As time goes on, those who have at any time stood before the United States and asserted that Donald Trump would tone down his rhetoric and/or become more “presidential” while moving forward with his administration look more and more ridiculous.
He’s in Europe this week, where after a stop at a NATO summit he went to the United Kingdom for a long awaited visit. While speaking to the British outlet The Sun, he quickly fell into familiar, repeated patterns of racist rhetoric, claiming — with pretty much no paraphrase here — that immigrants are destroying European culture.
He said:
‘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.’
Speaking to the British outlet, Trump continued:
‘I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.’
His comments are just straight up racism; there’s no away around it. Those who would be immigrating to Europe are, of course, generally going to be non-white, and he’s claiming these non-white people to be a threat to the very fabric of stable European civilization.
The entirety of human civilization today is based on immigration in some fashion — we all, especially here in the U.S., came from somewhere. Trump’s comments are stupid, disconnected from reality, and representative of centuries of persecution of non-white people whose cultures are, to racists like Trump, supposedly incomparable with the West and its ideals.
These racist ideas are the ones guiding the execution of the Trump administration’s policy at present, seen through such means as the longstanding proposal for a U.S./ Mexico border wall, the separation of immigrant families at that same border, and the shrinking of protections for asylum seekers.
Featured Image via Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg
