There was a Trump supporter campaigning outside FitzRandolph today

‘I come and sit here because I’m trying to save my country’

Meet Lee Eric Newton. If you Google his name, you’ll find a list of articles about cancer and novel immunotherapy treatments.

This Princeton local is a Boston University graduate, with a Bachelor’s in International Relations, and speaks Chinese (which he learnt while completing his Master’s degree at Beijing University). You may have also seen him sitting outside of FitzRandolph gates.

Why? He’s a huge Trump supporter and he wants the rest of the country to be too. These are some things he wants you to know.

He’s not racist.

After introducing himself, he quickly assures me that he’s not racist. Lee was baptised approximately 50 years ago in Witherspoon Presbyterian Church, a church that he says has a predominantly Black congregation. His father Len Newton organised a group in 1954 that challenged Princeton’s racially discriminatory real estate practices, where, for example, non-white families were prevented from buying houses on “white” streets.

“I did a piece called ‘Growing up color-blind in Princeton’, because of the fact that my dad (Len Newton), James Floyd and various other Princeton forward-thinking, progressive-thinking people knew that you should not judge people by the color of their skin but by their character.”

So how does this self-proclaimed constitutionalist libertarian become so passionate about the one and only Donald J. Trump?

Trump knows what’s up.

According to Lee, Trump started bringing up subjects that needed to be addressed. Some things really resonated with him, such as immigration policies, and old relationships like NATO that he claims (from his studies in international relations) were made on ideas that countries like Russia and China were enemies of the state. He also believes that the Obama administration has fanned the fuel for racism by bringing Black Lives Matter activists to the White House.

“[The Obama administration is] saying ‘You’ve done great work in San Jose’. In San Jose, they rioted and burned police cars. That’s not great work. That’s not protesting. That’s rioting. That’s lawlessness. Trump has agreed to bring back law and order to America, and for everyone. Not just for Whites, not just for Mexicans, not just for Blacks. For all Americans.

“People need to feel safe in their communities, and I think that Trump is probably known as the greatest unifier, ever. Before he started running against the Democrats and Hillary, nobody had ever called him a racist…People have walked by me here with my sign and insulted me and said: ‘You are insane. You are disgusting. Your sign is insulting, you know your sign is insulting’ and I’m like ‘Well if you want to have an intelligent conversation, come back and tell me why you believe it’s insulting and I can dispel your arguments by giving you facts about what Trump really said.'”

Courtesy of the Donald J. Trump presidential campaign

Stop readily believing the media.

Lee thinks so many people are against Donald Trump because of bias reporting and slander from different media organisations. His advice to non-supporters is to “look deep into the facts. Don’t look into the smoky mirror. Look behind the curtain and see who’s pulling the strings. Who’s pulling the strings in this world.”

He adds: “The President of the United States, Barack Obama comes out and says that [Donald Trump] is ‘unfit’ without having…I mean is he a psychologist? Is he a psychiatrist? Who is he to say that another person in this country is unfit? It’s totally bias.”

Screencap from CNN

Trump is an honest guy!

Lee believes this is another reason why people dislike him.

“He’s an honest person and people don’t like that. They don’t like that because they’ve been lied to and told half truths for so long that they go ‘wow I’m not comfortable with that true thing that he just said, I’m not comfortable. Could you please sugarcoat it first and then give it to me so that it tastes sweet when I eat it? Because if you don’t, I’m gonna choke on it.'”

Don’t misunderstand the wall.

One of the controversies surrounding Trump’s campaign is his adamant stance on building a wall on the Mexican border. According to Lee, this is simply an effort to control the borders and to monitor immigration, not a targeted attack on Mexico. “We need to pick how many people will come from Mexico, how many people will come from India, Italy, Yemen, Syria, you know…He’s not saying he hates Mexican people. He’s saying he loves Mexican people, but they need to come here legally. We can’t have one huge massive group of people coming. And they say, ‘the humanitarian crisis’. Well, Hillary Clinton broke Syria. The Obama administration broke Syria. So fix it. Or don’t fix it. But just because you broke it, doesn’t mean the American people have to suffer from your ignorance.”

Courtesy of the Donald J. Trump Presidential campaign

To Lee, any Republican who is willing to support Hillary Clinton because they don’t want to vote for Trump was never a Republican and does not have the American citizens’ heart or wellbeing in their mind. Lee believes Donald Trump will pull the country out of war. Because of this, supporting Trump is putting America first. His only fear is Trump will never make it into the White House because of corrupt election schemes.

“I think Americans have seen that the establishment, the government, is not playing fair. They’re using media. They’re using all of the power to bear against one man. But this man has something very powerful behind him. We, the people.”

Figure out the facts.

To Hillary supporters, he challenges you to write down and research everything about Trump that you disagree with. “Get the real information and facts and ask yourself ‘I hate Trump because…?’ and go and find out if he really said that.” And for good measure, write down all the claims against Hillary and research those too.

“You have to understand that because I’ve almost died twice, I’m careful about who I give my time to. I appreciate life and when I talk to people, I’m taking my time to do that. My life time.”

“People come by me and try to silence me, but I’m passionate about getting Donald Trump elected as president. He’s an outsider. They can’t control him.”

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