Elaine Chao: Media Shouldn't Repeat Trump's 'Racist Taunt'

Elaine Chao says she's not going to respond to former President Trump's attacks on her and husband Mitch McConnell—and it would be "helpful" if the media stopped repeating Trump's "racist taunt." Chao served as transportation secretary in the Trump administration but resigned after the Capitol attack. She was born in Taiwan and moved to the US with her family when she was eight years old. Her father founded a US-based shipping company that does business with China, among other countries, and Trump often mentions China in his attacks on McConnell, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. "I mean if it were the N-word or any other word, the media would not repeat it," Chao told CNN Thursday. "But the media continuously repeats his racist taunt."

Trump repeated his racist nickname for Chao in a Truth Social post Wednesday slamming the Senate minority leader for "surrendering" to the "Marxist" Democrats on what he called the "Ominous Bill," the Hill reports. The former president claimed it might be connected to McConnell and Chao's "BIG relationships with China." "He’s trying to get a rise out of us," said Chao, who also served in the Reagan administration and both Bush administrations. "He says all sorts of outrageous things, and I don’t make a point of answering any one of them." (More Elaine Chao stories.)