First lady gives Trump a serve

First Lady Michelle Obama has delivered a withering attack on Donald Trump, warning a graduating class of New York students, and through them America, that those who seek to rule by intimidation and fear end up diminishing the hope and freedom of their nations.

Without mentioning the presumptive Republican presidential candidate by name, Obama made one of the most sustained and potent attacks on Trump since he began his bid for the White House last year. She portrayed his brand of politics as un-American and dangerous, comparing him to world leaders ‘‘who stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens … who demonise and dehumanise entire groups of people because they have nothing else to offer.’’

Addressing the class of 2016 at the City College of New York, she said: ‘‘Graduates, that is not who we are. That is not what this country stands for.’’

She went on: ‘‘Here in America we don’t let our differences tear us apart. Here in America we don’t give in to our fears, we don’t build walls to keep people out.’’

She alluded to those who ‘‘tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as though anger and intolerance should be our default rather than optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress.’’

Obama’s speech, possibly the last major public statement she will make as first lady, was a tour de force of a form of quiet political activism that she has made her

In America, we don’t let our differences tear us apart . . . we don’t give in to our fears, we don’t build walls to keep people out. Michelle Obama

own, almost without anybody noticing. At a time of unparalleled bitter partisanship in American politics, Obama has managed to pull off the seemingly impossible: while her husband has become a hate figure for the right and a subject of sustained racially tinted trolling, she has managed to keep above the fray while continuing to be a powerful advocate for greater racial tolerance.

Her favourability rating has remained steady at an astronomical 70 per cent, even at times when the president’s have slumped to 40 per cent. The public adoration towards her is reflected in her 5 million followers on Twitter and Instagram, and by the crowd of almost 4000 students before her under a grey New York sky who chanted ‘‘Four more years! Four more years!’’ as though she were the president whose term limit is approaching.

Obama, who will be 52 when she leaves the White House, chose the venue for her final commencement speech carefully. Founded in 1847 on a hill overlooking Harlem, City College was the first free public college in the US with a specific mission to serve the children of poor and immigrant families, in stark contrast to its rich neighbour down the road, Columbia University.

Obama said she had chosen City College for this poignant moment in her own life – ‘‘this is a big day for me too,’’ she said – for the very reason that it was what she called a ‘‘dynamic, inclusive place’’. She said it represented ‘‘the power of our differences, making us smarter and more creative. That is how the infusion of all our cultures, generation after generation, created the matchless alchemy of our melting pot and helped us build the strongest, most vibrant, most prosperous nation on the planet.’’

A melting pot, she went on to imply, that Trump was determined to destroy. ‘‘Despite our history, some folks out there today seem to have a very different perspective,’’ Obama said. ‘‘They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped.’’

She said that City College’s Class of 2016 were ‘‘the living breathing proof that the American dream endures in our time – it is you.’’ As she ended the speech, preparing to return to her final few months in the White House, she urged them to find strength in the ‘‘power of our differences’’.

‘‘Take an oath to make your city and your world greater and more beautiful,’’ she said. ‘‘That is the American story.’’