Since Donald Trump announced his campaign for president almost six months ago, he has taken the world by storm in all of the wrong ways. Despite Trump being a celebrity already, his campaign has really pushed him into the political spotlight, even beyond American borders. What has given Trump such a boost among some voters is his questionable, and often racist and xenophobic, policies.
Last summer, Trump famously explained in a speech that he believes Mexico is sending criminals, rapists and drugs into America. For many Mexican Americans, this was wildly offensive and harsh.
2015 was the year of immigration, especially pertaining to Syrian refugees. When refugees began escaping Syria in larger numbers into Europe, the U.S. announced that it would assist the Syrian citizens, upsetting many Americans. Trump, in his typical ways, decided that the best way to handle the crisis, was to not allow any Muslims into the US, which is problematic on so many levels. Trump was even criticized for this idea from fellow Republican Nominees. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan emotionally said “this is not what this party stands for,” which is a big blow coming from the Senator who was voted as Speaker due Boehner not being “conservative enough.”
After amazing amounts of controversial statements, criticism is coming from across the Atlantic—from United Kingdom’s Parliament. Many members spoke recently in session, debating over whether or not they should ban Trump from the U.K.
The most recent criticisms come from a voice with a lot of importance. Eva Schloss, an 86 year-old, wrote a column published in Newsweek. Schloss is a Holocaust survivor, and the step-sister of the late Anne Frank. In her article, she told readers that Trump is acting like Hitler. Many people have made similar comments, but the sentence carried more weight when it came from a Holocaust survivor. “I am very upset that today again so many countries are closing their borders," wrote Schloss.
Schloss goes on to make an important connection between today’s refugee crisis and the Jewish refugee crisis saying "Fewer people would have died in the Holocaust if the world had accepted more Jewish refugees.” There is an urge for the US to take Syrian refugees after they failed to take in as many Jewish refugees in WWII than citizens today would have liked.
Schloss believes that the crisis today is worse, writing “The situation today is worse than it was under Hitler because at that time all the Allies—the US, Russia and Britain—worked together to combat the terrible threat of Nazism."
Eva Schloss concludes her article with another criticism of Trump, this time about his massive wall idea, writing "I remember how upset the world was when the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and now everybody is building walls again to keep people out. It’s absurd."
