For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting // Available Online Here
January 25,  2017
Contact: Armando Carmona, 323-250-3018; armando@ndlon.org;


Trump Is Still Selling Fear, But America Doesn’t Need To Buy It
 


Los Angeles, CA – President Trump has promised to issue a series of executive orders on immigration today, starting at 1:30 pm ET. Last night, President Trump tweeted about a border wall, and continued to present “alternative facts”—with literally no basis in truth—alleging widespread voter fraud. We don’t know what is coming as Trump begins to convert campaign rhetoric into governing policy. However, in reaction to the President’s statements yesterday, and in anticipation of executive orders to be released later today, Pablo Alvarado of NDLON issued the following statement:

“There is a relationship between President Trump’s delusional comments about voter fraud, his racist rhetoric toward Mexicans and Muslims, and his obsession with a border wall. In all instances, he is conjuring phantom threats, propagating distrust of facts, and stoking fear.

“During the campaign, his immigrant-bashing was as part of a sman’s trick—a carnival ploy—meant to invent a problem that ostensibly only he could fix. Now in office, he appears to be using fear as a deliberate effort to consolidate power.

“It is, of course, possible that Mr. Trump truly is scared of immigrants and refugees. Perhaps the thing that scares him most is their courage because it is a character trait he apparently does not have. The idea of overcoming obstacles, facing adversity, building—rather than taking—wealth, is a concept that is foreign to Mr. Trump.

“We can only speculate about Mr. Trump’s motivations, but the simple fact is that his fear does not need to be contagious.

“Despite the gold trim around his office, President Trump is not a dictator, and he does not have the power to rule by decree. To the contrary, his efforts to attack institutions of democracy, to rollback constitutional protections, and to create division, will only invigorate and unify the very social movements that he is so afraid of. Immigrants and refugees have faced hardships that are literally unimaginable to Mr. Trump. We will be ready to defend ourselves today.”

***NDLON will have attorneys, community organizers, and members available for comment and interviews***

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