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Twitter user reveals Tomi Lahren’s genealogy after she criticizes immigrants
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Twitter user reveals Tomi Lahren’s genealogy after she criticizes immigrants

Tess Cagle—
| Last updated

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia (CC-BY-SA)

*sips tea*

Tomi Lahren has more in common with the immigrants she criticizes than she’d like to admit, according to ancestral files uncovered by German journalist and genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn.

On Saturday, Lahren echoed anti-immigrant sentiments said by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and took it a step further by saying folks who don’t speak English or come from a poor economic background should be denied entry.

“You don’t just come into this country with low skills, low education, not understanding the language and come into our country because someone says it makes them feel nice. That’s not what this country is based on,” she said on Fox News on Saturday. “These people need to understand that it’s a privilege to be an American and it’s a privilege that you work toward—it’s not a right.”

After those comments, Mendelsohn—who created #resistancegenealogy—shared some interesting information about Lahren’s ancestors. Her great-great-great-grandmother lived in the U.S. for 41 years and she still spoke German. Her great-great-grandmother didn’t speak English after living in the U.S. for a decade. Her great grandfather’s 1884 baptism was recorded in Norwegian, as well.

Her ancestors were also farmers.

All of these non-English speaking immigrants paved the way for Lahren, whose net worth is now $3 million, to find success in the U.S. by going on national TV to tell current day immigrants that they deserve less opportunity because of the language they speak or their economic background.

Those facts are what inspired Mendelsohn to look into Lahren’s ancestry and show how immigrants back in the early days of the U.S. weren’t all that different from those trying to enter the country today.

“This is not about playing gotcha,” Mendelsohn wrote. “But as long as people like Lahren continue to push a specious agenda that suggests today’s immigrants are somehow wholly different from previous ones, I’ll keep showing just how alike they really are.”

Mendelsohn made it clear that Lahren shouldn’t feel ashamed about her ancestor’s occupations or lack of English speaking skills—but she should maybe rethink criticizing others before she learns a bit more about her own family’s ancestral history.

Lahren has not yet responded to Medelsohn.

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle is a reporter who focuses on politics, lifestyle, and streaming entertainment. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman, Damn Joan, and Community Impact Newspaper. She’s also a portrait, events, and live music photographer in Central Texas.

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