President Donald Trump has painted himself as the ultimate patriot. His campaign’s marketing strategy revolved around the American flag and calls to “make America great again.” Any criticism of him or his policies is deemed unpatriotic, but it shouldn’t be that way.

Patriotism, often defined as one’s “love of country,” doesn’t mean unceasing support for everything your country does. Sometimes the highest form of love calls out the shortcomings and failures rather than allowing them to fester. If we don’t admit our weaknesses, then we cannot even begin to correct them.

But it’s hard to fix these problems when anyone who points them out is called “unpatriotic” or told to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” as Trump did to four congresswomen who criticized his policies. Ignoring everything else wrong with this response, Trump has turned the object of patriotism from the country to himself. “You can’t talk that way about our country,” he said on his clash with the congresswomen, “not when I’m the president.”

By confusing “love of country” with “love of Trump’s policies,” we lose the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution. America was founded on ideals that encouraged disagreement and discussion. That’s why our nation is a republic, not a dictatorship.

We have the right to free speech—to stand up for the issues that matter to us—which is exactly what police brutality protesters are doing when they kneel during the national anthem. Their kneeling is not out of disrespect to the sacrifices of servicemen and women, not out of hatred of the country. Rather, they kneel because they love America too much to let the issue persist.

Trump, however, sees any critique on the status of the country as an attack against himself. In his mind, he is the state, and anyone disloyal to his plan is disloyal to America. He has been an adamant opponent to the protests, hitting them with his classic “maybe you shouldn’t be in this country.” But, it’s more patriotic to exercise the constitutional rights in the name of bettering the country than to shut down any opinion that doesn’t align with your agenda.

Trump’s definition of patriotism veers into the lane of nationalism, a term he embraced back in 2018. Loyalty to nation over loyalty to country suggests a racial or cultural aspect that “country” does not encompass and that white supremacists have taken up in the past and, again, more recently.

While white nationalism conjures images of white hoods and Confederate flags, it’s the more subtle tactics that are most prevalent today. Divisive rhetoric breeds racism and xenophobia, particularly when it draws the line between “us” and “them.”

For Trump, making America great again means building a wall to shut out the Mexican criminals, denying Muslim entry into the country and ending immigration from “shithole countries.”

Trump’s patriotism isn’t true patriotism, and despite his nationalist claim, it isn’t just loyalty to the nation. It’s loyalty to him. Anyone who doesn’t give their unrestrained support is written off as un-American. But true American patriotism gives liberty and justice to all. His patriotism infringes on these ideals. Rather than alienating his opposition, he should embrace the concept presented in former president Barack Obama’s 2008 patriotism speech, which says, “the dissent of ordinary Americans may be one of the truest expressions of patriotism.”

Kayla Mayer can be reached at maye8518@stthomas.edu.