Here is Trump’s message to the world on the day when Americans gather to eat, enjoy family, friends, and football, and, you know, give thanks.
First, this is one in a long string of truly bizarre and unpresidential holiday greetings from Trump on social media. I noted another recent example here, although he did it throughout the first term as well (at least this time he didn’t address the “haters and losers“). All of this is glossed over and ignored as “Trump being Trump.” I can’t help but note, yet again, that this is bizarre, antisocial, and disturbing behavior that we would not tolerate from pretty much anyone else, but somehow it is a-okay for the President of the United States to rant like this.
Second, I would highlight the 53 million number. He is there highlighting the foreign-born population of the United States. That number is not just recent immigrants and is decidedly not just illegal immigrants, whether they crossed in illegally or overstayed visas. Indeed, that number includes tens of millions of US citizens, many of whom have been in the US for a very long time. I think that the deep xenophobic nationalism inherent in his throwing that number the way he is here is noteworthy, especially given the remigration/reverse migration rhetoric being used by the administration.
He is stirring especially nasty notions, and no doubt inciting additional anti-foreign hatreds in some corners of our population by making it sound like all the foreigners are getting $50k each annually from the government and blaming foreigners for social dysfunction. Scapegoating foreigners for some combination of imagined horrors and real policy failures is a known fascist set of tropes, I would note.
Third, he then pivots to a specific claim: that Somalis (who are Black, for those keeping score at home) are “completely taking over” parts of Minnesota and that they roam the streets in gangs looking for prey. The imagery of roving gangs of Blacks forcing White people to cower in fear in their homes is right out of the lies that led to lynchings in the Jim Crow era.
These are all grotesque lies intended to divide us and to foment hatred and fear.
The notion that Walz is too afraid to stop it all and the further demonization of Ilhan Omar is just icing on the racist cake.
Trump also shared the following on Truth Social after this post:
And
And
There is no doubt that Trump uses his massive megaphone to blast out an endless stream of racist and xenophobic messages.
In other words, Trump being Trump.
And I wish that there was a bit more focus on what this means for the mainstream press (and for Trump voters who need to either admit what they really support or realize that something needs to change) rather than everyone dismissing all of this as nothing worth paying attention to.
“Trump being Trump” should not be a way to hand-wave away what is happening right in front of us.
