Former first lady Michelle Obama jumped online Monday to congratulate her alma mater Princeton University after it stripped the name of fo...
Former first lady Michelle Obama jumped online Monday to congratulate her alma mater Princeton University after it stripped the name of former school president Woodrow Wilson from its renowned public affairs school.
The former first lady, who graduated Princeton in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in sociology, wrote on Twitter she was 'heartened to see my alma mater make this change, and even prouder of the students who’ve been advocating for this kind of change on campus for years.'
'Let’s keep finding ways to be more inclusive to all students—at Princeton and at every school across the country,' wrote the former first lady.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama praised her alma mater Princeton University after it announced it would strip former President Woodrow Wilson's name from its school of public affairs
Her tweet came hours after President Donald Trump came out against the change – accusing Democrats of 'incredible stupidity' for pushing through the change, while also slamming a move to take actor John Wayne's name off a California airport.
Although she often steered clear of overt political activity as first lady, the former first lady campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and this year is pushing a drive to make it easier to vote and register called WhenWeAllVote.
She has explicitly called for more mail-in voting – which Trump has described as an effort rife with fraud, without providing supporting evidence.
'Expanding access to vote-by-mail, online voter registration and early voting are critical steps for this moment – and they’re long overdue,' she said in April.
Her husband former President Barack Obama helped Democrat Joe Biden haul in a stunning $7.7 million online during a recent fundraiser.
Michelle Obama (Michelle Robinson at the time) graduated from Princeton in 1985 (Photo courtesy of the Obama-Robinson Family Archives)
The first lady is pushing efforts to make it easier to vote, including mail-in voting. Former President Barack Obama has helped former Vice President Joe Biden raise money for his campaign
Former First Lady Michelle Obama said she was 'heartened' by Princeton's decision to remove Wilson's name
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, also served as president of Princeton. He racked up major progressive achievements in office, pushed for a League of Nations – and resegregated Washington, D.C.
Michelle Obama's public move came after Trump bashed Princeton's trustees on Monday for their decision to nix the 28th president's name from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs amid increasing calls for historical figures' statues and monuments to be removed.
Trump also claimed Democrats are being 'stupid' in pushing for actor John Wayne's name and statue to be removed from an airport in Orange County, California.
'Can anyone believe that Princeton just dropped the name of Woodrow Wilson from their highly respected policy center,' the president tweeted Monday morning. 'Now the Do Nothing Democrats want to take off the name John Wayne from an airport. Incredible stupidity!'
Both Wilson and Wayne during their lives espoused either racist, white supremacist or segregationist views.
Donald Trump bashed Princeton for dropping Woodrow Wilson from its school and Democrats for pushing for John Wayne's name to be removed from an airport in California
Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is dropping the late president's name
Wilson, who was president of Princeton University before becoming president, was known to be pro-segregation
Democrats in Orange County are also pushing for the John Wayne Orange County Airport to be renamed
Democrats in the area also want the statue of the actor removed from the airport
Wilson was lauded by southern segregationist when he came to power and during his presidency was a supporter of racial segregation. Trump also recently defended the statue in front of the White House of Andrew Jackson, another Democratic president with a mixed record.
Jackson was a war hero and populist, but also oversaw brutal campaigns against Native Americans and retired to his Tennessee slave planation when he left office.
Before becoming president in 1913, Wilson served as Princeton University's president from 1902–1910 and was governor of New Jersey for the two years in between serving as president of the Ivy League school and the United States.
Princeton's president claimed Saturday that Wilson's name is being dropped from the school because Wilson's 'racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college.'
Democrats in Orange County, California have been pushing for a resolution to remove the likeliness of Wayne from the airport since February 2019. The effort has resurfaced amid calls from Civil Rights activists, groups and protesters for tributes to Confederate soldiers and others who owned slaves or had racist views to be taken down.
Wayne admitted to being a white supremacist in an interview with Playboy in 1971, six years before his death – and during the interview expressed derogatory views of black people, Native Americans and bashed movies for including gay characters.
Trump is pushing back against renaming Princeton's professional school and the southern California airport.
The president said in an interview that aired Sunday evening that those who want statues of slave owners and Confederate figures removed should 'learn from the history' or risk 'going to go back to it sometime.'
Calls to remove statues of Confederate figures and those connected to slavery have been mounting in recent weeks in the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Protesters have either defaced or caused destruction on dozens of statues
But Donald Trump has urged protesters to think again - particularly black Americans who want statues of the country's slave-owning founders removed - and claimed 'we should learn from the history'.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday night, the President said: 'My message is that we have a great country, we have the greatest country on Earth.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the president tweeting the 'white power' video, claiming he did not hear the phrase at first and took it down when he was made aware of the comment
'We have a heritage, we have a history and we should learn from the history, and if you don't understand your history, you will go back to it again. You will go right back to it. You have to learn.
'Think of it, you take away that whole era and you're going to go back to it sometime. People won't know about it. They're going to forget about it. It's okay.'
Trump has come under fire for his response to the increasing racial tension over the last few months – with some bashing him for not taking enough action to improve relations between the black community and law enforcement.
He has also faced criticism for not taking the Black Lives Matter movement seriously.
On Sunday, he reposted and later deleted a video on Twitter of senior-citizens in an age-restricted community participating in a golf-cart parade in support of the president.
He took the tweet down after facing backlash, even from those within his one party, for one of the protesters shouting 'white power' just eight seconds into the more than two-minute long video.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News Monday morning that he tweeted the video in order to show solidarity for his supporters.
'So the president did not hear that phrase and that portion of the video,' McEnany excused to the Fox & Friends panel. 'And when it was signaled to him that this was in there, he took that tweet down.'
'But he made very clear to me that he stands with the people of The Villages, our great seniors, men and women in the villages, who support this president. He stands for them. And his point in tweeting out that video was to stand with his supporters, who are oftentimes demonized,' she continued.
Trump expressed Sunday that he is upset with people questioning the legacy of historical figures like George Washington just because he owned slaves.
He added: 'You have to understand history, and our culture, and so many other aspects. But you can't take down George Washington.'
He said that some people want to take down Lincoln, Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant.
'Here is the other problem that I have — a lot of these people don't even know what they are taking down,' he said.
Trump's latest interview with Fox was released as he returned to the White House (pictured) following a golfing trip to Virginia Sunday – the 271st golfing trip of his presidency, according to CNN
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