Ben Stein ’18, Staff Writer

Monday, roughly two months before the upcoming election, Donald Trump Jr. made a very controversial comment. The son of Republican candidate, Donald Trump, tweeted nine days ago, “If I had a bowl of skittles and told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian Refugee problem.”

This upcoming election is a perfect example of the nation’s conflicting ideas regarding foreign policies. Since each candidate is so unpredictable, disputed comments like these can serve as a window into the platforms and personalities of either candidate.

Christopher Martenson talked about the magnitude of the statement, and how it was skewed. He said, “The Syrian refugee issue is definitely very serious, but I think comparing three skittles to a handful is a complete exaggeration,”

Other students had similar opinions on this topic. Emily Gitlin ’18 said,“The scale is totally off, people are not skittles, the number of people who have come into America, who have caused terrorism, I believe there have been three cases, one was caught with barely any evidence, so with the evidence we have so far it’s not a fair comparison,”

One student did not have harsh criticisms of the comment, and was able to reason with it. However, he brought up another conflict of political correctness.  Andrew Saunders ‘18 said,“It’s understandable where he is coming from in the fact that their has been lots of violence, and that many refugees are under disguise, but I think that it’s a little politically incorrect to compare people to skittles because you’re talking about people, not candy.”
With regard to being politically correct, Donald Trump is not, and clearly his son has followed in his footsteps. These controversial comments made by both him and his family could hurt him in the upcoming election.