Trump makes a joke about Pocahontas by honoring Native Americans

US President Donald Trump made a "joke" on the Pocahontas indigenous princess, seizing the occasion to attack a Democratic opponent by honoring Native American ex-combatants of the Second World War in the Oval Office of the White House.

Trump left the protocol aside when, in the midst of an act in honor of Navajo natives, creators of a wartime communication code that the Japanese never managed to decipher, he mentioned Pocahontas to refer to Senator Elizabeth Warren from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

"However, we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas, "she continued, causing several members of her team to laugh.

Pocahontas was the favored daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan and fell in love with an English settler, John Smith.

Trump often uses the nickname to refer to Warren, fierce opponent of the president and who usually mentions his native roots by his mother.

The president commented on Pocahontas with the three former Navajo fighters standing

 under the photo of controversial President Andrew Jackson, who ordered the forcible expulsion of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, killing thousands.

Warren was quick to react.

"Donald Trump continues to degrade the presidential cabinet," he said in a statement, stressing that the Navajo deserve "the praise and gratitude" of the nation.

"What Trump showed today was a shame for our values ​​and a shameful insult to the heroes of our history," he concluded.

Subsequently, the White House denied any racial connotation in the president's words. Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended the use of her nickname and called the accusations of racism ridiculous.

"I think what most people believe to be offensive is the fact that Senator Warren mentions her origins to advance her career," he said.

During World War II, the United States used hundreds of Native Americans from different tribes, whose ancestral dialects served as an undecipherable communication code for their enemies.

The pronunciation and vocabulary of the indigenous languages ​​were then unknown to the Germans and the Japanese, who integrated the Axis together with Italy.