If somebody had spent weeks crafting a microcosm for the Trump campaign and its appeal, it couldn’t be as good as this candid — we hesitate to say "unstaged" — interview with a little girl stumbling through the Republican presidential candidate's most hateful talking points.
The Daily Beast published an interview Tuesday with a mother from New Jersey and her young daughter. The mother, named Renee, and her daughter are “Trumpkins,” Renee said, and she had pulled the girl out of school, as her daughter was, apparently, “dying” to meet Trump. The girl, who was photographed holding a sparkly Trump-supporting sign almost as big as she was, told the reporter that she wanted Trump to “fix the economy.”
Forgive the skepticism, but while there are many 7-year-olds who can talk in great detail about the strengths and weaknesses of any given Pokémon, we have yet to meet one who can sum up the strengths and weaknesses of economic policy.
The most frightening moment, however, comes when the little girl explains what she likes about Trump.
“And…illegal aliens…and only let people that I know into the country…other people into the country are bad, like ISIS…you cannot let them in.”
Trump has made immigration a central part of his presidential platform, running on a policy that calls for deporting all undocumented immigrants and building a wall across the Mexico-USA border. His position has been denounced as xenophobic and racist, and his further comments haven’t done anything to dispel that charge. In June, he made remarks equating Mexican immigrants with rapists. He has also stated he intends to bring an end to granting citizenship to all who are born on American soil — a position that is likely unconstitutional. Despite the illegality of that plan, Texas has already put the idea into practice, denying birth certificates for children born in that state to undocumented parents.
While little kids always pick up their parents’ opinions, it's almost cruel to put ideas like this in a child's head. But then, perhaps the most credible supporter of the us-versus-them, good-versus-evil rhetoric that Trump spews is a little kid who hasn’t yet learned about shades of gray, or other perspectives.
She, at least, has the excuse that she’s still learning.