Democrats Accused of Xenophobic Rhetoric Targeting Elon Musk and Melania Trump
While Democrats have frequently charged President Donald Trump and Republicans with racism and xenophobia, recent actions suggest they may be guilty of what they condemn.
Since President Trump took office, it has been prominent Democrats who have made pointed and often personal attacks against figures like Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and First Lady Melania Trump, Fox News reported.
At a March 22 protest in Los Angeles against DOGE, California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters made controversial remarks implying Melania Trump’s citizenship status should be scrutinized.
“When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he’s going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America,” Waters said. “If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania.”
Her comment overlooked the fact that Melania immigrated to the U.S. as an adult and was not “born here.”
“We don’t know whether or not her parents were documented. And maybe we better just take a look,” Waters added.
Waters, often known for her incendiary remarks, failed to acknowledge that Melania became a U.S. citizen in 2006.
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat from Oregon, drew a dramatic historical comparison during a February 4 rally, likening Musk and DOGE to foreign invaders from centuries past.
“They always told us the British had come to storm the city... and they burned everything down,” she said. “They told us, and here we are, Trump and his billionaire boy band. They are not British this time. This one is South African. But they came back.”
Other Democrats were even more blunt in their comments. Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York told supporters that Musk should “go back to South Africa.”
“It was interesting yesterday. I was watching a video of an interview of Elon Musk with someone where he said that the Italians should stay in Italy and the Chinese should stay in China,” she said. “My question to Elon Musk is, what the hell are you doing here in America?”
On Inauguration Day, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett took a swipe at Musk’s background, questioning his values and connections to his homeland’s history.
“[Musk] went from being the dork that was jumping around on stage to allegedly being this amazing genius that’s going to save this entire country,” she said, “the country he wasn’t born in and a country that maybe he doesn’t agree with, the idea of a democratic republic, considering the fact that he may have been more so on the side of apartheid.”
Despite these implications, Musk has publicly rejected the apartheid regime from his native South Africa.
Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia also commented on Musk’s South African origins in a February interview, suggesting it may be influencing his political outlook.
“I think that’s a leftover from Elon Musk’s South African heritage,” Connolly claimed, “and maybe he’s falling too far back on the apartheid system of government that was a fascist form of government.”
He continued, “Here in the United States, Mr. Musk, we have three branches of government... That’s how our system works here.”
Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen went further, suggesting Musk’s family had opposed civil rights in South Africa.
“Why can’t you understand? The Ukranians [sic] are fighting for the same thing which his parents tried to deny black South Africans,” he posted on X in February.