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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Letters

The hypocrisy of Trump’s racism

Rep Ilhan Omar speaks at a press conference called in response to Trump’s comments as Reps Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley listen.
Rep Ilhan Omar speaks at a press conference called in response to Trump’s comments as Reps Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley listen. Photograph: Carol Guzy/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Donald Trump has suggested that certain US congresswomen might go back to “the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came” (Trump intensifies racist attack on congresswomen despite outrage, 16 July). How sad to be chief of state of any of those countries. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s mother came from Puerto Rico. Her father was of Puerto Rican origin, though himself born in the Bronx. The chief of state of Puerto Rico? President Donald J Trump.
Adam Slee
London

• Woody Guthrie wrote a song about a notorious apartment block built by Donald Trump’s father. Black people were free to apply but none were acceptable as tenants. Racism is generally learned in the home.
Duncan Grimmond
Markington, North Yorkshire

• It’s surprising that so few people are pointing out that none of Trump’s grandparents and only one of his parents were born in the US or spoke English as their mother tongue. But at a deeper historic level, by his insane logic, everyone in the US today who isn’t Native American/First Nation should consider going back to the countries they came from and leave the continent to the people who were living there for 10,000 years before the Europeans arrived and set about creating a broken, crime-infested society.
Norman Miller
Brighton

• Perhaps we can spend a bit more time discussing the critical question: what makes a person, organisation, or nation, great? It is not the size of your GDP. Or the size of your skyscrapers. It is much more about having the ability to justifiably occupy the moral high ground. Could someone try to explain this basic point to the those so-called leaders, who appear to be driven by an indulgent sense of their own sense of importance.
Dr Bruce Lloyd
Emeritus professor of strategic management, London South Bank University

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

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