First Lady Michelle Obama took a few shots at Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump in her commencement address to the graduating class of the City College of New York on Friday.
The New York Daily News reported that Obama never mentioned Trump by name, but instead relied on the audience to know whose bigoted immigration policies and bellicose rhetorical style she was calling out.
“Here in America, we don’t give in to our fears. We don’t build up walls to keep people out, because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home," the First Lady said.
She referred to Trump indirectly when she spoke about people who "seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped ... They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate: As if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress."
"Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted, folks who work hard for what they have and then reach back and help others after them. That is your story, graduates, and that is the story of your families. And it’s the story of my family, too," Obama continued.
Obama noted that this would be her final commencement address as First Lady, and that she spends every day in awe of the magnitude of her family's historic role.
"And graduates," she said, "it’s the story that I witness every single day when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters, two beautiful black young women head off to school waving goodbye to their father, the president of the United States, the son of a man from Kenya who came here to America for the same reasons as many of you: to get an education and improve his prospects in life."
Watch video about Obama's speech, embedded below:
Watch the First Lady's full speech:
