During a meeting with survivors of religious persecution in the Oval Office on Wednesday, a displaced Rohingya man asked President Trump what the plan is to help his people return to their home country, to which the president responded: “Where is that, exactly?” The Rohingya are an ethnic group who have been persecuted by a large-scale campaign of what the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The survivor responded that he came from a Bangladesh refugee camp. Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom, then quickly stepped in to help the president, offering: “That is right next to Burma,” referencing Myanmar’s former name.
The misstep was not the only cringe-worthy moment during the meeting. Trump also listened to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Nadia Murad talk about how her family was murdered by ISIS, and how she was taken captive by the group. After her escape, she has tirelessly spread the word about the horrific crimes committed against her people by ISIS. Despite claiming to have defeated ISIS, Trump appeared to be unfamiliar with Murad’s story, asking her why she was awarded the Nobel Prize. “They gave it to you for what reason?” Trump asked Murad. “For what reason? she responded. “For that after all this happen to me, I can—I make it clear to everyone that ISIS raped thousands of Yazidi women.”
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