Donald Trump, former United States President, has come under backlash following his comments on Saturday at a rally in New Hampshire that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Specifically, Trump said immigrants from Africa, Asia, and others from all over the world were flooding the US and feared crimes and terrorism would be on the rise.
Trump told the crowd on Saturday that immigrants “from all over the world” are “pouring into the country,” reiterating a phrase CNN reported he used previously that sparked an outcry from the Anti-Defamation League.
According to the CNN report in October 2023, Trump had said, “Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country.”
In a video interview, Trump said“It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with disease. People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.”
Reiterating this on Saturday, Trump said, “We got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done.” “They poison… mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world,” he said in the viral video that has equally generated mixed reactions.
Trump, who is likely to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential race for the White House, while appearing to be taking a swipe at President Joe Biden’s administration, also noted, “They’re pouring into our country. Nobody’s even looking at them. They just come in. The crime is going to be tremendous. The terrorism is going to be… And and we built a tremendous piece of the wall and then we’re going to build more.”
In 2018, news reports emerged that Trump called Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries “shithole countries” in a meeting with Congressional leaders about immigration policy in the White House. He allegedly went ahead to say he preferred immigrants from Norway and Asia as they helped America economically. Trump denied referring to African nations as shithole countries but said that he used tough words to describe them.
Following Trump’s comments, the Biden campaign released a statement criticising the ex-president’s remarks.
“Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy. Trump is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over seven million votes three years ago,” the Biden campaign said.
One of Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Chris Christie, also called Trump’s remarks “disgusting” on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“He’s disgusting, and what he’s doing is dog-whistle to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strained from the economy and from the conflicts around the world, and he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people from areas that don’t look like us,” Christie said. “The other problem with this is the Republicans who are saying this is OK.”
He went on to criticise fellow Republican rival Nikki Haley for saying Trump was fit to be president.
“You’re telling me that someone who says immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country, someone who says Vladimir Putin is a character witness, is fit to be president of the United States, was the right person at the right time. Nikki Haley should be ashamed of herself. She’s part of the problem because she’s enabling him.”
