On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that two of the immigrants in President Donald Trump's onstage naturalization ceremony on Tuesday hadn't been told they were going to be featured at the Republican National Convention.
"Sudha Narayanan and Neimat Awadelseid looked forward to Tuesday — the day, after a yearslong process, they would become U.S. citizens," reported Tarini Parti and Michael Bender. "They found out only minutes before the ceremony that President Trump would attend, and they didn’t know it would be aired during the Republican convention that night."
"Ms. Narayanan and Ms. Awadelseid said they didn’t mind being featured in the convention, saying in interviews Wednesday that they were still celebrating their newly granted citizenship," said the report. "But the video, in which the two women and three others received citizenship, has been faulted by Democrats and other administration critics who say Mr. Trump’s team politicized government functions by showing the naturalization ceremony, as well as another video in which he issued a pardon during the second night of the GOP convention."
Trump has also taken criticism for issuing a presidential pardon during the RNC, for a rehabilitated bank robber turned criminal justice advocate. Neither of these powers are traditionally used as a political advertisement during a party convention.
