Trump is stomping on European views of immigration to score political points with his base at home
- President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell interview upon arriving in the UK, which he used to bash Prime Minister Theresa May and immigration.
- Trump has been accused of using racist and xenophobic signals to fire up his base.
- Trump's immigration talk is deeply unpopular in Europe, but he doesn't care about them.
- Instead, he's focused on his base, which he bragged about being very popular with.
President Donald Trump's ongoing tour of Europe had already produced some fireworks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but by the time he landed in London on Thursday he'd already dropped a bombshell interview on UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
Trump dramatically dove into UK's domestic affairs by saying that May's preferred Brexit deal would "kill" a potential bilateral trade deal. As the US is the UK's second- biggest trading partner (after Germany), this looked bad for May, who was still reeling from a Brexit induced cabinet-reshuffle.
But Trump may have struck an even deeper nerve with his comments on immigration.
"Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame," Trump told Britain's The Sun.
"I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it's never going to be what it was and I don't mean that in a positive way," said Trump.
"I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad," said Trump, possibly also referencing Merkel's policy of allowing a million or so refugees to resettle in Germany, something he's previously attacked.
"I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn't exist ten or 15 years ago."
Trump's anti-immigration comments have become commonplace in the US. Some Europeans - feeling stressed by the high levels of immigration their countries have experienced in recent years - will no doubt agree with him. But UK politicians generally have a more moderate outlook, and they were taken aback by the comments.
"Where are your manners, Mr. President?" Conservative MP Sam Gyimah tweeted after the interview.
Trump opposes resettling Syrian refugees in the US, and has instituted a travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump has expressed some support for immigration, as long as it doesn't come from what he called "s---hole" countries, like some unnamed ones in Africa, and instead originates from places like Norway.
In massive protests across London, the UK public has condemned Trump as a racist and a xenophobe for comments such as these. "Theresa May should condemn Trump for this ugly dog-whistle politics," Dawn Butler, a Labour MP said. "Dog-whistle" is a reference to a covert signal to rally support from racists who read the "culture" statements as commentary on shifting racial demographics.
In Europe, especially in Germany and the UK, where the memory of World War II and the mass destruction caused by xenophobic ideas remains close at hand, Trump's usual immigration rhetoric takes on a particularly unpalatable dimension for mainstream politicians, but he's not talking to them.
Firing up the base
In the same interview where Trump said it would be negative and "very, very sad" for Europe's culture to change, Trump talked up his job approval rating not with the US public, but within his own party.
Trump claimed he is "the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party," even besting Abraham Lincoln, widely considered the greatest US president.
"I beat our Honest Abe," Trump said.
A Gallup poll published last month found Trump's approval rating among fellow Republicans was 90%. But George W. Bush, the US's last Republican president, had higher approval during his first term, The New York Times reported on June 23.
Additionally, the type of polling Trump referred to hadn't been invented in Lincoln's day.
Trump's focus on his popularity with his own base represents a common thread to his attacks on European leaders, where he often uses an international stage to play to a domestic audience.
Europeans don't vote in US elections, but US Republicans do.