Kayleigh McEnany’s racist tweets about Obama resurface after she shares tribute to Martin Luther King Jr

On Monday 18 January, the United States marked MLK Day in memory of the life and work of the pioneering civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

However, some people should probably revise their history before trying to partake in such a day. One of those is the outgoing White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, one of president Trump’s most loyal aides who has helped spread his conspiracy theories even before she worked in the White House.

On MLK Day, McEnany praised King as a ‘servant of God’ and said that ‘he made America better.’ However, her tweet quickly backfired on her as previous tweets, where she had speculated on which country Barack Obama was born in, a racist conspiracy theory that was spread by Trump in the years leading up to the 2016 election.

In a since-deleted tweet from 2012, she quippd that Obama had a brother that ‘lived in a hut in Kenya.’ Needless to say, people were quick to remind McEnany of this.

Her allegiance to Trump, a person who has stoked racial unrest in America and refused to condemn white supremacists also proved a sticking point for many.

Other Republican politicians, such as Ted Cruz and Lauren Boebert, who have supported Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election result, an action which could have stricken millions of Black votes from the records, were also absconded for showing their support for MLK Day.

In addition to these tone deaf tweets, ICE, the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency which has helped enforce some of Trump’s most damaging policies on immigration also posted a tweet about Martin Luther King Jr, saying that they honour his message of “hope, justice and equality.”

This also prompted a furious backlash with Democratic congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for ICE to be abolished.

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