Trump’s childhood home becomes showcase for refugees

The three-storeyed Tudor-style home in Queens that Trump’s father, Fred, built in 1940 is now a rental available on Airbnb that anyone can stay in for USD 725 a night.

 

It was auctioned off to an unidentified buyer in March for USD 2.14 million, its second time going up for auction.

 

The international anti-poverty organisation, ‘Oxfam’ rented it Saturday and invited four refugees to talk with journalists.

 

The Republican President’s administration issued travel bans on people from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees. After various court challenges, the Supreme Court last week allowed the restrictive policy on refugees to remain temporarily. The justices will hear arguments on the bans on October 10.

 

“We wanted to send a strong message to Trump and world leaders that they must do more to welcome refugees,” said Shannon Scribner, Acting Director for the Humanitarian Department of Oxfam America.

 

Trump lived in the house on a tree-lined street of single-family dwellings until he was about 4, when his family moved to another home his father had built nearby.

 

In an upstairs bedroom, Eiman Ali, 22, looked around at the dark wood floors and a copy of the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal” on a nearby table and wondered about the home’s previous resident.

 

“Knowing Donald Trump who was here at the age of four makes me think about where I was at the age of four,” said Ali, her smiling face framed by a dark gray hijab. “We are all kids who are raised to be productive citizens, who have all these dreams and hopes,” she said. 

 

Down the hall, Ghassan al-Chahada, 41, a Syrian refugee who arrived in the US with his wife and three children in 2012, sat in a room with bunk beds and a sign on the wall that said it likely was Trump’s childhood bedroom.

“Before the conflict began in Syria we had dreams of coming to America. For us, it was a dream come true,” al-Chahada said.

Al-Chahada said that his life changed when Trump signed the ban that barred people from Syria and five other countries, from entering the United States.

“I had hopes that I would get my green card and be able to visit my country. But since Trump was elected I don’t dare, I don’t dare leave this country and not be able to come back,” al-Chahada said.

He looked out the window into the front yard and thought about what he would say to the President.

“I would advise him to remember, to think about how he felt when he slept in this bedroom. If he can stay in tune with who he was as a child, the compassion children have and the mercy, I would say he is a great person,” al-Chahada added.