By Randall Yip, Executive Editor
In a speech the former President said would be a call for unity, Donald Trump reverted to using the derogatory term “China virus,” belittled China 11 times and labeled undocumented immigrants as murderers or members of a gang a combined 12 times.
He began his 92-minute nomination acceptance speech at the GOP convention in Milwaukee by recalling Saturday’s near assassination.
“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he said.
He also paid homage to the volunteer firefighter who died in that shooting, Corey Comperatore.
After that, Trump appeared to go off script, adlibbing his speech with many of the riffs commonly heard at his pep rallies.
California State Assemblymember Tri Ta (R-Westminster) watched the speech from the convention floor where he served as a Trump delegate. He said Trump made a strong argument for voting for him.
“I think he covered a lot of issues from domestic to foreign policy. He compared the four years under his administration to the last four years,” Ta said to AsAmNews in a video call.
However, Illinois State Representative Hoan Huynh (D-Chicago) got a different impression. He spoke to AsAmNews just prior to Trump’s acceptance speech.
“I think certainly there’s been a lot of fear mongering and division at the Republican Party Convention. I think we certainly want to make sure that we are united, that we are fighting for the future that includes all of us.”
Trump spent a good portion of his time talking about China as an adversary which Ta says has violated human rights and abused its relationship with the U.S.
“We lose jobs. We lose revenue and they gain everything and wipe out our businesses, wipe out our people,” Trump said. “I stopped it for four years, I stopped it. And we’re really ready to make changes like nobody had seen before. I don’t even mention it frankly because of what happened with the China virus.”
The use of such terms as “China virus” is something Tommy Choi Deputy Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party hoped would not happen. We caught up with him by phone.
“I think this a time for the Asian American community and leaders to get more politically activated and to address these issues and why these words and messaging aren’t helpful for this community,” he said. (However,) the community still believes the policies of the Trump administration will help Asian American families pursue the American dream and accomplish the things we want to achieve.”
Arizona State Senator Priya Sundareshan (D-Tucson) told AsAmNews during a phone interview that the speech was a rehash of the same old rhetoric.
Trump described undocumented immigrants as an “invasion” 13 times, calling them murderers, members of gangs and escapees from mental institutions.
“They’re coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums,” he said to applause from the adoring GOP delegates.
“As you know, as an Asian American and child of immigrants myself (both her parents are from India), that kind of rhetoric is unhelpful, dangerous.”
She referenced the targeted hate crimes such as the Uvalde school shooting in Texas that killed 21 people in Texas and the Atlanta spa shooting that killed eight.
“This constant repeated rhetoric, that immigrants are somehow changing America for the worse” is a false narrative “when we know that the history of America has been supported and buttressed and enriched by immigrants throughout our entire history,” Sundareshan said while also mentioning that seeking asylum is not illegal.
(An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the district of State Rep Huynh)
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
We are supported through donations and such charitable organizations as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. All donations are tax deductible and can be made here.
Please follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.
That’s something