“An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud,” Donald Trump tweeted in 2012. Since then, Donald Trump has repeated this lie and continued to question the citizenship of the President of the United States.
Although many people fought against this lie, none of them had the platform or the influence that Trump has on public opinion.
According to Donald Trump, he sent his people to Hawaii to investigate and stated that, “we would not believe what they had found.” I guess what they found were lies because last week Donald Trump finally acknowledged that President Obama was born in the United States.
From the beginning, the Republican Party, Tea Party members and all around racists repeated these lies to discredit the first African American president of this nation, not because he lost the election, but because of his skin color and name, Barack Hussein Obama.
These kinds of lies are based on racism, instigating the darkest instincts in the hearts of Americans. This is how Donald Trump caught the attention of many of his current fans. Followers who, while frustrated with the economic situation, found an escape by directing their hatred and anger toward people of color.
These are the same people who support Donald Trump’s ideas to discriminate against the more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. They also support his plan to deport all undocumented people in the country and who think that Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals.
Trump is not aware of the harm his words have against the minorities in this country. Even worse, he does not give a damn. Trump’s irresponsibility when it comes to his influence on the public opinion is negligent. Who knows if he even really believes his own lies? All he knows is that every time he gave an interview on the subject, he gained twitter followers, so then why not keep repeating it?
Many who saw Donald Trump on television questioning the citizenship of the first African American president believed him. After all, how could someone so successful lie like that on television? And they’re still believing him.
Now that Donald Trump has ruled that President Obama was actually born in this country (what a relief!), do you think that his followers will change their opinion about President Obama? Doubtfully, the damage has been done.
Trump’s lies based on racism, intolerance and xenophobia continue to reign in his campaign. By categorizing African American communities as battle fields, saying that illegal Mexicans on the border are running around killing people, and that the Chinese are taking away jobs, Donald Trump paints a reality for his white followers that those communities are the problem.
The original article can be found on The Washington Hispanic
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