It seems a bit of a stretch to propose that Trump’s use of the phrase “firing that dog” in a tweet about Omarosa Manigault Newman is the result of racism. Far from being an aberration, “fired like a dog” is in fact one of Trump’s favorite phrases — and one that he’s used thus far on David Gregory, Eric Erickson, Ted Cruz, Chuck Todd, Bill Maher, and Glenn Beck. Another variation of his — “dumped like a dog” — has been deployed against Hosni Mubarak, Steve Bannon, and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. “Thrown off ABC like a dog,” meanwhile, was reserved solely for George Will.
Trump seems to think badly of dogs, even as he talks about them frequently. Over the last five years or so, he has suggested that Mitt Romney had “choked like a dog”; he has called Mac Miller an “ungrateful dog”; he has complained that Kristen Stewart “cheated on” Robert Pattison “like a dog”; he has boasted that the Union Leader newspaper was “kicked out of the ABC News debate like a dog”; and he has accused Brent Bozell of having come “begging for money like a dog.”
Perhaps he needs a best friend.