Trump tweets send stinging message to countless Americans
PHILADELPHIA—When President Donald Trump tweeted that four congresswomen should “go back” where they came from, Erika Almiron was reminded of the first time she heard the same comments. She was a new fourth-grader at a predominantly white Italian-Catholic school.
Since then, the daughter of immigrants from Paraguay has heard the remark dozens of times. “I was like, ‘I was born in South Philly, so what do you want me to do?’” said Almiron, now 42 and an immigrant-rights worker in Philadelphia.
For countless Americans, Trump’s words on Sunday sent a stinging message that they are not fully welcome in their own country. His comments echoed painful remarks they have heard throughout their lives. But this time, they came not from a stranger or even a political candidate, but straight from the occupant of the Oval Office.
Trump “feels so emboldened to believe that he has the right to be here and other people don’t, and he gets to determine what that looks like,” Almiron said.
The president doubled down on his remarks Monday, telling reporters that if the lawmakers “hate our country,” they can leave. He defended his tweets by saying the backlash he received “doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”
“He likes to other-ize people and point to them as being the problem,” said the Rev. William Barber, senior pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina. “What he’s doing is ugly and vile and un-American and not new. The rhetoric is cover for racist policy.”
Trump’s tweets hearken back to his entry into politics, when he questioned former President Barack Obama’s citizenship, said Rashad Robinson, executive director of the Color of Change civil rights organization, who recalled being told to “go back to Africa” while growing up on Long Island.
“These are basically questions about who should be seen,” Robinson said. “This is at the heart of the execution of ‘make America great again,’ this idea that America was truly great when only some people were allowed to belong.”