Trump’s Stand Point on the Syrian Refugees and Trump Jr’s Twitter Post of the Skittle Comparison.

The issue on Syrian Refugees in the US has been the discussion for a very long time now. The Syrian citizens have been on the run from their war-torn country and as a result, have flooded the Europe countries. As a result, there has been a crisis on where to take them. Being an issue affecting some of the great nations, United States, and its leaders have questions on what its role as one of the most powerful nation. By September 2015 united states had taken up to 1,500 Syrian refugees, and this is since the Syrian war began around 2011. There were also expected to arrive 1,300 more refugees last year and another 300 scheduled to settle in the country for a few months. The country had also provided more than $4 billion dollars for humanitarian efforts to aid Syria since the crisis emerged (Condon). The topic generated a lot of views from a wide range of people, among them the candidate running for the presidency. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump in the inclusion too.

The candidate is known to change opinions within a very short time. An example was an instance when he was asked about his view on abortion, and he gave three views on the same issue in a span of eight hours. The very first time Donald Trump talked about Syrian refugees, he was speaking in a morning show at MSNBC’s Morning Joe on 4th of September 2016. In his opinion, America could help as much as it can and possibly let some of the Syrians in the country. However, there is only so much the country can do as it has its problems too. He also commended Germany for being among the European countries that have been taking in the most refugees in since the war broke (Hanchett). The next time he talked about the issue was after the terrorist attack in Paris. At that point, Donald Trump said that he was then more than ever against allowing Syrian refugees into the US. The reason for his stand was that it could be terrorists trying to get access into the country since the state’s system in paperwork is the worst in recording people who get into the country. This also the time he referred to the Syrian refugees as the “Trojan Horse.” During the previous weeks on his campaign trail, Trump had been saying that the U.S should not accept from countries affected by civil war. However, this was the time that he made his firm stand on the issue of Syrian refugees known. A huge contribution to his firm stand was probably because one of the six suspects in the Paris attacks had entered in with refugees and all six of them had ties to Syria; this is according to the French affiliate BFM. Trump also proposed surveillance of the mosques in the country for the security to be able to flush out a few of the Muslims preaching radicalism. He acknowledged that there are few Muslims who are not involved in the negative issues but their names are being tarnished by the wrongdoers (Kopan).

The latest from Donald Trump of the issue has repeatedly called for a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees. His stand on this could be understood as in support of the previous position which ranges from a complete prohibition on foreign Muslim immigrants getting access to the country, to a fair one. The not too extreme measure has been to thoroughly vet the and test ideology of the immigrants from countries which have been believed to have religious extremists. This is due to the multiple and deadly attacks on countries like France and Belgium by people who are thought to have been religious extremists ("Where Do Trump And Clinton Stand On Syrian Refugees Coming Into The United States - U.S. Election 2016").

Donald Trump Jr has been a staunch supporter and a top adviser to his father ever since he made his interest in running for the presidency known. The thirty-eight-year-old man has lately been scrutinized for his social media messages which are seen as negative. The one that put him on the hot seat was the one that he compared the Syrian refugees to skittles that would kill someone. The post stated “If I had a bowl of skittles and told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem” (Horowitz). Some interpreted this as a comparison between human life and that of candy. The post also appeared to insinuate that the U.S nation was faced with a blind section process and where a few poisoners pieces would be among the thousands of war-torn Syria citizens.

The post was immediately shared among social media users which drew wide condemnations while being compared to white supremacist ideologies. To further condemn the post, Twitter users shared images of various people affected by the war among them a picture of a young boy injured and was sitting an ambulance seat after an airstrip in Aleppo, Syria. The boy became a symbol of the sufferings in the region due to the war. The picture was posted by President Obama’s speechwriter, Jon Favreau with a caption below stating, “Hey @DonaldJTrumpJr, this is one of the millions of children you compared to a poisoned Skittle today” (Hauser). The post also caught the attention of Wrigley, the owner of the Skittle candy who disregarded the post by saying it was an inappropriate analogy. The spokeswoman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also reacted to this analogy by saying that Syrians are also human beings who have left their troubled country. She condemned the post by saying that it is demeaning, dehumanizing, and dangerous (Hauser). The post also received criticism from the opposition specifically from Hillary Clinton. She referred to the post as disgusting. Although it is not said out loud, actions speak louder than words.