Jonathan Alter on the ‘Subtext of Trump’s Tweet: ‘It’s OK to Criticize America If You’re White’

Sunday on MSNBC’s “Up With David Gura,” Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter commented on President Donald Trump‘s latest tweet saying the four progressive congresswomen know as “The Squad” are not “capable of loving our country.”

Alter said, “The subtext of that tweet and a lot of what he’s been saying all week is it’s OK to criticize America if you’re white.”

He continued, “When he was running, he was trashing this country. He called it American carnage. He said the American dream is dead. The country is a mess. It’s a wasteland. But if you’re not white or if you’re a Democrat, you can’t criticize America. So it’s basically about him. Now that he represents this country, any criticism of him, he sees as criticism of America. ‘I am the state’ is his basic view. But the subtext of this is that if you’re white, it’s your country, your home. And somebody shouldn’t come into your home and trash your place when they’re in your home. If you’re not white or if you’re a critic, then you’re just visiting this country, and therefore you’re not entitled to the same ability to dissent as if you were native-born.”

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