Border Message
In the tumultuous landscape of immigration discourse, the resonance of former President Donald Trump's border message extends far beyond his political base.
US President Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential election rival, Hillary Clinton tweeted an parody letter on Monday mocking his much-talked about letter to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The mocked-up letter from US president John F Kennedy to Soviet leade Nikita Khrushchev on 16 October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis echoes the same tone used by Trump in his letter to Erdogan in which he requests his Turkish counterpart, “Don’t be fool.”
“Found in the archives,” Clinton wrote, over an image of what purported to be the parody letter.
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Found in the archives… pic.twitter.com/iFFeqloYHM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 20, 2019
“Dear Premier Khrushchev,” the “letter” began. “Don’t be a dick, OK?”
Trump’s letter to Erdogan, in which he urged the authoritarian Turkish president who has invaded northern Syria’s Kurdish forces and population since US pulled out its troops from the region, “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!”, met with widespread disbelief, not least for its strikingly unpresidential tone.
“You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy — and I will”, Trump added.
“History will look upon you favourably if you get this done the right and humane way,” Trump said. “It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen”, he said.
“Turkish presidential sources” told the BBC Erdoğan “received the letter, thoroughly rejected it and put it in the bin”. A Russian government spokesman told reporters: “You don’t often encounter such language in correspondence between heads of state.”
Known for being an insensitive troll himself, Donald Trump seems to attract response from former first lady Clinton in her recent tweet. It will not be long before Trump, who is also facing an impeachment inquiry, comes up with his own form of retaliation.
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