RFK Jr. Donor Tim Mellon Is Smeared as “Racist”

Plus, Bret Stephens on 10 American ideas; why Martha Stewart, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Milken deserve RBG awards

An unfortunate development in the contemporary press is the habit of labeling people or ideas as “racist” rather than considering the substance. I wrote about this the other day when it was a New York Times news article labeling Senator Cotton as racist for expressing concern about Chinese Communist influence on TikTok, a concern that is now shared by the Biden administration and by 352 members of the House of Representatives.

The most recent example of this phenomenon comes today from the news columns of the Wall Street Journal. An article by Tarini Parti is headlined “A Reclusive Heir Is Giving Millions to Help Trump and RFK Jr.” It reports on Tim Mellon, “a Wyoming-based recluse” who “has so far contributed $20 million to Kennedy’s super PAC and an additional $15 million to Trump’s for the 2024 election.”

Let’s leave aside the description of Mellon as a “recluse” or “reclusive,” which is newspaper terminology for anyone who doesn’t immediately drop what they are doing to get on the telephone with any newspaper reporter who calls.

What got to me about the Journal piece was this passage: “Mellon previously self-published an autobiography online in 2015 that has since been taken down. He used racist language to describe his political views in the book, according to the Washington Post, referring to social safety net programs as ‘Slavery Redux.’”

“Slavery redux”? A political donor’s comparison of welfare dependency to slavery is being called “racist.” “Two iron shackles consisting of iron loops joined together by a length of iron chain. The iron is heavily rusted.” From before 1860. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from the Liljenquist Family Collection.