With US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Philippines — our country of residence — we, as American expats, would like to make our voices heard. We are outraged and deeply concerned with the leadership of our country. On Trump’s watch, corruption and racism have spun out of control and we refuse to allow these things to be normalized.
Through his business dealings and properties abroad such as Trump Tower Manila, our nation’s wellbeing may be deeply compromised given his apparent reluctance to offload his interests and holdings in ways that will ensure no conflict of interest. Through his refusal to make public his income tax returns, he has kept the American public in the dark as to what his motives might be. He has left little doubt that his policy is not made with our best interest in mind.
Many of us have multiethnic families that transcend borders. We understand very well that America is a richly diverse country and benefits profoundly from being so. During his campaign, Trump once referred to the Philippines as a terrorist nation and said of its people: “We’re dealing with animals.” We stand in solidarity with our Filipino family in America and abroad. We defy the racist and sexist rhetoric that Trump has dragged into our mainstream dialogue. We demand that our elected officials represent ALL Americans.
Trump has sought to denigrate Special Counsel Robert Mueller in a brazen attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government. We call upon our representatives in Congress to protect the institutions that defend Americans from a compromised and authoritarian government. We further call upon all our public representatives, at every level, to fight the xenophobia and tribalism that are designed to divide us along ethnic lines and to distract from increasing market capture, inequality of income, and concentration of wealth and opportunity for the benefit of the selected few whom Trump truly represents.
We want Trump to know that we defy his message and his corruption by using our sacrosanct rights as voting Americans. We are watching and we will resist.
JEREMY SLAGLE, LISA PAGKALINAWAN AND DONALD GOERTZEN
teammuellermanila@gmail.com