Ten quick thoughts on Trump’s shitholing of America
- I first met Michele when she became one of my high school students in Brooklyn. She had just moved from Haiti, she slept on the floor of her family’s small apartment in a violent neighborhood, and she was picking up English as a second language. Today she’s a Harvard graduate and a law professor. That’s what America is all about. It’s shocking that we still need to remind people of that. Michele represents the best of America. Donald Trump, the worst.
- Nothing is surprising about Donald Trump calling Haiti and other countries (where people have dark skin) “shitholes.” Racism is not a Trump bug. It’s a Trump feature. He got warmed up with birther racism. He campaigned by calling Mexicans rapists. He couldn’t choose sides between Nazis and the good guys. This is who he has always been. He hasn’t hid it. On the contrary, he’s shouted it from the rooftops. And millions of Americans loved it. Forget all the faux outrage about the president’s language. This is the story.
- “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Given his personality, the most amazing part about all this is that Trump phrased something he doesn’t know about as a question. It may be Trump’s first sign of curiosity (other than asking the White House staff if he can have a second scoop of ice cream).
- The Wall is, and always has been, the physical manifestation of Trump’s overt racism and hate. Senators can’t back the former without backing the latter.
- This week, Donald Trump got his first physical as president. I really hope a doctor from one of the shithole countries got to do the prostate exam.
- Reminder: Trump’s policies are a lot worse than his language. For immigrants, that was especially true this week.
- Dear Cable news outlets: You can say the word shithole. Every sane parent in America has been yelling expletives over and over since last January. My alarm goes off, I roll over, I remember what’s happening in a America, and I groan, “Oh fuck.” Then I wake up my kids and they do the same.
- Anyone who thought the White House would deny Trump’s comments hasn’t been paying attention. It’s not a slip or a gaffe. It’s their point.
- Trump wondered aloud why we can’t have more immigrants from places such as Norway. And Norway was like, “Oh, hey, um, yeah, actually we’ve got this thing that just came up...”
- My parents came to America after surviving the Holocaust. For Jews, one could fairly describe post-war Europe as a shithole. And that was the point. They came to America. And like millions of immigrants, before and after, they made it better.
Dave Pell writes NextDraft, Covering the Daily Shithole of News.
