President Donald Trump set off widespread mockery with the unveiling of his so-called "patriot passport," and one political analyst highlighted a surprising message sent by the official document.
The passport design shows a glowering Trump standing at the Resolute Desk in front of the text of the Declaration of Independence, but the featured slogan – “Welcome, but be good!” – mystified critics and prompted ridicule.
"I'm not sure I've seen the entire internet laugh at Donald Trump in the way that they just did," said political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
The message was confusing and also displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of what passports actually do, Cohen said.
"A passport is a document issued to U.S. citizens by the U.S. government," he said on his "No Lie" podcast. "It is what we carry when we travel abroad. It is not a message to foreigners. It's a document that says, 'Hey, this person is American and they're allowed back in.' The people being welcomed in this transaction are not Americans – Americans live here, you don't welcome someone back to their own house."
"If Trump wanted to put 'welcome. but be good' on something that actually said welcome to somebody, he'd want a visa, which is the document issued to foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States," Cohen added. "That's the document where welcome but be good would at least make a modicum of sense."
Cohen turned his attention to one interpretation that listeners might not have noticed.
"Although I'd still argue that it's very weird," he said, "but no, he put it on the passport, the American passport, which Americans use to leave. So either Trump is welcoming his own citizens to their own country, or he's telling Americans to behave themselves when they travel abroad, which for the guy who campaigned on America First is a remarkably submissive message to put on the nation's travel document."
"By the way, the Washington Post noted that those words don't even appear anywhere in the images that Trump actually posted," Cohen added. "So there's also just a very real possibility that he made it up entirely. But that couldn't possibly be the case – Donald Trump lie? No. But here's the thing, and this is where I want to zoom out, because 'welcome, but be good' is actually the perfect encapsulation of the Trump presidency. Not because of the confused civics, although that counts too, but because of what's actually in this passport."
"Inside this new patriotic passport, available in limited quantities starting just before July 4, is not the Statue of Liberty, not Independence Hall, not a painting of the Great Plains," Cohen added. "It is a picture of Donald Trump looming over the Resolute Desk with the Declaration of Independence behind him and his signature in gold below, making him the first living president whose image appears inside America's travel documents. Because lest you forget, every opportunity is a good opportunity for Trump to promote himself."