Why do you have to have a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other? These were the wise words from Alastair McIntosh, a Scottish professor whom I had the pleasure of hearing talk the other month. Dr. McIntosh's speech was focused on our newest president: Donald Trump. More specifically, the irony of his immigrant ancestry.
Just the over week Donald Trump tweeted that he will remove DACA—Obama's immigration policy that entitled immigrants to visas—and replace it with a policy that will offer a 12-year path to citizenship for only 1.8 million immigrants who arrived illegally as children. This isn't necessarily glorious news for the Hispanic immigrants, who are now the largest minority in America by claiming almost 20% of the population. As Trump's architectural fantasy is still looming while money from the federal reserve is being allocated towards a border wall.
So what makes these efforts ironic? Well, it begins with Trump's mother. Moreover, the Trump family's heritage in Scotland.
Decades ago, there was a clan called McLennan that settled in the Isle of Lewis, Highland County in Scotland. This clan was eventually sentenced an eviction notice by the Balfour Board of Trustees, a financial group that desired to build a variety of sheep farms on the Isle of Lewis. Given how reliant the Scots were on the agrarian economy, the decision did not hold in the clan's favor. Not soon after, in 1923, the Scottish immigrants who used to call this land their home boarded the Megatama and headed for the New World.
Mary Anne Macleod was one of these passengers, more formally known as Donald Trump's mother.
Trump comes from a long history of eviction, denial, and exile, yet he desires to do the same to other immigrants. Is this how he claims to make America great again? By not allowing families, whom resemble his own, into the melting pot we used to call America. The economic reasons for deportation are just the same as when his family left Scotland, yet family seems to be a minor concern when it comes to President Trump.
Trump stands outside his mother's home in Scotland. Sources claim he was only in the building for 30 seconds before taking a picture. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-scottish-village-scotland-mother-213882
