During a campaign rally in the Bronx on Thursday evening, former President Donald Trump faced chants of “build the wall” as he reiterated his anti-immigrant rhetoric. Speaking at Crotona Park in the South Bronx, a predominantly Democratic area with a large Hispanic and Black population, Trump baselessly claimed that migrants from China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other countries pose a threat to the United States.
In a particularly xenophobic moment, Trump suggested, without evidence, that these migrants are “building an army” to attack the US from within. “You look at these people… they are physically fit, they’re 19 to 25, almost everyone is a male, and they look like fighting age,” he told the crowd. “I think they’re building an army. I think they want to get us from within.”
Trump also attempted to link record levels of illegal migration to the economic struggles of Black and Hispanic communities, again without evidence, claiming that migrants were taking jobs from these groups. “We are not going to let these people come in and take our city away from us and take our country away,” he said. “African Americans are getting slaughtered. Hispanic Americans are getting slaughtered,” he claimed, blaming President Joe Biden’s economic policies for harming minority voters.
He promised that, if re-elected, he would conduct “the largest criminal deportation operation in our country’s history,” a statement that was met with cheers and chants of “build the wall” and “send them back” from his supporters.
Trump’s remarks are the latest in a series of anti-immigrant comments that have drawn comparisons to Adolf Hitler and other fascist leaders. Recently, he has referred to political opponents as “vermin” and called migrants “animals” who are “poisoning the blood” of the country. Reports suggest that Trump’s associates are preparing executive orders and policy memos to drastically reduce the number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border if he wins a second term.
A spokesperson for Trump told The Independent earlier this month that he would implement new measures to crack down on criminal smugglers and conduct the largest deportation operation in American history.
