Former President Donald Trump said on Saturday (22) that he presented the idea of having a “league of migrant fighters” to UFC President Dana White, again using dehumanizing language to describe people who enter the US illegally.
“I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea: Why don’t you create a migrant fighter league and have your regular fighter league. And then you have the champion of your league – these are the greatest fighters in the world – fighting the migrant champion. I think the migrant guy can win, because they are tough,” the Republican presidential candidate said at a meeting of Christian conservatives in Washington.
Trump added: “He didn’t really like that idea, but it’s actually not the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
The former president repeated the comments at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.
President Joe Biden’s campaign criticized the comments.
“Convicted criminal Donald Trump spent his time at a religious conference threatening to arrest Latinos, bragging about stealing Americans’ freedoms and promising to be even more extreme if he regains power,” said spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika.
“Trump’s incoherent and unbalanced speech showed voters, in his own words, that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let near the White House again.”
The former president has repeatedly used dehumanizing and inflammatory rhetoric when referring to immigrants and has made fears about undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border a central part of his re-election campaign.
He told a campaign rally in Ohio in March that he thought some immigrants were “not people,” and weeks later said he thought those who commit violent crimes “are not humans” but “animals.”
Trump used language often used by white supremacists and nativists when he claimed in an interview last year that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
The Biden campaign drew a link between the comments and Adolf Hitler, who wrote about “blood contamination” or “blood poisoning” in “Mein Kampf.”
The former president regularly claims, without evidence, that other countries are sending “prisoners, murderers, drug traffickers, the mentally ill and terrorists” to the US.
At his campaign rallies, he highlights violent crimes committed by immigrants, while criticizing Biden’s handling of border security.
As president, Trump has taken steps to curb illegal and legal immigration, targeting visa programs and seeking to restrict refugee resettlement. He also temporarily banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries while in office.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” to combat what he claims is an “invasion of the country.”
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