Racism Informs the Lies of American Exceptionalism

Goodbye to four years of lies. Hello to four years of (hopefully) truth.

President Donald J. Trump departs after signing an executive order during an Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex on Tuesday, Dec 8, 2020. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Two years ago, during a bipartisan meeting with senators, President Donald Trump referred to Haiti, and then other nations on the African continent, as “shithole countries.” This was in response to Haiti being granted special consideration for immigration, to which the president of the United States responded: “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.” What’s amazing about this statement from Trump — aside from being wildly racist — is that everything he supposedly has assumed was true for Black-led nations encompass the very situations he has created or upheld in the United States over the last four years.

Since his trip down the escalator and into American politics, Trump has created a society fraught with disinformation, has incited his followers to violence, ignored a global health pandemic, caged children, defunded our public education system, gutted the EPA, and vacated various global alliances. Trump plays right into the lie of American exceptionalism, or that somehow America first means that America is better and doesn’t need allies or support. But in truth, his upholding America as the “greatest country ever” is another one of the over 25,000 lies he has told during his presidency.