President Trump’s incendiary remarks about Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa as “shit-hole countries” on January 11 showcases the man’s unabashed racial bias and hatred, which has sparked a maelstrom of shock and revulsion, alarm and outcry among US law-makers, intellectuals, and media.
Although this is one of many absurd remarks made by the POTUS, this one, in particular, resulted in widespread global rebuke and denunciation. The president made the comment in course of a meeting with more than a dozen US congressmen in the Oval Office to discuss a comprehensive immigration bill.
In the same breath, showing undisguised preference for white immigrants, when he said: “Why not welcome the Norwegians?”
Chief of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad, described the remark as shocking, shameful, and racist. The Pope described the disparaging remark as harsh and offensive.
It raised diplomatic fury across countries outside America and US diplomats around the world were summoned for formal reproach. Trump, called a compulsive liar by many, later denied that he used the expletive -- which, by all intents and purposes, means a toilet which stinks. The current Assistant Minority Leader Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, who was present in that unfortunate White house meeting, confirmed that Trump used the expletive not once, but repeatedly.
Does this shock you? In light of this, we all need to understand that this was not a freak slip of the tongue on the part of Trump, but a remark entirely consistent with his character of stereotyping immigrants and minorities as an inferior race and admiring white supremacy.
Trump’s racism is visceral in keeping with his racially charged character. The first major show of his bigoted character in relation to American politics was when he repeatedly questioned the origin of the first black American President Barack Obama and insisted that he was born in Kenya.
Trump’s comments and ideas are deeply divisive and disruptive and need to be resisted by all Americans who feel embarrassed and scared by his idiosyncratic tantrums and incoherence
Trump and his family were sued by the justice department in 1973 for discriminating against African Americans for rental apartments. His disdain for Haitians was unmistakable when he said they were carriers of AIDS. He scornfully described Mexicans as criminals and rapists and was contemptuous of Nigerians when he said that they would not want to go back to their huts.
When neo-Nazis marched into Charlottesville, Trump claimed that they were good people. His Muslim travel ban on six countries is yet another sign of his bigotry and xenophobia. We understand that Trump is hardly a leader who is concerned about political correctness. Yet, to dismiss entire countries and continents is not acceptable. Certainly, such a vile comment cannot be expected from an American president. It shows how ignorant and uninformed he is.
Do you understand the irony?In a sense, the American nation consists of immigrants. Trump’s family descent originates from Germany when they fled the Nazis, and just like the Irish who fled a potato famine, the Italians who left dry farms in Sicily, the Vietnamese who crammed into rickety fishing boats to reach the shores of America, the Hungarians who came to America in quest of political freedom and economic security -- I guess we’re all immigrants.
To hold them in contempt, ridicule, and derision is unfortunate. They, by hard work and talent, have made America great today. It is they who built Trump’s empire of towers with the sweat of their brow. America is great because America is a nation of diversity and multi-culturalism based on the traditional American belief that all people are equal, no matter the difference of colour of their skin or place of birth. America is great because of its idea of decency, dignity, justice, love, compassion, and equal opportunity for everybody to work hard and prosper.
It is the immigrant workers in farms and factories, immigrant academics in schools and colleges, immigrant businessmen, doctors and nurses, intellectuals, writers, artists, and architects who construct the mosaic of American culture and society which has made America great.
Do we realise the risks of Trump’s presidency? Trump’s skewed and obnoxious obsession with “America first” is inadequate and lopsided.
His comments and ideas are deeply divisive and disruptive, and need to be resisted by all Americans who feel embarrassed and scared by his idiosyncratic tantrums and incoherence. For many, his volatile personality is a matter of deep concern and is a potential danger to the national security of America.
He is extremely unpredictable, a man who gets carried away by his whims and caprice. Chances are that the megalomania in his verbal encounters with his North Korean counterpart at frequent intervals may land America unwittingly in the vortex of a cataclysmic nuclear fallout.
If by some miracle he completes the first term of his presidency, he must not be allowed a second. Voters must also rid the House and senate of as many of Trump’s defenders, apologists, and accomplices as possible to restore the image of America as a place of good sense. Should the time come when impeachment is on the table for his alleged collusion with Russia, there must be enough votes in the House and senate to ensure it, to get rid of a national disgrace and a threat to global peace and stability.
Abdul Hannan is a former diplomat.