Teacher of the Year Winner Gives Trump a Stack of Letters Written by Her Refugee Students

President Trump had to honor someone with actual integrity yesterday at the National Teacher of the Year reception.

Trump presented the Teacher of the Year award to Mandy Manning, a high school teacher who teaches teen refugees at the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington; Newcomer specializes in teaching English to refugees and immigrants. Manning’s remarks were not broadcast, but she spoke at length about the refugee and immigrant students she works with every day, according to reports from CNN and the Associated Press.

While Trump congratulated Manning for her win, he didn’t mention her students or the fact that they’re refugees. Because he is a racist bigot. Still, Manning didn’t need to hear insincere, saccharine talk from a president who ordered a discriminatory and dangerous travel ban and targets immigrants with hateful policies and rhetoric as his personal brand. Manning told CNN that she had one goal in mind by coming to accept the award: Deliver handwritten letters to Trump, penned by her students.

She succeeded. Trump allegedly told her that he was excited to read them and told an aide to place them on his desk so he could read them immediately.

“My goal is to share my student’s stories,” Manning said. “But to send a message—to not only my immigrant and refugee students but the LGBT community—that they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough and they matter.”