According to Mediaite, during a recent speech in Houston, Texas, former President Donald Trump took credit for coining the term “caravan” to describe migrants, particularly those from “parts of Africa,” as he continued his long-standing critique of immigration. In his address to supporters, which was covered by the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), Trump reminisced about his immigration rhetoric, including the infamous characterization of Mexican immigrants as “rapists” that marked the inception of his 2015 presidential campaign.
While asserting his involvement in the popularization of the term “caravan,” Trump paused dramatically before mentioning migrants from “parts of Africa,” insinuating a negative connotation associated with these individuals. He emphasized the strategy of certain countries to dispatch undesirable individuals, including those from the Congo and reportedly even some from jails, to join the waves of migrants heading towards the United States.
Trump further expounded on his criticisms, comparing the behavior of these migrants unfavorably to that of prisoners within the United States. Expressing disdain for individuals associated with MS13 and other criminal entities, Trump underscored his belief that these migrants were wreaking havoc on the nation and needed to be expelled.
However, while Trump claimed credit for popularizing the term “caravan” during the speech, it is important to note that the term has been in use for decades to describe groups of migrants, even before his adoption of it in a 2018 tweet. Despite his claims, the usage of the term predates his involvement, as it has long been employed by various sources, including news personalities, to depict the phenomenon of mass migration.
But we’re going to do things immediately within 24 hours. We’re going to stop the invasion of our southern and, by the way, our northern border, which is not great either. But we are going to stop immediately. And we have great people like Brandon Judd, Border Patrol, the people at ICE Tom Homan who’s fantastic central casting. We have great they can do it within 48 hours.
Like the caravan. I told you, that’s on its way up. They wouldn’t have caravan, where, they had caravans. When I — I came up with the name, I believe they’ll say, “Oh, it wasn’t really you. It was somebody”– I believe I came up with the name because they started forming these caravans.
And they don’t put their best in those caravans. You know, these countries are very smart. They put people that they don’t want to have in El Salvador and Honduras, in Guatemala and other places, and many of them now are coming from (sniff, pause) parts of Africa. Yesterday, they had 18 people they got from the Congo and four of them were from, four of them were from jails.
By the way, our prisoners are like the nicest people in the world compared to some of the prisoners that our country has taken right now. Our prisoners are refined, wonderful people, even if they were murderers compared to the people that are coming out of some of these cells from MS13, from South America, from Africa. They are destroying our country and we have to get them out.
