Former President Donald Trump said in a recent interview that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” using language often used by white supremacists and nativists in comments that have drawn rebuke from a prominent civil rights group.
“No one has ever seen anything like what we’re seeing right now. It’s a very sad thing for our country,” Trump told right-wing news site The National Pulse in a video interview published last week. “It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with diseases. People are coming in with every possible thing you can have.”
Trump’s comments, which gained traction online this week, were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, whose head called the remarks “racist, xenophobic and despicable”.
“Suggesting that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ echoes nativist talking points and has the potential to cause real danger and violence. We have seen this kind of toxic rhetoric inspire real violence in places like Pittsburgh and El Paso. It should have no place in our politics, period,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
He continued, “And when anybody has a big platform, they have to be careful with their voice, but when you’re the former president of the United States, you absolutely have to acknowledge your responsibility because this kind of rhetoric is explosive and it has to stop, period.
Since launching his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has often disparaged immigrants in inflammatory terms, but the phrase “poisoning the blood” echoed the language of white supremacists fixated on so-called blood purity. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf about the “contamination of the blood” or “blood poisoning”.
“This is a normal phrase used in everyday life – in books, television, films and news articles. Anyone who thinks it is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed by nonsensical outrage,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
