The Washington Post compared President Trump’s comments on European immigration to the rhetoric surrounding white nationalists in America on Friday morning.
“Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame,” the president said in an interview with The Sun. “I think it changed the fabric of Europe, and unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was, and I don’t mean that in a positive way.”
“I think you are losing your culture,” he added. “Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.”
The Washington Post was critical of Trump’s comments in an article titled, “Trump’s comments on European immigration mirror white nationalist rhetoric.”
“That argument — that immigration changes existing ‘culture’ for the worse — is a staple of white nationalist rhetoric in the United States,” the Post’s Philip Bump wrote.
“One assumes Trump is referring to the idea of ‘Western civilization,’ inextricable from Europe’s history — but this, too, is a phrase often embraced by white nationalists as a way of talking about white culture,” Bump wrote.
It went on to cite President Trump’s comments following the deadly clashes that occurred last August in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This article was based upon Trump’s comments about European migration but he has also made strong stances on U.S. immigration policy. He has continued to push for immigration reform and stronger laws to prevent people from taking advantage of the country, which has received some backlash as well.