Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, made a bizarre tweet earlier this week regarding the Olympics and Team USA’s medal count that has left me confused for a number of reasons.
“I wonder how our medal totals would be if we had an exclusionary immigration system which we have had for the last few years,” the one-time presidential candidate wrote. “My heart swells for all of our medalists, including those whose families have come from far off lands to love our country.”
I wonder how our medal totals would be if we had an exclusionary immigration system which we have had for the last few years. My heart swells for all of our medalists, including those whose families have come from far off lands to love our country.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) August 4, 2021
This poorly worded tweet seems to be suggesting that Jeb is disappointed in Team USA’s medal count and believes it would be better if immigration had been less “exclusionary” during the Trump years.
Well, there are a few problems with this tweet. For starters, while some teams haven’t performed as expected, Team USA’s medal count is hardly disappointing. According to the official Olympics website, as of this writing, the USA ranks second in the number of gold medals and first in total medals.
I wonder how our medal totals would be if we had an exclusionary immigration system which we have had for the last few years. My heart swells for all of our medalists, including those whose families have come from far off lands to love our country.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) August 4, 2021
Is Jeb Bush disappointed by that?
But the most disturbing thing (I think) about the tweet is that he seems to be implying that because of the Trump years, America didn’t get enough foreign-born talent to do better in the Olympics. So are foreign-born Americans better athletes than American-born athletes, Jeb?
Listen, Jeb, I get that you don’t like Trump, and you’re probably still a bit bruised by the way he wiped the floor with you in the 2016 GOP primaries. Still, it seems incredibly anti-American to imply that American-born athletes are inferior to foreign-born athletes. I’m sure you thought it made you sound woke and inclusive, but instead, it just makes you sound anti-American. I honestly have no idea which athletes competing on Team USA are foreign-born. I’m surely not gonna waste my time looking into it. But surely our American-born athletes have performed well. Clearly, the USA’s athletes have done well enough to win more medals than any other country. So it’s hard to suggest that athletes from other countries are naturally better, don’t you think?
Story cited here.
