For those of us who thought the “Era of Trumpeto” was done and dusted, the return of the man who normalized bigotry and xenophobia in politics represents a horror that is triggering anxiety and fear for the sane in the United States, particularly many immigrants.
Trump has now won two Republican primary elections, and if he wins in South Carolina, then there is nothing and no one who will stand against him as the GOP’s Presidential nominee for 2024.
With Death Santis out of the race along with “Little Trump,” Vivek Ramaswamy, as well “Uncle Tom” Scott, who have all lined up in a love fest to worship at the altar of the Xenophobe, Nikki Haley is now the dartboard for El Trumpeto’s racist and ugly xenophobic attacks.
Like he did to President Barack Obama, Trumpeto is back to his birther playbook; this time, his fiery darts are being thrown directly at Haley, his own former U.S. ambassador and a one-time defender of his.
Now he claims Haley is not eligible to run for president because she wasn’t born in the United States, adding deceitfully: “wherever she may come from”—red meat to his racist base of primarily white men who would rather die than see any other person of color in the White House, and he knows it.
Trumpeto has also purposely butchered Haley’s name, calling her “Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley” in a social media post, and then dismissing it as not racist but just a bit of “fun.”
Haley’s full name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa Haley and she was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, to parents Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawaho, who are Indian migrants. She married businessperson Michael Haley and took his name.
Trumpeto is obviously happy to play on these forces. He would have done it to Ramaswamy as well, if he felt he was a big enough threat and even Scott. To him, it’s nothing personal—it’s simply about winning, morals and ethics be damned.
What is sad is that we have seen this play before. Trump lied about former President Obama and was a chief promoter of the racist lie that Obama was not born in the U.S. Trump also regularly emphasizes Obama’s middle name, Hussein, at campaign rallies.
What is shocking is that the racist and xenophobe, who committed treason while in office, is rising again. A leopard does not change its spots and, hate him or not, Trumpeto stays true to who he is and makes no bones about it.
What is scary is that unless there is a third-party candidate who can mobilize the masses at this stage of the game, we are looking at weak Joe and MIA Kamala fighting a losing battle against majority-white male voters who see “their” country being overrun by Black and brown people, especially immigrants, who have no place in “their America.”
Time to pray for a miracle so we as a nation will not face another Trumpeto Presidency.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focusing on Black immigrant issues.
Too late for a third party. November will be a vote for Democracy or a vote for Autocracy. Period.