Donald Trump Jr. has a message for graduating students in the Middle East.
“Your opportunities are now boundless,” he told the class of 2017 at the American University in Dubai on Sunday. “Don’t let someone’s vision of your life get in the way of your dreams.”
President Trump’s oldest son spoke to an auditorium packed with the friends and families of about 500 students of more than 100 nationalities. Most were from Arab and Muslim countries.
“Diversity is in everything we do these days,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “But let’s make sure that when we talk about diversity, we’re also adding diversity of thought into the matrix.”
Trump continued: “Don’t just accept answers you want to hear. They are often not the right ones.”
It was Trump’s second visit to the emirate of Dubai since his father became president. He attended the opening of the Trump International Golf Club Dubai alongside his brother Eric in February.
Donald Trump Jr. has been criticized for controversial statements about the Muslim world in the past.
During the presidential campaign last year, he tweeted a graphic that likened Syrian refugees to Skittles. His father had called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants, as well as a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the United States until the government could “figure out what is going on.”
President Trump’s attempts to put in place a travel ban that would affect refugees and citizens from several Muslim majority countries have been struck down in court. A revised executive order is being looked by a federal appeals court.
Toward the end of his speech on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. told students if they find the same passion as his father, “you will be unstoppable.”
“We believed in his message, not necessarily the contrived message that was put out there in the media,” he said. “It’s that work ethic, that passion, that perseverance that I saw in him and I saw him exercise everyday.”
