“We were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore,” Irish prime minister says with Donald Trump in the room. pic.twitter.com/7jEfTVvIzE
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) March 17, 2017
Donald Trump does not indulge in alcohol, but he may need a St. Patrick’s Day cocktail after what’s turning out to be an undignified holiday experience. Everyone laughed at his celebratory tweet, and he also had to stand next to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny — in the White House — while he delivered a strong pro-immigration speech on Thursday night. The above clip shows a close-up of Kenny’s most relevant remarks, and below, you can see a longer clip that shows the pouty Trump reaction face.
Kenny packed so much shade into this address that Meek Mill could take a few lessons. The Irish PM made unmistakable reference to Trump’s aversion to immigration, which he’s carrying out through deportation raids and anti-Muslim travel bans that cannot withstand judicial scrutiny. During the resulting history lesson, Kenny reminded Trump that St. Patrick himself was an immigrant, and Trump could do nothing but mutely stand and listen:
“It’s fitting that we gather here each year to celebrate St. Patrick and his legacy. He too of course was an immigrant. And though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around the globe he’s also a symbol of — indeed the patron of — immigrants.”
Here we go. Kenny armed himself with a powerful summation of how immigrants are, indeed, the backbone of America, which wouldn’t even exist if not for the the efforts of the Irish and many other cultures:
“Here in America, in your great country, 35 million people claim Irish heritage, and the Irish have contributed to the economic, social, political, and cultural life of this great country over the last 200 years. Ireland came to America because, deprived of liberty, deprived of opportunity, of safety, of even food itself, the Irish believed. And four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp, we were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore. We believed in the shelter of America, in the compassion of America, in the opportunity of America. We came and we became Americans.”
“We were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore.” Yep, that’s the most powerful line. Below, Kenny’s immigration lecture begins at about 2:45. Trump began to side-eye Kenny once he realized what’s was going down, and you can see him struggle to maintain composure.