Former President Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Sunday, reiterated his earlier description of immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the country, language reminiscent of Hitler.
“Why do you use words like ‘vermin’ and ‘poisoning of the blood’?” Howard Kurtz, the media critic and interviewer, asked on Fox News. “The press, as you know, immediately reacts to that by saying, ‘Well, that’s the kind of language that Hitler and Mussolini used.’”
“Because our country is being poisoned,” Mr. Trump responded.
He also reiterated his claim that migrants crossing the southern border are criminals coming from prisons and mental institutions.
Evidence contradicts this. Border officials report that most migrants are families fleeing violence and poverty, and overall crime rates show no significant increase due to immigration.
“We can be nice about it, we can talk about, ‘Oh, I want to be politically correct,’” Mr. Trump said. “But we have people coming in from prisons and jails, long-term murderers, people with sentences that the rest of their lives they’re going to spend in some jail in some country that many people have never even heard of. They’re all being released into our country.”
He continued: “These are people at the highest level of crime, and then you have mental institutions and insane asylums — I always say the difference is one is ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ you know, it’s a mental institution on steroids, OK? — and those mental institutions and insane asylums are being emptied out into the United States, and then you have terrorists pouring in at levels we have never seen before.”
Mr. Trump’s demonization of migrants has been a cornerstone of his rhetoric since his first campaign in 2015, when he referred to Mexicans as rapists. His language has become more extreme and his dehumanization of migrants more explicit in his current campaign.
In a speech in Ohio on Saturday, he called migrants “animals” and dehumanized them further by questioning their humanity.
The interview, which Fox News aired on Sunday, covered various topics such as abortion, NATO, and the recent TikTok ban that the House passed with bipartisan support. Mr. Trump changed his position to oppose the ban, citing concerns about increased Facebook usage if TikTok is banned.
He discussed his stance on abortion and claimed he would decide on proposals soon. He mentioned supporting a 16-week ban and suggested taking executive actions to effectively ban abortion without legislative approval.
Regarding NATO, he falsely claimed that countries had paid up due to his earlier statements about payment obligations. The alliance’s structure doesn’t work as he described, and no significant changes have occurred.
He reiterated his baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
