First lady Michelle Obama blasted Donald Trump during a commencement address Friday at the City College of New York, urging graduates to celebrate diversity and be wary of those who wish to “build up walls to keep people out.”
Without naming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Obama told graduates there are people who “view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped.”
“They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree,” she said. “They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate.”
“Graduates, that is not who we are. That is not what this country stands for,” Obama said.
She continued, “Here in America, we don’t give into 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.”
Alluding to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan,” Obama went on to say graduates that America’s “greatness” as something that “comes from when we appreciate each other’s strengths.”
Such greatness has “never come from folks who climbed the ladder of success or who happened to be born near the top and then pulled the ladder up after themselves,” she claimed.
Obama’s comments echo her husband’s own criticism of Trump during his recent trip abroad. The president told reporters last week that Trump has foreign leaders “rattled” and because his proposals “display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what is required to keep America safe.”
Trump fired back during a Wednesday rally in Sacramento, Calif., telling voters he will “hit [Obama] just like I hit Bill Clinton” if the president begins actively campaigning for the Democratic presidential nominee in the general election.
“If he doesn’t, I don’t care. But if he campaigns, and I think he wants to because he wants to keep his this terrible agenda going where everybody is ripping us, where the world is ripping us off,” Trump said.
