Trump says he can’t get a fair hearing from a Mexican or Muslim Judge

As some of you may have noticed, the heat has been turning up on Donald Trump and his “Trump University,” a for-profit mostly on-line “college” that has been the target of a number of lawsuits, including several ongoing class action lawsuits.

One of those class action lawsuits, entitled Makaeff v. Trump University, is being heard in the Southern District of California and is being presided over by Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, whose parents were Mexican immigrants but who was actually born in Indiana. Trump has been unhappy because a number of rulings have gone against him, especially one having to do with the release of certain records as requested by the Washington Post.[1]

Trump, as is his wont, hasn’t attacked the merits of the case, but the credibility of the Judge. Redirect and distract. Redirect and distract. It’s the classic strategy of a bully. The press, which is finally and slowly starting to get wise to Trump’s strategies, has started to push back. One Washington Post article lauded Jake Tapper of CNN follow up 23 times on a question whether Trump’s race-baiting attack was not, in fact, also a racist act. Trump being Trump, he doubled down and claimed he also wouldn’t be able to get a fair hearing from a Muslim judge, even though there is no Muslim judge on the case.

Well, it appears that at least Trump has a passing understanding that he’s offended Mexicans and Muslims. The “great uniter” – he claimed on Super Tuesday that he will “unite this country” – is admitting, even if only implicitly, that he’s actually the great divider. He’s even ripping apart his own party, Paul Ryan’s half-hearted endorsement notwithstanding.

How much longer are average Americans going to be fooled by this absolute charlatan? Not much longer, one can only hope.

[1] In February 2014, Curiel certified Tarla Makaeff v. Trump University as a class action and accepted residents of three states as members of that class. In October 2014, Curiel certified a second case, Cohen v. Trump, as a national class action. In April 2015, after Trump lost a defamation suit against Makaeff, she asked for $1.3 million in compensation for her legal expenses, and Curiel ordered Trump University to pay $798,000. In March 2016, Curiel allowed Makaeff to withdraw her name from the lawsuit that she had filed in 2010, and the case was retitled Low v. Trump University. On May 27, 2016, Curiel granted a request by The Washington Post for public release of certain Trump University documents and depositions that had been filed in the case.