President Donald Trump was highly criticized on Saturday for making an apparent joke about genocide during political attack on a 2020 campaign challenger.

On Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced she was running for the highest office in the land.

Trump, who has nicknamed Warren “Pocohontas” over her claims of Native American heritage, blasted the Massachusetts Democrat on Twitter.

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Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019

Trump’s all-caps reference to “trail” was widely taken as a reference to the “trail of tears” — the forced relocation of Native Americans following the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.

Thousands of Native Americans died.

Donald Trump, Jr. even shared an image on Instagram saying, “the Native American genocide continues with another murder by the president.”

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Savage!!! Love my President.

A post shared by Donald Trump Jr. (@donaldjtrumpjr) on Feb 9, 2019 at 3:44pm PST

Here are some of the criticism of the commander-in-chief:

Thousands of Native Americans died on the ‘Trail of Tears’ — https://t.co/ji25xvAUzC

— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) February 9, 2019

This is a genocide joke. pic.twitter.com/J5Gwt4v7hg

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) February 9, 2019

This is an extremely racist “joke” — the punchline is a riff on genocide — and would probably get him kicked off Twitter if he weren’t the President https://t.co/F4gt8DO8nf

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 10, 2019

If the average American gave a shit about Native Americans and the apocalyptic genocide committed against them, we’d have to completely rethink literally everything about the United States of America lol

— Abraham Riesman אברהם ריזמאן (@abrahamjoseph) February 10, 2019

Pro tip: You don't need all caps, let your genocide pun sell itself. https://t.co/aalAgEYs0F

— J. Elvis Weinstein (@JElvisWeinstein) February 10, 2019

I agree genocide is the lowest for tRump thus far. I should hope so.

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) February 10, 2019

Because genocide is hilarious (if you’re a bad person) https://t.co/ALvOps9Z4U

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) February 10, 2019

Applauding the genocide of indigenous people to own the libs.

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 9, 2019

The same week in which the political world has united around the notion that posting a black face pic on your yearbook is a cause for resignation, the president makes a joke about Native American genocide, his son cheers it, and it will likely be viewed as par for the course.

— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 10, 2019

I try to never dignify this man’s tweets, but there is little doubt here that he uses “TRAIL” to evoke the genocidal Trail of Tears, and does so to land a political jab. Warren has taken justifiable heat on this issue—but he used the murders of Indigenous people as a punchline. https://t.co/LiyK2iruDF

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) February 9, 2019

where the president's son reposts a horrible joke about the genocide of native americans based of a horrible joke about native american genocide made by the President.

these were real people. families. a culture and history extinguished.

to the Trump family, it is a punchline. https://t.co/7zANratHGV

— jay cowit (@jaycowit) February 9, 2019

i thought i'd stopped being surprised by how gleefully cruel don jr is a while ago but jesus fucking christ

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) February 9, 2019

https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/1094372944925655045

I said from day one that Trump should have been banned from twitter.

— Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow) February 9, 2019

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… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We’ve launched a weekly podcast, “We’ve Got Issues,” focused on issues, not tweets. Unlike other news sites, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. We’re not part of a conglomerate, or a project of venture capital bros. From unflinching coverage of racism, to revealing efforts to erode our rights, Raw Story will continue to expose hypocrisy and harm. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

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