President Donald Trump, as an ideal and figurehead, oddly represents the best in America’s immigrant history and traditions.

Let me explain what I mean before you jump to conclusions.

Donald Trump is a first-generation American. Trump’s mother, Mary Anne Trump, was born in Scotland. In addition, his paternal grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth Trump, were born in Germany. Thus, we can see that in one generation the Trump family was able to attain wealth through various retail and real estate ventures. This wealth was subsequently passed on to Donald Trump and his siblings so that they could build on this sturdy foundation. Donald Trump’s father passed on millions of dollars to his children. President Donald Trump has been able to grow this investment and pass on hundreds of millions of dollars to his own children — along with social and political capital.

In addition, Trump’s current wife, Melania, was born in Slovenia, a small country in Eastern Europe. It should also be noted that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, was also an immigrant. Subsequently, all of Trump’s children, except Tiffany Trump, are first-generation Americans.

Donald Trump, himself, is a product of chain migration. He and his family have been able to attain the American dream, attained when a person comes to this country for opportunity when one’s own country has none. That person is then able to work unhindered to attain wealth and pass it on to one’s descendants for better opportunity.

However, Trump also represents the worst in America’s immigrant history. Many African American families were not able to attain the wealth that Donald Trump’s grandfather attained at the beginning of the 20th century because they were locked into sharecropping. The African American community was pushed out of the market by Jim Crow economic and social policies. Also, the majority of African immigrants were not able to come to this country until the latter half of the 20th century due to America’s racist policies and politicians. Consequently, when Donald Trump’s father attained massive wealth in real estate, there was no competition from African/black immigrant populations, due to the racist ideologies which sewed up the market during the early 20th century.

Although Trump is a first-generation American like many of us, he is different from the majority of us in that he is white. European immigrants inhabit a very different world from black and brown immigrants. However, there was a time when many European/white immigrants were not considered white, and subsequently did not hold the same privileges as other protestant Christian European descendants (i.e. Italians and eastern European Jews). But as time passed, these groups were able to assimilate their whiteness into the broader monolith, eventually attaining these advantages.

In many instances, groups who immigrate to this country try to distance themselves from blackness, even if they were in the same boat economically and/or the same zip code as African American, African or Caribbean populations in metropolitan areas. This was often seen in northern metropolitan areas that had high concentrations of recent European immigrant populations who lived in close quarters with African American communities during the early to mid-20th century, when Donald Trump was a young man.

Thus, we see that although the history of Donald Trump’s success is commendable, it stands in stark contrast to other immigrant groups who were either halted from entering this country at all during the time when his family emigrated, and/or were discriminated against and pushed to the fringes of the market. With that said, Donald Trump’s success as a first-generation American has, and always, will stand on the back of those immigrants and marginalized communities he exploited and profited off of. This caveat should always be taken into consideration before he calls another country a "shithole."

During the 1920s and '30s, Germany and Scotland were in downward economic spirals. It is unlikely that any country looked at Germany and Scotland as beacons of hope during this period of time. However, the United States government did not halt these people from coming to this country as a consequence of their homeland’s turmoil or the appearance thereof.

Mary Trump

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week