A social media post from President Donald Trump that The New York Times noted had “nearly slid by” the president’s “chaotic social media feed this week” has “sent shudders” through entire communities in Minnesota, the outlet found, with one prominent critic calling the post “so low, even for him.”
Trump kicked this week off Monday by sharing a video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners – unblurred with their faces fully exposed – celebrating graduation by singing and clapping. The video was accompanied by commentary from an anonymous right-wing X account known as “@EndWokeness,” who wrote “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota,” and “Every girl is in a hijab… in kindergarten.”
With this week also seeing a flare-up in violence in the U.S. war against Iran, Trump’s social media post “did not cause much national furor,” but as the Times noted in its report Saturday, did leave a lasting mark on Minnesota’s sizable Muslim and Somali communities.
“This was a red line,” said Khalid Omar, a community organizer based in St. Paul, speaking with the Times. “Children who are just celebrating, and wanting to look like their mothers – forget about the hijab – who are just children enjoying themselves, seeing their families, singing. For him to go after those children, it’s awful, it’s dangerous, it’s inhumane, it’s wrong.”
James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, told the Times that even for Trump, sharing the video of kindergarteners in a disparaging manner had crossed a line.
“He is a bigoted bully,” Zogby said. “He picks on vulnerable people – women, immigrants – but picking on 5-year-olds, it’s so low, even for him.”
When the Times issued repeated requests for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson refused to provide a response to Trump’s controversial social media post, but did defend the president’s previous remarks regarding Somali schoolchildren.
“President Trump is right,” Jackson told the Times. “Aliens who come to our country, complain about how much they hate America, fail to contribute to our economy, rip off Americans and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here. And nothing about that is racist.”