Native American groups have long criticized Trump for calling the senator Pocahontas. While he means to belittle Warren, they feel that it is also belittling to them. The nickname insults the original Pocahontas, a tragic figure who was kidnapped, and then later traveled to England with her husband John Rolfe, where she died; it conflates Pocahontas’s Powhatan heritage with other groups; and it is frequently used to mock Native Americans.

The president continues to use the nickname at this point not because he is ignorant of the offense he is causing but because he seeks to cause offense. According to a pool reporter, Trump’s comment was met with silence in the room. The men did not object, but they were hardly in a position to do so: They are veterans being honored by the commander in chief, and given that they are also seeking support for a code-talker museum, they have little incentive to criticize him. (Trump loves using captive audiences who can’t object to his offensive comments.)

Although the point of this particular insult may not be to offend Native Americans, it’s no surprise that Trump is indifferent to their complaints. The president has a long history of offensive comments about Native Americans. His October 31 statement about Native American Heritage Month is extremely fraught. “Beginning with the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Colony and continuing until the present day, Native American’s [sic] contributions are woven deeply into our Nation’s rich tapestry,” Trump wrote, a statement that makes no historical sense.

For one thing, English settlers interacted with Native Americans (yes, the Powhatans) at Jamestown 13 years before the Pilgrims’ arrival. Moreover, American history does not begin with the arrival of Europeans. Native Americans were contributing to what would become the United States long before Jamestown or Plymouth. Trump also wrote that “They helped early European settlers survive and thrive in a new land,” which reduces them to a Tonto-style supporting role and glosses over the violence committed against them by the same European settlers.

Minutes after Trump’s remarks, reporters at the White House briefing asked Press Secretary Sarah Sanders about what he’d said. Sanders rejected a characterization of the “Pocahontas” nickname as a racial slur. It is true that the name is not offensive per se, even if the specific use of it is. Trump has, however, endorsed the use of other anti-Native American slurs, saying that the name of the NFL’s Washington Redskins is “a positive” and that attempts to change it are “unnecessary political correctness.”

Sanders insisted that the real story was that Warren had claimed Native American heritage in order to advance her career. “I don’t understand why that isn’t constantly covered,” Sanders said. There are reasons why it’s not constantly covered, as Sanders knows: It’s been extensively covered. Warren’s claims of Native American heritage are not supported by any evidence, as Garance Franke-Ruta explained here in 2012. However, there’s also not any evidence that Warren benefited professionally from her claim of Cherokee blood.