Elaine Chao Finally Speaks Out on Trump’s Racist ‘Coco Chow’ Insults: ‘Says a Whole Lot More About Him’ Than About Asian Americans
Photo: Samuel Corum/Pool via AP.
Elaine Chao, the former Secretary of Transportation and wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has finally spoken out against the racist insults levied at her by former President Donald Trump.
Chao served in Trump’s cabinet until resigning in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a decision that drew the ex-president’s ire – and an ongoing parade of racist insults, usually posted on his Truth Social account.
These online attacks often focused on the Taiwan-born Chao’s heritage, with Trump calling her McConnell’s “China-loving wife, Coco Chow!” and other posts insinuating Chao was somehow taking orders from the Chinese government and controlling her husband and other various U.S. elected officials, including President Joe Biden.
Besides the fact that Chao’s family immigrated to America when she was only eight years old, numerous commentators have pointed out that Trump’s insults don’t make a lot of sense in light of the actual geopolitical reality. Taiwan’s relationship with China’s communist regime is fraught with tension, with many drawing comparisons to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.
Chao has previously demurred from directly sparring with her former boss. In a December interview with Kaitlan Collins on CNN This Morning, she said that it would be “helpful if the media does not repeat” Trump’s “racist taunts.”
“If it were the n-word,” Chao told Collins, “the media would not repeat it… he’s trying to get a rise out of us. He says all sorts of outrageous things, and I don’t make a point of answering any one of them.”
Nearly a month after that interview, Chao is taking a different approach, giving a statement to Politico’s Meredith McGraw.
“When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” said Chao. “He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”
