Trump’s Bigoted Beliefs Are a Betrayal of the American Experience
By Janet Murguía, UnidosUS President and CEO
President Trump’s trip this month to Europe, where he met with NATO leaders and Vladimir Putin, was — by virtually all accounts — disastrous. First, he showed that as a weak leader posing as a tough one, he is far more willing to bully Central American toddlers than he is to take on an autocrat who did everything in his power to undermine American democracy. Second, Trump demonstrated a deeply disturbing — and frankly unpresidential — willingness to throw American law enforcement and intelligence under the bus on foreign soil, just like he does repeatedly here in the United States.
But Trump’s undermining of his own government and country before Putin and the world was at its ugliest when it came to bashing the leaders of Europe on immigration. In a now notorious interview with The Sun newspaper in London, Trump not only criticized British Prime Minister Teresa May in her own backyard, he also spouted this:
“I think what has happened to Europe is a shame. Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame. I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way. So I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I think you are losing your culture.”
And while he partially walked back his criticisms of May, he reiterated these sentiments at his press conference with her. It was left to May to say what every other president of the United States, from both sides of the aisle, has and would have said when asked about immigration:
“The U.K. has a proud history of welcoming people who flee persecution or want to contribute to our economy and society. Over the years, immigration has been good for the U.K.”
Trump said no such thing. He later repeated his lament about lost culture in an interview with Fox News. In fact, he has never, ever defended immigrants. Trump’s comments in Europe were not a gaffe — they are what Trump actually believes. For him, immigration is bad, period.
What was different about his European remarks is that Trump dropped any pretense about why he believes this. His remarks were not a dog whistle — they were an air horn when it comes to what is really driving Trump on immigration.
He is lamenting immigration from Africa and the Middle East in the way that White nationalist leaders both in Europe and this country do. “Culture change” is a barely veiled stand-in for racial, religious, and ethnic bigotry.
By exporting his bigotry abroad, Trump isn’t just trashing our nation’s diversity. He’s trashing the country itself. Trump is not only breaking presidential norms left and right, he is deliberately trying to undermine our American ideals and tenets, one of which has always been that we are proudly a nation of immigrants and diversity is our strength. At bottom, Trump is trying to rewrite American history and the American experience.
However you feel about Trump or about immigration, Trump’s behavior should be of concern. Here is a president who has no problem criticizing Americans when he is abroad. Here is a president who had no issue exposing not just his petty political gripes but his prejudice and bigotry on the world stage. And here is a president who wants that prejudice and bigotry to be the picture he paints of his administration and of his country to the world.
That is not patriotism. That is betrayal.
