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Isle beats back: Haitians march on Trump building in protest of ‘hypocrite’ president

Isle beats back: Haitians march on Trump building in protest of ‘hypocrite’ president
Photo by Jason Speakman

They stepped in resistance to his s—.

Local Haitians and their supporters railed against the president during a Brooklyn-to-Manhattan protest march on Friday, a week after Trump allegedly called Haiti a “shithole country,” and hours before he rang in the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.

More than 100 activists rallied at Grand Army Plaza before striding to the distant isle’s Trump Building in the demonstration, which called out Trump’s ineptitude and inability to lead the country, according to a marcher.

“He doesn’t know anything. What he said is disrespectful, and he doesn’t know the history of Haiti or the Caribbean,” said East Flatbush resident Manoushka Elien. “He needs to get some books and learn.”

Elien, who said she was born in Haiti but has lived stateside for more than two decades, took the day off from work to march because she wanted to show her children that they should be proud of their heritage, she said.

“It was important for me to march for my kids. They were born here but they tell people they are Haitian, and I want them to be proud of that,” she said.

Protestors processed down Flatbush Avenue pounding on drums, chanting on megaphones, and waving signs

during their journey across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Trump-owned building on Wall Street.

And other marchers blasted the president — who last month allegedly claimed all Haitians have AIDS — for what they said is his uninformed stance on immigration, suggesting the Commander in Chief take a crash course on American–Haitian history.

“I would like to tell him how Haitians helped during the American Revolution. Our soldiers fought hard, and if Trump doesn’t remember, then he’s a hypocrite,” said Marie Myrtle, who trekked from Pennsylvania with her family to participate.

Myrtle criticized Trump as being deliberately oblivious to the history of immigrants in the United States, and said she isn’t holding out hope that he’ll wise up any time soon.

“He pretends he doesn’t know, but if he read history he’d know how Haitians and immigrants built this country,” she said. “But I don’t think he’s going to change, and he’s never going to apologize.”

Reach reporter Alexandra Simon at (718) 260–8310 or e-mail her at asimon@cnglocal.com.