U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has a penchant for doling out interesting and unconventional names for new warships, but a petition currently on the White House website wants the next major warship to be named something that may be too outlandish even for him.
The petition suggests that the next major vessel be christened “USS The Deplorables,” as the petition notes, “to honor those citizens who rose up to defend America and the Constitution from the globalists.”
The name is taken from a remark Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made on the campaign trail to refer to supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.
"You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” Clinton said at a rally in September. "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And, unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
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A supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wears tape with the word "deplorable" written on it in the audience at a campaign rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, U.S., September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTSNYPDExpand / Contract
A supporter of President-elect Donald Trump wears tape with the word "deplorable" written on it in the audience at a campaign rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, U.S., September 15, 2016. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
The remark initially offended many Trump supporters, and Clinton apologized for it. But the term quickly turned into a rallying cry for Trump’s campaign and helped the GOP candidate win the White House. Now it appears at least some of his supporters would like the Navy’s next ship to be “deplorable” as well.
The petition, which was started by someone with the initials D.S., has so far only garnered 768 votes since being launched on December 4, 2016 – 99,232 short of the 100,000 needed by January 3, 2017, to receive an official response from the White House.
Andrew O'Reilly, Fox News
