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Granted, Belgium is far from unusual in this regard. Immigrants are a tremendous resource for countries looking to build their economies, whether through tourism or other means. It may seem trite to say this, but immigration really is a net positive for countries that facilitate it.

Which made it all the more galling to sit by a Belgian canal and hear the latest utterances from U.S. President Donald Trump.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump made a lot of ridiculous claims, as can be expected whenever he opens his mouth. But even by his standards, this was quite something. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to end the failed experiment of open borders,鈥� he said, before telling European leaders, 鈥淵our countries are going to hell.鈥�

Immigration to Europe is 鈥渄estroying your heritage,鈥� Trump said, blaming 鈥減olitical correctness鈥� for polices that allow citizens of other countries to cross borders and migrate into that continent.

On hearing that, you have to ask: Does the man not get out much? I don鈥檛 mean in a literal sense; Trump has obviously done a fair bit of travelling, and he did so long before an ailing United States voted him into the White House. What I mean is, does he have any idea how the world actually works? Does he know that people who leave their home countries to seek a better life abroad provide the labour that wealthy nations need to keep the wheels turning? Does he ever look beyond his sheltered and privileged nose?

On some level, he surely must: after all, Trump is a hotelier when he isn鈥檛 trying to shape the world in his image. And his hotels are full of immigrant workers, as even he occasionally admits (presumably whenever someone working for him points out that his latest policy pronouncement is liable to drive up the cost of labour at Garish Trump Property Inc.). Yet at the same time, the president is seemingly beholden to those advisers in his orbit who鈥檇 like to return the U.S. to its ostensibly white, Christian roots.

Indeed, I don鈥檛 know how you could interpret Trump鈥檚 actions during his second term in any other way. Between deploying ICE gangs, attempting to cut off pathways to legal immigration and hawking residency permits to only the wealthiest foreigners, Trump has made it perfectly clear that he wants to take America back to the 1800s. His speech to the UN this week merely provided explicit confirmation of the fact.

For any other U.S. president, decrying immigration as an unqualified negative would be a shocking thing to do. For Trump, it was Tuesday.

He鈥檚 always been like this. In his first term, he closed the borders to would-be migrants from several Muslim-majority countries. Since then, Trump has exploited racial tensions at every opportunity, most recently during the 2024 election campaign, he demonized immigrants and made fantastical claims about foreign countries somehow shipping the worst of their prisons and mental institutions to the U.S.

I admit there鈥檚 a market for this stuff, and not only in America: there are plenty of other countries where the message 鈥淥utsiders bad!鈥� is apt to find a sympathetic audience. But the hope is that reality will ultimately win the day. Closing down borders would be a massive step in the wrong direction, as it鈥檚 been for just about any country that鈥檚 tried it.

My itinerary this week includes a stop in Bazel, a Belgian village that鈥檚 home to an old castle. I鈥檓 told a couple of ladies run the coffeeshop there. One of them comes from a place called Quebec.

There are immigrants everywhere, you see.