Donald Trump is receiving flak for calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” during an event meant to honor Navajo code-talkers. This is fair. The event was about his guests, not about Trump and his political rivalries, and his decision to go down that road was unstatesmanlike and, frankly, incomprehensible.
But it was not an “anti–Native American slur,” as has been claimed. Trump did not direct the insult at his guests, or mock anyone’s heritage. Rather, he was knocking an American senator who pretended to be a Native American for her own career and financial gain. Even as it rightly hits Trump for the inappropriateness of his timing, the press continues to miss this distinction.