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Trump’s hateful remarks bring new level of shame to the nation

by Maria Cardona, opinion contributor - 01/12/18 3:45 PM ET

Just when we think we can’t go any lower in our public discourse, the president takes us there. President Donald Trump, in a meeting Thursday with lawmakers discussing the Dream Act and immigration policy, tellingly asked why would we want more immigrants from “shithole countries?” He was specifically referring to immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and Africa.

As outraged as many Americans are — and with good reason — we should not be surprised at this point in time. The president’s comments were racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic and bigoted because that’s exactly the type of person the president of the United States is.

{mosads}He has been that way his entire life. Remember the Central Park Five? Remember all the government lawsuits he and his father were slapped with for allegedly discriminating against potential renters who were African-American?

Remember Trump’s launch of his five-year crusade to push the racist “birther” movement and discredit the first African-American president of the United States? Remember his insults to Mexicans, calling them rapists and criminals the day he announced his presidential campaign?

Remember his slight against an American-born judge of Mexican descent because Trump doubted Judge Curiel could do his job due to his heritage? Remember Charlottesville?

The list goes on. Trump has showed us time and again who he is at his core and in his heart. As an immigrant from a country Trump would surely consider a “shithole,” I am proud to be an American. But I am embarrassed every day that Trump is president of this great nation, and yesterday marked a new level of shame accompanied with great anger and even greater sadness.

Our American children are growing up with a commander in chief who believes that a third of the country is less than American and not worthy of what the nation has to offer. African-Americans, Latinos and other immigrants have contributed billions to our economy in the form of both low- and high-skilled labor.

When Trump trashes our immigrants and Americans of color, does he realize he is trashing America? Where exactly does Trump believe the fruits and vegetables on his plate come from? Who does he think cleans the rooms, waits the tables, cooks the food, tends the grounds and greets the guests at his five-star hotels?

The fact that this president would so nonchalantly insult so many Americans and immigrants who only want to make a better life for themselves and their families, just to rile up his anti-immigrant, far-right base, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has zero interest in uniting the country or finding common ground on the tough issues of immigration.

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Trump only wants to earn back the praise of people like Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and other extremists who want to close our borders. That is not leadership and it certainly should not be the guiding principle of the president of the United States. America deserves better.

Ronald Reagan once said: “A man wrote and found it necessary to say this, and I’m pleased that he did. He said, ‘You can go to live in another land — you can go to live in France, but you can’t become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany, but you can’t become a German. You can go to live in Japan or Turkey, and you cannot become Japanese or Turkish. But anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American.”

Mitt Romney once said: “We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.”

Trump should learn from past conservatives and true Republican leaders who extolled the virtues of immigration, because they understood what immigrants gave to this country, and they know the core principles our country was founded on: equality, a level playing field and hard work.

Trump and his apologists need to understand a few things: Immigrants do not take away American jobs. They do not lower American wages. If we passed comprehensive immigration reform tomorrow and allowed 11 million undocumented immigrants to legalize, we would add more than $1.5 trillion to our economy in the next decade.

People from war-torn or economically distressed countries don’t just wake up one day and say, “I am going to risk my life, leave my family and community, go to a country whose language I don’t know and whose culture I don’t understand and do back-breaking work — just for the fun of it.”

These immigrants know that if they come here and work hard, they can offer a better life for their families and a brighter future for their children. They know they have a shot at the American Dream. At least they did until Nov. 8, 2016.

So, if Trump and the Republican Party want to keep control of Congress this year and win again in 2020 in a country that is seeing more black and brown babies born than white babies, they had better understand that their words and their policies have consequences.

They had better realize that communities of color — and many white people, as well — will vote against this hateful, insidious approach to politics. While Trump will never change, GOP leaders should stop enabling him — or America will stop enabling them.

Maria Cardona is a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a Democratic strategist and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.