Trump has been calling immigrants “animals” for far longer than last month. He said it in a rally in summer 2017. I remember because I played the clip to a woman I was interviewing for my podcast, Make America Relate Again, a woman who had voted for him and was actively supporting him at the time. As she watched the clip, her eyes grew wide and horrified. She let out several shocked sighs. Then she put the phone down, and immediately began to pivot to, “Oh I’m sure he didn’t really mean it that way…he’s just trying to get people riled up…you can’t take everything he says so literally.” And something inside me died.

Here’s a link to the clip: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-illegal-immigrants-animals-slice-dice-young-beautiful-girls-us-president-a7861596.html

And here’s the episode of the podcast: https://www.makeamericarelatepodcast.com/episode-11

We are all three of the things you said. We are stupid, we are also playing dumb, and we are also cowards.