In remarks that have previously come under fire for being xenophobic and evoking Nazi rhetoric, Donald Trump, who is running for president of the United States as a Republican for the third time in a row, claimed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” during weekend campaign rallies in Nevada and New Hampshire.
Despite his use of more provocative language than in his presidential campaigns in 2020 and 2016, Trump has pledged, should he be reelected to a second four-year term in office, to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration.
Throughout the campaign trail, Trump has regularly used strong language to criticize Biden’s policies and the state of the border. In the wake of the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, Trump pledged if elected to bar refugees from Gaza from entering the U.S., and to begin “ideological screening” of all immigrants and bar those who sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists.
According to Ason Stanley, a Yale professor and fascism author, Trump’s remarks were reminiscent of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s warnings in Mein Kampf against Jews poisoning German blood.
“He is now employing this vocabulary in repetition in rallies. Repeating dangerous speech increases its normalization and the practices it recommends,” Stanley said. “This is very concerning talk for the safety of immigrants in the U.S.”
