Former US Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has spoken out against Donald Trump after his repeated racist attacks against her.
“When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or pronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” Chao said in a statement to Politico. “He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a lot more about him than it ever did about Asian Americans.”
Chao, who served under Trump, was previously reserved in her criticism of the former president, who has repeatedly taunted Chao and her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Trump called Chao, who was born in Taiwan, McConnell’s “China-loving wife,” among other derogatory terms Chao has asked the media not to use.
Trump used a racist nickname to describe Chao earlier this week when he tossed together a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories to attack her and her husband.
Does Chao have “anything to do with Joe Biden’s classified documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?” he asked in a Truth Social post. “Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats and of course China. He gives them all whatever they want!”
The post came amid a string of mass shootings against Asian-American communities in California, and after an increase in anti-Asian discrimination and violence related to the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday, 11 people were killed in Monterey Park during the Lunar New Year celebrations. On Monday, seven more people were shot dead in Half Moon Bay.
In the past, Chao called Trump’s comments racist but did not condemn them. ‘He’s trying to piss us off. He says all sorts of outrageous things, and I’m not trying to answer any of them,” she said in an interview last month. McConnell has also largely declined to comment on Trump’s swipes at his wife.
