Trump insults Native Americans with Tomahawk Chop at World Series game

Former US president Donald Trump has performed the controversial “Tomahawk Chop” cheer, a racist insult to Native Americans, while attending Game 4 of baseball’s World Series in Atlanta, Georgia.

Trump chopped away with fans from a suite at Truist Park on Saturday night before the game between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros kicked off.

The Tomahawk Chop sees people move their arm forwards and backwards with an open palm, simulating chopping that would be done with a Tomahawk, a single-handed ax, originally built by Native Americans.

“The name ''Braves,'' the tomahawk adorning the team's uniform, and the ''tomahawk chop'' that the team exhorts its fans to perform at home games are meant to depict and caricature not just one tribal community but all Native people, and that is certainly how baseball fans and Native people everywhere interpret them,” National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp said in a statement on Wednesday.

“In our discussions with the Atlanta Braves, we have repeatedly and unequivocally made our position clear -- Native people are not mascots, and degrading rituals like the 'tomahawk chop' that dehumanize and harm us have no place in American society,” Scott added.

Trump had earlier released a statement in a mass email to his supporters about his planned World Series appearance.

“Looking forward to being at the World Series in Atlanta tonight. Thank you to the Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred, and Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, for the invite. Melania and I are looking forward to a wonderful evening watching two great teams!”

When the celebration was cued up on Saturday, Trump and other Braves fans indulged, with the former president making the chopping motion with his right arm.

In the suite, Trump was also joined by former Georgia college football star running back Herschel Walker, whose bid for a US Senate post from Georgia has been backed by the ex-president.

In his 2020 re-election bid, Trump narrowly lost the state of Georgia.

In October 2019, while Trump was US president, he attended game five of the World Series in Washington. When his image was flashed on the stadium video display board, a chorus of boos broke out.

Trump had called for a boycott of Major League Baseball after a decision in April to move the MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta to Colorado in protest of restrictive voting laws Georgia state lawmakers had passed.

Racism against Native Americans hit home with MLB this year as the Cleveland Indians retired their nickname following years of complaints in favor of Guardians, the team’s new nickname.

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