-date” demographic compared to Facebook. This would be viewed as an amateur move, because typically young people use Twitter as an outlet for their problems. Donald Trump tweeting this would make society think that he is a young boy ranting ignorantly about an issue that doesn’t even relate to him. Donald Trump’s content and the place that he shared this content, regarding this Baltimore issue, is very inappropriate for a sixty nine year old politician who should be American’s role model.
Trump argues that “our African American President” did not do his job effectively (Trump). He should have contained these “thugs” 
rioting in Baltimore and “positively” impacted the citizens, also known as “thugs”, in this community (Trump). Through other tweets, From a Republican standpoint, Trump argues that the highest taxpayers, high class citizens, are expected to rebuild the city destroyed by these “thugs” (Trump). He blames the law enforcement officials for allowing Baltimore riots to happen. He bashes the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, because she also allowed this rioting to happen as a retaliative cry for help.Trump also gives advice to President Obama to bring “both sides together” in Baltimore, basically calling for peace, in which he attempts to redirect the president of the United States on this issue (Trump). Donald Trump speaks for the affluent, potentially Caucasian, American who feels that Obama has not done enough on this issue and wishes that he would have contained the city better so that the wealthy elites don’t have to go out of their way to pay for the damage that is done.
-RS3 written by Ashley Bedford
***Just for laughs.***
I don’t know much about Donald Trump, but the little I have heard of him and after reading this article, I just don’t agree with a lot of the things he stands for. I don’t believe he is taken serious and I believe that in order to be elected, you kind of need that respect.
Donald Trump in my opinion is just a big attention seeker. He is running a presidential campaign and is leading the republican race with using mud slinging tactics at other republican candidates. Like val said he isn’t going to be taken serious which will at some point make his campaign fall apart.
Donald Trump actually believes he could be commander in chief of our nation… this just goes to show how truly ridiculous he is. To be president, you must put the needs of your country as the very first thing on your list of importance. Does Trump really think he, being as narcissistic as he is, can do this? It is so sad that he is leading the polls merely due to ignorant voters. They hear a name they recognize and think, “Donald Trump, mmmm, sounds familiar. I’ll vote for him,” without having any idea of his political views.
Donald Trump is disrespectful and ignorant. In my opinion, he has no chance at being president. Trump’s racist comments show that he is not mature or educated about the various races that make up this country. Each race has contributed something to this country and that is what Trump doesn’t realized. This country was not built by the Caucasian race, but by the other races and people of color. If you ask me, Donald Trump and his campaign are a joke!
Telana: I think Donald Trump has failed to realize that using a harsh, almost dictator-like way to get votes and the majority on his side is not the way to go. It’s hurting him more than helping him. It’s strategic though. Being the most hated man on television right now, is a strategy he uses to get noticed and to eventually get people to care about what he is saying. I don’t doubt that Trump will change his game plan to get the nomination, for sure. We will see more from him, that is for sure.
Kyline: That’s where Trump’s background comes into play.(: He got sent to Boarding School by his parents which shows how bad of a kid he really was. Anyways, I feel like he wants to be the next FDR, but that’s just my opinion. He seems pretty self-absorbed too, because he owns so many businesses, doesn’t have a partner, and always has something to say about himself, but never about others. The voters are pretty ignorant, but more so a sad thing than anything. I blame it on the media coverage he is getting.
Kevin: What’s “mud slinging”? I’ve never heard of that tactic before. Maybe, it’s a Texan term… I’m just curious. He isn’t taken seriously already, so that’s a fact. I just hope that his psychological tactics are NOT going to work for his favor in the end. To be disrespectful, shows how much of a leader you are not. He goes away from traditional norms of an American leader and steers towards a tyrant vibe. I’m sure it won’t work though.
Val: Respect is a major argument that everyone is taking when it comes to Donald Trump’s credibility in the 2016 Presidential Campaign. I’m curious to see how everything will unfold. I’m hoping he’s too in over his head about his strategies and backs out soon, but I doubt that is going to happen. He is actually making the people he bashes look better than him, if you ask me. He’s worth six million, but I know that doesn’t mean a thing these days when it comes to how much of a leader you are and how respected you are too.