On the 50th anniversary of his father’s assassination, human rights advocate Martin Luther King III denounced the president’s comments on immigration and claimed Mr Trump was in a “dangerous position”.
Mr King's comments come days after Mr Trump reportedly denounced immigration from "s***hole" African countries, a move which triggered widespread condemnation across the world.
“We are here today because the American Dream is decidedly a nightmare for too many citizens and people have had enough,” Mr King, 60, told crowds in Washington who had gathered at the National Mall to commemorate the civil rights leader.
“Let me say it again - the dream has become a nightmare for too many American citizens on the left and the right. And they’ve had enough. They’ve had enough of the viciousness and vitriol seen from the statehouse to the White House.
“When a president insists that our nation needs more citizens from white states like Norway, I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is.
“Now, the problem is that you have a president who says things but has the power to execute and create racism. That’s a dangerous power and a dangerous position and we cannot tolerate that.
“We got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.”
It comes as the White House shared a video on Twitter of President Donald Trump paying tribute to Martin Luther King Jr Day.
“Dr King’s dream […] is the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people, and written into the soul of humankind,” Mr Trump was quoted as saying.
Martin Luther King Jr's youngest child, Reverend Bernice King, was also critical of Mr Trump during an address at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“Our collective voice in this hour must always be louder than the voice of one who may speak sometimes representing these United States, whose words sometimes do not reflect that legacy of my father,” Rev King said at the congregation where her father was a co-pastor between 1960 and 1968.
“We cannot allow the nations of the world to embrace the words that come from our president as a reflection of the true spirit of America.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church (AAP) Source: AAP
