Washington:
Since announcing his candidacy in November 2022, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a series of inflammatory and racist remarks during the US campaign.
In some cases, he has used violent imagery to lambast immigrants and opponents. He warned that the United States was on the brink of collapse, his comments raising concerns that if elected he could flout democratic norms by using state power to target perceived enemies.
Here are some of Trump’s more controversial comments so far:
blood poisoning
Trump has repeatedly said that illegal immigration is “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Anti-Defamation League leader Jonathan Greenblatt called the language “racist, xenophobic and vile.” Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign compared Trump’s comments to those of Adolf Hitler, who used the term “blood poisoning” in his “Mein Kampf” manifesto.
Polls show illegal immigration is a top concern among voters, and Trump has consistently described immigration as a major driver of violent crime and economic recession.
In past statements, Trump has suggested that Democrats are interested in allowing immigrants into the country to boost their political support.
This is a key element of the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which claims that left-wing and Jewish elites are plotting the racial and cultural replacement of white people with immigrants of color, which will lead to “white genocide.”
Debate over the impact of immigration on the economy has raged for decades, although most researchers say immigration broadly boosts economic growth.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February, some 33% of Republicans cited immigration as their top issue, while 6% of Democrats did the same.
pests
Trump promised at a rally in New Hampshire in November that he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left thugs who are living like vermin within the borders of our country.”
The comments drew condemnation from congressional Democrats and some moderate Republicans. Some historians trace the use of the word “pest” to Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini.
Political historians say the use of dehumanizing rhetoric — including words like “vermin” — makes it easier to disenfranchise residents and citizens because they are deemed less worthy of democratic or constitutional protections. For example, the Nazis frequently referred to Jews as lice, rats, and vermin.
The Trump campaign dismissed the comparisons.
bloody battle
In March, during an appearance in Ohio with a Republican Senate candidate, Trump warned of a “bloodbath” if he failed to defeat Biden in the November election.
Trump was discussing the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from foreign competition, and Trump and his allies later said he was referring to the auto industry when he used the term.
Trump’s campaign has sought to portray Biden as a threat to auto manufacturing jobs in the key battleground state of Michigan as his administration promotes electric vehicles.
Biden’s campaign rejected that characterization and condemned what it called Trump’s “extremism,” “his thirst for revenge” and his “threats of political violence.”
Immigrants are “animals”, “not people”
Trump has often used dehumanizing language to refer to the country’s illegal immigrants, such as calling them animals prone to violence.
“In my opinion, in some cases they are not human beings,” he said during an appearance in Ohio in March. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left thinks it’s a terrible thing. ‘These are animals and, well, we have to stop it,'” he said.
In speeches, Trump often claims that immigrants who cross the border illegally escape prisons and asylums in their countries and fuel violent crime in the United States.
Although there is little existing data on the immigration status of criminals, researchers say illegal immigrants in the country have no higher violent crime rates than native-born citizens.
Black Americans and Crime
Trump drew the ire of the Biden campaign, civil rights leaders and groups in February when he suggested black voters were more attracted to him because of his criminal prosecution. He also said black voters have begun to “embrace” his photo.
“Then I got sued a second time, a third time, a fourth time. A lot of people said that’s why black people like me, because they’ve been so hurt and discriminated against,” Trump said in the interview. black conservative group before the South Carolina primary, which he later won.
The legal challenges Trump faces, including federal charges against him for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and for his handling of classified documents, as well as other state charges and civil lawsuits, are at odds with the historic disparities Black Americans experience in the criminal justice system. Equality makes a big difference.
Trump also described at least two black prosecutors — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James — as “animals.” He repeatedly referred to James as “Peekaboo,” which rhymes with a racial slur.
Trump’s allies said his attacks were directed at prosecutors’ conduct, not their race, and they said he was struggling to win over black voters.
apocalypse now
Trump often leaned into apocalyptic imagery on the campaign trail, telling supporters that if he didn’t win in November — or if he didn’t get his way — the country would be plunged into eventual decline.
At a campaign event in North Carolina in March, Trump said Biden’s immigration policies amounted to a “plot to overthrow the United States” and that his lax security policies had allowed millions of migrants to flood the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump claimed that the Biden administration seeks to “dismantle the American system, eliminate the actual will of the American electorate, and create a new power base that will last for generations.”
In response, Biden’s campaign pointed to a border security bill in Congress that Trump helped scuttle in February by urging Republicans to vote against it.
The Dictator of “Day One”
Trump said during a televised town hall in December that he would not be a dictator beyond “day one” of a potential second term. He said he would close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling on his first day in office.
Biden’s campaign said the comments were clear evidence that he wants to be an autocrat, while Trump’s allies said he was joking.
Biden’s campaign has focused on the argument that preventing Trump from returning to office is crucial because he represents a threat to democracy.
Trump believes Biden poses a more serious threat to democracy because federal law enforcement agencies under his leadership are prosecuting prominent Republicans, including himself.
Some 44% of Democrats said extremism was their top election issue, while 13% of Republicans said the same, according to a February Reuters/Ipsos poll.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
