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When a person is naturalized as a U.S. citizen, they receive not just a new citizenship but also typically a few other objects: an American flag, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and a greeting from the president. Of these, the last is the most ephemeral—just a form letter—but it can reveal a great deal about how the writer thinks about the country he leads.

This week, the White House released Donald Trump’s new version of the letter. (In both terms, it took Trump months to get around to replacing his predecessor’s missive.) Although the Trump administration has

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