The following article by Eugene Scott was posted on the Washington Post May 31, 2018:
President Trump has made many high-profile pardons, and is considering more. Here’s what his pardoning strategy says about his view of the legal system. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)
When President Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza on Thursday, he was pardoning one of the most inflammatory voices on the right.
The author and frequent critic of liberals pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating federal campaign finance laws and was indicted on charges that he illegally used straw donors to contribute to a Republican Senate candidate in New York in 2012. The Washington Post previously reported that D’Souza was sentenced to five years’ probation, including eight months of living under supervision in San Diego, and a $30,000 fine.
D’Souza, who has written books and directed films attacking former president Barack Obama, claims he was targeted for his conservative views. His supporters, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), conservative activist Candace Owens and the president himself, appear to agree.
But D’Souza’s indictment is only part of his personal story. The former Christian college president is as well known for his outlandish comments on social media as he is for his political commentary.
Here’s a sampler of the incidents that earned him that reputation.
1. He called Obama a “boy” from the “ghetto” after Obama filmed a sketch where he took a selfie in the Oval Office.
2. He called Obama a “grown up Trayvon,” in 2013, a reference to the black 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer.
D’Souza removed the tweet, but Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart wrote that “its racist implications are beneath contempt.”
3. D’Souza dismissed the activism of survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting because of their youth.
4. He then mocked those students after Florida lawmakers voted down a bill to ban assault weapons.
5. He minimized the impact of civil rights activist Rosa Parks’s protest that helped desegregate public transportation.
6. He attempted to draw a connection between homosexuality and Nazis.
7. He has used the n-word on more than one occasion on social media.
8. He accused women advocating for gender equality of being “feminist whiners.”
9. He politicized the Pulse shooting in Orlando while attacking Obama.