Trump's Holocaust Memorial Day Proclamation Just Got Much Worse

George Grosz, God of War, 1940 -
Fear of the Other

The White House failure to mention the destruction of European Jews and anti-Semitism in its statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day occurred because the White House is "incredibly inclusive" and takes "into account all of those who suffered," White House spokesperson Hope Hicks said in remarks to CNN this weekend, (Tapper, CNN).

The explanation by Hicks pleads that so many millions were slaughtered in the Holocaust that mentioning the European Jews is not consonant with the stated White House commitment to inclusion.

That Hicks' remarks are nonsense threatens to blow into a controversy the likes of which not even Trump has yet seen.

Millions of Americans openly assert Trump is a fascist and white supremacist, abetted by white supremacist and chief White House political advisor, Stephen K. Bannon.

The mission of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is to bear witness today, and the suggestion that inclusion compels the White House to not mention Jews and anti-Semitism is scandalous.

Writes CNN's Jake Tapper:

The presidential reference to the 'innocent people' victimized by the Nazis without a mention of Jews or anti-Semitism by the White House on International Holocaust Remembrance Day was a stark contrast to statements by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Anti-Defamation League Director Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted that the "@WhiteHouse statement on #HolocaustMemorialDay, misses that it was six million Jews who perished, not just 'innocent people' and 'Puzzling and troubling @WhiteHouse #HolocaustMemorialDay stmt has no mention of Jews. GOP and Dem. presidents have done so in the past.'

Asked about the White House explanation that the President didn't want to exclude any of the other groups Nazis killed by specifically mentioning Jews, Greenblatt told CNN that the United Nations established International Holocaust Remembrance Day not only because of Holocaust denial but also because so many countries -- Iran, Russia, Poland, and Hungary, for example -- specifically refuse to acknowledge Hitler's attempt to exterminate Jews, 'opting instead to talk about generic suffering rather than recognizing this catastrophic incident for what is was: the intended genocide of the Jewish people.' 

The latest outrage by the White House follows Trump's executive order banning Muslims from seven countries from entering the United States in an act that signals Trump's open commitment to racism and Islamophobia as official policy.