Donald Trump's presidential campaign has turned bigotry into a performance art. The more he incites against immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, the larger his crowds grow. The louder he talks about building walls and repealing the 14th amendment, the frothier his supporters become.
His popularity among the GOP voter base is frightening, and his bigotry vile. These two truths were on full display last night before a massive crowd in Mobile, Alabama, where Trump whipped up fear of those with brown skin among a thumping white audience.
Trump's racism should be a focus of concern and a rallying cry for those who want to protect the most vulnerable among us. Yet I cannot help but consider, in all of this, not just Trump's bigotry, but his absurd hypocrisy.
Much of Trump's fortune has been built upon the backs of immigrant workers. Indeed, the funds financing his very campaign against immigrants were procured by taking advantage of those he now wants to kick out of the United States.
This is true even today, where in Washington, DC, a luxury Trump hotel is being built using undocumented workers and immigrants. This from a recent Washington Post report:
A Trump company may be relying on some undocumented workers to finish the $200 million hotel, which will sit five blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to several who work there. A Trump spokeswoman said the company and its contractors follow all applicable laws. But in light of Trump’s comments, some of the workers at the site said they are now worried about their jobs — while others simply expressed disgust over the opinions of the man ultimately responsible for the creation of those jobs.
[...]
“It’s something ironic,” said Ivan Arellano, 29, who is from Mexico and obtained legal status through marriage. He now works as a mason laying the stonework for the lobby floor and walls of what will become the Trump International Hotel.
“The majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally,” Arellano said in Spanish. “And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life for our families.”
This obviously isn't relegated to just DC – all of Trump's properties have been built by immigrant labor, and immigrants to this day work for low wages at his properties. This includes
Ricardo Aca, who as an immigrant worker in Trump's Manhattan hotel, bravely just released a
video expressing shame that he works for Trump, not his immigrant status. This from TPM:
Aca, who described himself as an undocumented immigrant, explains in the video that he came to New York City from Puebla, Mexico, when he was 14. He said he works two jobs, including as a busboy at the restaurant housed inside the Trump SoHo hotel, on top of dabbling in commercial photography.
"I can't vote, but I can take photos and share the stories of people like me," Aca says in the video, adding: "Trump keeps pointing out all these immigrants that have done all these terrible things, but those aren't the immigrants that I know."
Trump's war against immigrants, and the racism underlying it, is vile and dangerous in its own right. That he has taken advantage of, and built his fortune upon the backs of, immigrants like Aca as a tycoon?
It proves one thing: none of this is about "America." It's about what's best for Trump.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.