A self-described “wife supremacist” and “MAGA fertility fanatic” is taking heat from other conservatives for claiming that she’s “never met” a single immigrant who moved to the United States because they sought out freedom or individual liberty, adding that migrants only “move here for the money, bro.”
While the aggressively anti-immigration take would seem to fit squarely within the Donald Trump wing of the conservative movement, especially with the president railing that Somali-Americans are “garbage,” a number of right-wing pundits and commentators blasted the claim as being extremely far from the truth.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Peachy Keenan – the pseudonym for a pro-natalist mother of five who says she was inspired by Trump to have more children – insisted that immigrants only come to America for economic reasons.
“I have never met a single immigrant, legal or illegal, who moved to the United States because they longed to experience things like freedom of expression, free speech, individual liberty, or representational democracy,” the Domestic Extremist author posted. “They move here for the money, bro. Even the ones on my side!”
In a followup tweet, Keenan said that “America is not an idea” but rather an “ATM machine for immigrants,” before describing her definition of a true American.
“And it is the ancestral home of families who farmed it, built it, fought for it, and died for it,” she stated. “That's what it means to be an American. It means you are indigenous, for several generations at least.”
Her online screed, however, soon found itself in the crosshairs of a number of prominent conservative media figures, who took issue with her sweeping assertions about immigrants – especially those who seek refuge from totalitarian and autocratic regimes.
“I have a bunch of Baha'i friends I grew up with who escaped from the Ayatollah's regime in the late '70s and early '80s to America who would laugh at this, if they weren't too busy being American citizens,” National Review writer and podcaster Jeff Blehar noted.
Charles C. W. Cooke, a senior writer at National Review Online who emigrated to the United States from England in 2011 and became a naturalized US citizen in 2018, merely replied “Hi” to Keenan.
“My grandfather immigrated from Sweden because he wanted to be American,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson reacted. “My neighbor came here from India because he wanted freedom and an escape from the caste system. Get out more and meet people.”
Gabriella Hoffman, a staffer at the Independent Women’s Forum and a Townhall columnist, noted that this “is basically every socialist escapee I've known and met” before recounting her family’s experience. “My parents came to the U.S. 40 years ago next month. They came here to enjoy freedom, free speech, constitutional rights, and free enterprise denied to them by their Russian occupiers,” Hoffman added.
“Tell me you haven't met many immigrants without saying you haven't met many immigrants,” NRO senior writer Dan McLaughlin replied. “My high school Spanish teacher, for example, was the most rah-rah pro-America person I've ever met. He didn't flee Castro dreaming of making a fortune teaching sullen teenagers on a Catholic school salary.”
Commentary editor John Podheretz didn’t pull any punches with his thoughts on Keenan’s tweet. “Tell me you’re an idiot any more competently than this blazingly stupid tweet that fails to understand why America works as it does and I’ll give you a cookie,” he wrote on X.
“Actually, it was freedom of expression, free speech, individual liberty, representational democracy, and money,” conservative speaker and podcast host Ian Haworth observed.
Keenan, for her part, attempted to explain her position after one social media user replied: “We Iranians are here for freedom but what were you saying?”
In her response, Keenan said that she wasn’t “saying there are none, and I'm sure a lot of midcentury migration was driven by fleeing tyranny, but I'm saying I haven't personally met many.”
Amid the flood of criticism she had received from conservatives over her tweet, Keenan eventually added a disclaimer on Monday morning. “*Under age 60,” she posted.
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