The speech is not about analysis, however; it is about stoking fear of the “south” and “east,” or, more precisely, of immigrants from those regions. Beinart’s conclusion seems to me correct: in Trump’s view, “America is at its core Western: meaning white and Christian (or at least Judeo-Christian). The implication is that anyone in the United States who is not white and Christian may not truly be American but rather an imposter and a threat.”
