Hypocrisy: Donald Trump Using Muhammad Ali’s Death For Political Gain (VIDEO)


On Friday, the city of Louisville, along with people from all over the country and all over the world, will come together to mourn the passing of Louisville’s legend and the world’s hero, Muhammad Ali. Speakers like former President Bill Clinton and members of Ali’s family will deliver the eulogies and scholars such as Dr. Timothy Gianotti will be in attendance.

Now there’s one more person who’d like to join them: Donald J. Trump. Let that sink in for just a moment.

Trump has tweeted his sadness and his kind thoughts about Ali since his death.

Unfortunately for Trump, none of us who loved Ali have forgotten this tweet from December, 2016.

The December tweet came after President Obama called Trump out on his racist and xenophobic statements during his presidential campaign, calling for the restriction of travel to the United States of Muslims, who Trump paints with a broad brush as potential terrorists, all 1.5 billion of them. President Obama had this to say in support of our Muslim brothers and sisters in the face of Trump’s blind attempts to create a higher level of hatred toward people of Islamic faith.

“Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes.”

Trump’s idiotic question, indicating his cluelessness about the Muslim faith and some of the wonderful and amazing people who follow it, ignores many sports heroes: Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Shaquille O’Neil, and Hakeem Olajuwon, to name just a few.

Trump forgot, too, perhaps the most famous Muslim to ever take part in a sport: Muhammad Ali. Now, however, Trump seems to remember that he not only knew Ali and once called him a friend, but that Ali was a sports hero worthy of respect.

 

Never one to disgustingly let a political opportunity pass him by, suddenly Ali was Trump’s “friend.” After forgetting his very existence just six months ago, suddenly Trump remembers that this was a man who deserved to be iconized.

This sudden jogging of memory wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Bill Clinton is speaking at the memorial service, do you think?

In a lesson on tolerance and inclusivity, family friend of Ali and fellow Muslim, Saliha Shakir responded:

“None of us care for [Trump’s] rhetoric, but this is what Ali would have wanted. He would not have turned him away.”

That, in a nutshell, defines the difference between Ali and Donald Trump. While Trump and his supporters were fine with tossing a woman in a hijab from a Trump rally, although they had no clue or indication that the woman was there in protest, Ali would’ve welcomed Donald Trump despite his hateful speech and willingness to throw every single person of Islamic faith under the proverbial bus for votes.

Considering that Trump had the incredibly fortunate opportunity to know and meet The Greatest of All Time personally, he seems to forget what the man stood for and the love he represented. See video below for a message from Will Smith and the incomparable Muhammad Ali.

RIP, Champ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-A8xMhAG7M

 

Featured image via Flikr by RV1864 available under a Creative Commons license