Good reason for Trump to end his racist attacks

Donald Trump campaigned for the US presidency in 2016 with the slogan “making America great again”. Yet today, America is anything but great. If anything, President Trump’s confrontational leadership style, his attitude towards immigrants and his relationship with other countries, are a threat to America; a country once considered the land of equal opportunity for all.

Last Sunday, a gunman opened fire in a store in Texas. On the same day, another shooting occurred in Ohio. Cumulatively, 29 people were killed and another 46 injured. These shootings came only a week after another in Northern California in which a 19-year-old man killed three people.

Although Trump has condemned the killings, saying “hate has no place”, the Democrats, have, understadably, accused the president of triggering the killings through his racist attacks against immigrants.

They are not off the mark. The white man arrested over the shooting in Texas is said to have posted online that the attack was a response to “the Hispanic invasion” of the state. Trump is making Americans hate immigrants.

For a country that pegs its aid to other countries on their tolerance for democracy; free speech, freedom of association and a free press, America risks losing its greatness under the present circumstances. People of colour who have lived in the US for centuries and those who have acquired citizenship no longer feel safe.

To make America great again, Trump must learn to embrace people of all colours and creed. To minimise gun attacks, Trump must stop spewing racist bile.