Donald Trump brings hatred and racism with him wherever he goes. Most recent case in point: Trump’s rally in Minneapolis last week. The area has a large population of Somali refugees, and after they watched as Trump lashed out at them and his supporters booed them, they’ve been left with lingering fear, The New York Times reports.
The Somali editor of a publication covering immigrant and refugee issues got a threatening phone call. A Somali member of the Minnesota House of Representatives says, correctly, that Trump let his supporters know that “now it’s O.K. to discriminate against Somalis.” An educator in neighboring St. Paul said, “For the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, to single you out as dangerous hurts.”
And while there have been bright spots, like a Catholic church sermon against xenophobia, the people living with fear because the president of their country targeted them know that all it takes is one racist with an assault weapon or a homemade bomb. And meanwhile they’ve got the state Republican Party gaslighting them by saying that Trump had been taken out of context and of course he didn’t mean the thing everyone—including most definitely his audience of supporters—heard him say.