We Owe Mr. Trump a Big “Thank You”

Developer Donald Trump displays a copy of his net worth during his announcement that he will seek the Republican nomination for president, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Now, more than ever, I’m a huge fan of Donald Trump.

The guy’s having a tough week, to be sure, but as NBC cuts their ties with The Apprentice host and the GOP tries to avoid eye contact in the hallway, I’ve come around. While he left a little to be desired as a reality TV star and is just plain creepy as a Miss USA overlord, as a presidential candidate, I can finally understand his value.

It’s not that I agree with his recent statements about Mexican immigrants. In case you managed to miss it, this is the little gem he slipped into his already wild presidential announcement speech at Trump Tower in New York (the Donald is too good to paraphrase):

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Just in case he wasn’t clear, he reiterated his point – for lack of a better word – during an interview with CNN in which he forgot to pay lip service to the American-made terrorist lobby (awkward!):

“The United States is like a dumping ground for the world’s problems. You’re probably going to have terrorists coming from the Middle East. Somebody said ‘Oh, we don’t have terrorists.’ They don’t even know, because they don’t know who’s coming because we have this open border.”

There are a lot of reasons to treat immigrants like human beings who deserve the opportunity to pursue a better quality of life for themselves and their families. If you can’t think of any, for the purposes of going forward, feel free to choose one of the below:

1: They’re human beings.

2: Our country’s borders were arbitrarily drawn by a bunch of greedy dead guys, all of whom were immigrants with paperwork that wouldn’t stand up today.

3: You’re an immigrant. Or your ancestors were. (Floor 3 is a very popular floor. Most likely, this is where the remainder of you should step off.)

4: The Statue of Liberty said so.

But back to Trump (he gets shouty when you stop paying attention to him). Backwards views and all, he’s a gift to the presidential race and to the country. Because while he’s the only candidate willing to go on record with statements such as the above, I’m willing to bet plenty of others are saying the same behind closed doors – and it’s nice to eavesdrop on the Grand Old Party’s cocktail hour with so little effort.

Maybe Trump is so crazy he thinks he has a chance. Maybe he knows he has no chance, so he’s letting his crazy hang out. Either way, it’s convenient to have a face for the irrational bigotry, to sum it all up so tidily in a talkative nutshell as the rest of his party clams up.

When Trump says he wants to run for president because he wants “to make our country great again,” I refuse to believe him. Just as I refuse to believe the candidates like Trump, his supporters, and your Facebook-crazed cousins from the Midwest who use this tired line again and again. If they actually wanted to make it great, they’d fight for equal pay, improve access to education, support universal healthcare, and make it easy and safe for immigrants to join in the alleged greatness. They would have supported last week’s win for marriage equality. They would know that as long as we treat anyone, immigrants included, as second-class humans, we’ll be a second-class country.

But that is, quite obviously, not what Trump and Co. want. They want to make the “country great again” – for the same people it was great for the last time around, for the same people it has always been great for. And that should be alarming for everyone who doesn’t look like Mr. Trump.

I can laugh at Trump because I’m not afraid of him. NBC was smart enough to fire him, and this is the network that bought a miniseries called The Slap. He can talk about his success in business all he wants, but the fact is, his companies have filed for corporate bankruptcy four separate times, and that won’t fly a few more months into campaign season. Even if you don’t have much faith in American voters, you can be sure we won’t elect a man who hawked frozen steaks at The Sharper Image.

What I’m more afraid of is the silence of Trump’s fellow candidates as he repeatedly reiterates and defends his views. That’s the really scary stuff, and we have Trump to thank for exposing it.

So thanks, Don. It’s appreciated. Now why don’t you run along and go ask Siri what zero divided by zero is.

Follow Monica Weymouth on Twitter.