President Donald Trump took to Twitter this weekend to call for Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch to be suspended for the season for his silent protest during the national anthem, and on Wednesday morning (Nov. 22), he tweeted that Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to get “tough and smart” and force NFL players to stand during the national anthem. But days earlier, Minister Louis Farrakhan told Trump to be mindful of what he says.
“Did you call the brothers that took a knee sons of bitches? That’s not nice, president,” Farrakhan said, during his speech in Washington D.C. last week. “You wouldn’t want nobody to refer to your mom in that kind of way.”
Farrakhan then spoke about Trump’s xenophobic and nationalist messaging, using an extended metaphor to illustrate his point.
“You’re about to go to war? I know the generals are a little PO’d at you, because you know like ancient Rome when she was going down, the real Romans didn’t want to fight,” Farrakhan said. “They were having sex parties, licentious feasts. You know who was fighting for Rome? It was some of those that Rome had conquered.
“So the Mexicans and the Hispanic brothers and sisters, DACA. Hey, didn’t you take Mexico from them? Texas was Mexico. Didn’t you take Arizona, California? Yes!” he continued. “That’s six countries, states’ revenue, you took. Well, they’re coming back. You call them aliens, they say ‘I’m just coming home.’”
Farrakhan said that people of color enrolled in the U.S. military, despite being mistreated in the country.
“Elijah Muhammad said, we shouldn’t take pride in wars which take the lives of human beings. Unless you give us the necessary territory where we have something to fight for, our days of fighting for your madness are over!”
Watch Minister Farrakhan’s full speech below.