As leaders in Washington negotiate a bipartisan immigration deal, former President Donald Trump used inflammatory language to demonize immigrants during a speech Saturday in New Hampshire that echoed Adolf Hitler.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in next year’s elections, said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He pledged to tighten immigration laws, including reimposing a travel ban on “countries suffering from terrorism” and demanding “strong ideological screening” of migrants in the country without authorization.
“They are poisoning the blood of our country,” he told supporters in Durham, New Hampshire, referring to immigrants.
“This is what they have done. They have poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just in the three or four countries we are thinking of, but all over the world. They are coming to our countries, from Africa, from Asia, from “All over the world. No one even looks at it.”
Hitler used similar language about the “poison” of the Jews[ing] “The blood of others” in his manifesto “Mein Kampf” in 1925.
Trump also praised authoritarian leaders in other countries, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he described as “very nice,” and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he described as “very well respected.” He supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s criticism of President Joe Biden.
The New Hampshire primary is scheduled for January 23, followed by the Iowa caucuses on January 15. Trump leads in opinion polls in both states.
Biden’s re-election campaign said in a written statement that Trump “directed” past and current dictators.
“Tonight, Donald Trump led by example as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin as he ran for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a written statement. .
A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a message seeking comment on Monday.
Trump’s comments came as US Senate and White House leaders seek to reach agreement on changes to immigration policy as part of a larger agreement that includes an additional $100 billion request to fund aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and US border security.
“dog whistle”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is running in the Republican primary on an anti-Trump platform, called the comments “disgusting” during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
“It’s disgusting,” Christie said. “And what it does is dog-whistle to Americans who feel under pressure and stress from the economy and conflicts around the world. It dog-whistles to put the blame on people from areas that don’t look like us.”
Christie added that top Republicans who continued to support Trump were complicit. He noted that nearly 100 members of Congress endorsed Trump and that his presidential rival, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, called Trump fit to be president.
He added: “Nikki Haley should be ashamed of herself.” “It’s part of the problem because it enables him.”
Haley’s campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Authoritarian discourse
Trump has been disparaging immigrants since he entered national politics in the 2016 presidential race, and this remains among his most prominent themes as the campaign heats up into 2024.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump called for a “total and complete ban on Muslims entering the United States” and issued an executive order a week after taking office to ban travel from certain Muslim-majority countries.
The executive order, and its successor, framed the policy as a national security issue in response to terrorist threats, but federal courts have still blocked it for violating religious and other civil liberties. The US Supreme Court eventually upheld parts of the order, but Biden rescinded it entirely on his first day in office.
In recent weeks, Trump has made a series of comments suggesting that he sees himself as an authoritarian leader.
In a speech in November, he described his political opponents as “vermin,” another term used by Hitler and his World War II ally Benito Mussolini, the president of Italy.
In a Fox News town hall this month, Trump responded to a request to allay fears that he would be a second-term dictator by saying he would only be a dictator on his first day in office to take action to control and expand the border. Fossil fuel development.
He reiterated this pledge on Saturday.
“On my first day in the White House, I will end the Biden administration’s entire open border policy, stop the invasion of our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” he said.
Republicans often use the word “invasion” to describe the situation on the US-Mexico border. US Customs and Border Protection has seen an increase in encounters with migrants at the southern US border, according to its data. In fiscal year 2022, there were nearly 2.4 million encounters with migrants, and in fiscal year 2023, which ended Oct. 1, there were nearly 2.5 million encounters with migrants at the southern border.
Trump’s rhetoric throughout Saturday’s speech portrayed the former president as the leader of a “righteous crusade.”
“This is the greatest political movement in the history of our country, it really is,” he said. “We are engaged in a just crusade to liberate this nation from a corrupt political class that is waging war on American democracy like never before.
He continued: “We have never seen anything like this before.” “If you put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation again. We are not a free nation.”
In recent years, the rise of anti-immigration rhetoric in the United States has drawn parallels to some of the language used by historical figures, including Adolf Hitler. President Donald Trump’s recent speech in New Hampshire has sparked controversy as he borrows from Hitler’s language for his anti-immigration rhetoric. This rhetoric has evoked strong emotions and polarized opinions, with many questioning the implications of using such language in a modern political context. The similarities between Trump’s language and Hitler’s rhetoric raise concerns about the impact of such rhetoric on social divisions and the treatment of immigrant communities in the United States.