Donald Trump, just weeks after using the fascist terminology “vermin” to describe sections of American society he dislikes, again declared at a New Hampshire rally that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
Condemned for his previous remarks at the last rally he held in New Hampshire – where he threatened to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections” – Trump appeared to double down in Durham on Saturday.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done,” Trump told the crowd.
“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.”
It is the second time Trump has used the poisoned blood phrase, which has been widely condemned for echoing white supremacist rhetoric.
The first time he did so, in October, Joe Biden said the former president, who faces 91 criminal charges, was starting to use language heard in Nazi Germany.
“Trump also recently talked about, ‘The blood of America is being poisoned’ … Again, echoes the same phrases used in Nazi Germany,” Biden said at the time.
Classic Trump: say something crazy outrageous, neo-Nazi-like and it gets headlines, creates outrage.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 16, 2023
So wait a little. Then say it again, no one notices, no coverage, and it gets normalized and mainstreamed.
Let’s be clear: migrants ‘poisoning the blood’ is Hitler rhetoric. https://t.co/H3QZtIYbaK
CNN has reported that if the former president wins in 2024, he plans to expand the hardline immigration policies of his first term, during which children were separated from their families at the border and caged. His new plans reportedly include placing undocumented immigrants who already live in the US into detention camps, purportedly to await deportation.
On Saturday, he said he would “restore and expand” his bans on travel to the US – in 2017, he forbid entry to many Muslim-majority countries and African nations – and said he would “implement strong ideological screening for all illegal immigrants”.
The broadcaster Mehdi Hasan said on Saturday: “Classic Trump: say something crazy outrageous, neo-Nazi-like and it gets headlines, creates outrage.
“So wait a little. Then say it again, no one notices, no coverage, and it gets normalized and mainstreamed.
“Let’s be clear: migrants ‘poisoning the blood’ is Hitler rhetoric.”
