Indian-born American novelist Salman Rushdie on Wednesday labelled United States President Donald Trump a “tinpot despot” and asked America...
Indian-born American novelist Salman Rushdie on Wednesday labelled United States President Donald Trump a “tinpot despot” and asked Americans to be wary of the president’s attempts to use the killing of African-American George Floyd late last month to take the path to despotism.
Floyd, an unarmed black man, was choked to death on May 25 as a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while arresting him for allegedly using a counterfeit note. The officer was later arrested upon public outrage and charged with murder in the third degree.
In an article in The Washington Post, Rushdie blamed Trump’s racism for the rise of white supremacist violence in the United States. “We are so inured to the behavior of this man, so used to his lies, his inexhaustible self-regard, his stupidity, that maybe we are tempted to think of this as just another day in Trumpistan,” he wrote. “But this time, something different is happening. The uprising that began with the killing of George Floyd is not fizzling but growing. The man in the White House is scared, and even, for a time, takes refuge in the basement...”
Rushdie warned that Trump should not be allowed to use the actions of a small minority of white supremacists...
