While most of the world is still sifting through waves of grief and horror in the wake of the tragic mass shooting carried out by an Islamaphobic white nationalist in New Zealand yesterday, President Trump has already moved on and gone right back to peddling the same brand of xenophobic, fearmongering rhetoric that helped encourage the killer to carry out the massacre in the first place.
It’s already been revealed that the murderer views President Donald Trump as a “symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” so one would hope that the American leader might tone down his hateful dog whistles for at least a short period of time. Instead, he took to Twitter today to share a hysterical video of undocumented migrants entering the United States.
The disturbing clip is an obvious attempt to whip up his racist base. Set to ominous music, the video builds as more and more immigrants enter the frame until it cuts to the words “This is a national emergency.” The whole thing serves no purpose other than to engender fear in the viewer.
Trump wants his supporters to think there is a horde of people coming to hurt them and ruin their lives, when all the video really shows is a group of people trying to enter the country and build better lives for themselves. To paint it in such a sinister light is truly despicable.
This is a National Emergency…pic.twitter.com/AAKBuNW2ro
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2019
The video could easily be compared to the infamously racist Wille Horton ad that was used to attack Democrat Michael Dukakis when he ran for president in 1988. Both prey on white angst about people of color, simultaneously exploiting hatred for political support while deepening and metastisizing that hate. The White House should be ashamed.
When asked about the mass murder yesterday, Trump gave an absolutely disgusting response by claiming that white nationalism is not a rising problem. In reality, it’s an indisputable fact that hate crimes in America have increased in number since he ascended to the Oval Office. Trump himself has emboldened these monsters with his constant dog whistles, overt racist language, and xenophobic fearmongering.
On top of that. the president sickeningly (and perhaps unintentionally) mirrored the language in the killer’s manifesto by referring to undocumented immigration as an “invasion.” The shooter also referred to Muslim immigrants as “invaders.”
The similarity in the way these two men think and talk should alarm any moral citizen. This president is a hateful monster, and the nation must rise above its worst instincts and eject him from office at the first opportunity.
"We are experiencing an invasion on a level never seen before in history." – White Nationalist terrorist who killed 49 Muslims in a place of worship yesterday
“People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it is.” – Trump, just now pic.twitter.com/RinMRfZy8G
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) March 15, 2019
