On America’s 250th, Mamdani called for unity – while Trump rewrote the past
In dueling speeches this weekend, the New York mayor faced a ‘nation of contradictions’ while the president offered a stump speech If Donald Trump’s address
In dueling speeches this weekend, the New York mayor faced a ‘nation of contradictions’ while the president offered a stump speech If Donald Trump’s address on 3 July from Mount Rushmore will be remembered at all, it will be because that was the day of competing speeches, and competing visions, of the United States.
Earlier on 3 July, the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, delivered a speech that was about half as long as Trump’s 28-minute address, but one that offered a far different assessment of the challenges facing his city and our nation. “We see a city of contradictions within a nation of contradictions,” Mamdani said, while seated at George Washington’s desk and flanked by newly naturalized American citizens.
“We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world – one where children go to sleep hungry while the world’s first trillionaire hungers for more.” Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror.
He is professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York Continue reading...
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