Former President Donald Trump launched a fired-up culture war directly at American classrooms Thursday, calling in a video for certification of “patriotic teachers,” the firing of “radicals” and the “direct election” of school principals by students’ parents.
The declared Republican candidate for president also demanded that funds be slashed for any school teaching “critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content,” apparently as defined by him.
Trump called for the creation of a “new credentialing body” that would “certify teachers who embrace patriotic values” while “radicals, zealots and Marxists” (and “pink-haired communists”) would be fired. (Trump has hailed the insurrectionists of Jan. 6, 2021, as “great patriots.”)
He also called for investigations of school districts that have engaged in race-based discrimination, including against Asian American students. Ironically, Trump himself has repeatedly fired anti-Asian slurs at Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, his former secretary of transportation.
The video, posted on Twitter, predictably triggered an uproar on the social media platform.
Several posters referred to the so-called Trump University (which was never certified as any kind of school) that promised to teach adult students how to be successful businesspeople. Trump ended up paying $25 million to settle claims that students were swindled by the operation.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.