By Tom Kludt
Michelle Obama used her final commencement address as first lady Friday to deliver some thinly veiled shots at the man who wants to succeed her husband: Donald Trump.
“We don’t give into our fears. We don’t build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere,” Obama told the graduating class at City College in New York City.
It was an unmistakable reference to Trump’s signature policy proposal — to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico — as well as his campaign’s indelible slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
The commencement address capped what has been a week-long tag-team effort between the Obamas and Hillary Clinton, likely a preview of what the Democrats have planned for their general election campaign against Trump.
In two separate speeches on Wednesday and Thursday, President Obama issued rebukes clearly aimed at Trump’s foreign policy and economic platforms — although Obama never mentioned the presumptive Republican nominee’s name.
Speaking in San Diego on Thursday, Clinton ripped Trump in a stemwinder, calling him “unprepared” and “temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.”
As she addressed graduates in historic Harlem on Friday, the first lady offered other warnings that seemed to make obvious allusion to Trump.
“Despite the lessons of our history and the truth of your experience here at city colleges, some folks out there today seem to have a very different perspective,” she said.
“They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different. To be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate.”
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