Dehumanizing Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric: From 'Rapists' to 'Poisoning the Blood' Across Three Campaigns
Tier 3Ongoing Pattern2015-06-16 to 2024-11-05
Factual Summary
Donald Trump has used dehumanizing language about immigrants throughout his political career, beginning with his 2015 presidential campaign announcement and escalating through his 2024 campaign. The rhetoric is documented through video recordings, official transcripts, and contemporaneous reporting.
On June 16, 2015, in his presidential campaign announcement speech at Trump Tower in New York, Trump stated: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." The characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals drew immediate condemnation from both parties, civil rights organizations, and the Mexican government. Retailers including Macy's and NBCUniversal severed business relationships with Trump in response.
In January 2018, during a closed-door meeting with senators about immigration policy in the Oval Office, Trump reportedly asked why the United States should accept immigrants from "shithole countries," referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. He suggested that the United States should instead welcome immigrants from countries like Norway. Senator Dick Durbin, who was present, confirmed the remark publicly. Trump initially offered an ambiguous denial but in December 2025 explicitly confirmed that he had used the phrase, stating that he stood by the characterization.
Throughout his presidency and 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly referred to undocumented immigrants as "animals." While his supporters argued that specific uses of the term were directed at MS-13 gang members, Trump used the language in broader contexts that did not distinguish between gang members and the immigrant population generally. In a May 2018 roundtable, Trump stated: "We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in, and we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals."
In October 2023 and again in December 2023, Trump stated that immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country." The language echoed passages from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," in which Hitler wrote that "all great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning." Multiple historians and extremism researchers noted the parallel. The Biden campaign and the Anti-Defamation League both drew explicit comparisons to Nazi rhetoric. Trump doubled down on the language at an Iowa rally in December 2023, saying: "They're destroying the blood of our country. That's what they're doing."
Extremism researchers have documented that language dehumanizing immigrants has appeared in manifestos and writings of individuals who committed acts of mass violence, including the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, in which the gunman cited an "invasion" of Hispanics as his motivation.
Primary Sources
1. C-SPAN recording of Trump presidential announcement speech, Trump Tower, June 16, 2015
2. Senator Dick Durbin public statement confirming Trump's "shithole countries" remark, January 12, 2018
3. White House pool report of Trump roundtable on sanctuary cities, May 16, 2018 ("These aren't people. These are animals.")
4. C-SPAN recording of Trump rally, Waterloo, Iowa, December 16, 2023 ("poisoning the blood of our country")
5. Trump confirmation of "shithole countries" comment, December 2025 (FactCheck.org and CNN reporting)
Corroborating Sources
1. Washington Post: "Donald Trump's false comments connecting Mexican immigrants and crime," July 8, 2015
2. NBC News: "Trump referred to Haiti and African countries as 'shithole' nations," January 2018
3. NBC News: "Trump says immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country,'" December 2023
4. PBS NewsHour: "At Iowa rally, Trump doubles down on comments about immigrants poisoning the nation's blood," December 2023
5. ACLU: "Trump on Immigration," compilation of statements
Counterarguments and Context
Trump and his supporters argued that his 2015 announcement speech referred specifically to immigrants who enter the country illegally and commit crimes, and that the statement "and some, I assume, are good people" demonstrated he was not characterizing all immigrants. On the "animals" remark, Trump's defenders maintained he was referring exclusively to MS-13 gang members, not immigrants broadly, and that the media stripped his comments of context. Regarding "poisoning the blood," Trump stated that his language referred to the impact of drugs and crime, not to racial characteristics, and rejected comparisons to Nazi rhetoric. On the "shithole countries" remark, Trump's supporters argued he was making a point about the economic conditions of the countries in question rather than disparaging their populations. Critics responded that the cumulative pattern of language, sustained over nearly a decade and escalating in intensity, constituted a deliberate rhetorical strategy that dehumanized immigrant populations regardless of the stated intent behind individual statements.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because each statement is documented through primary video recordings, official transcripts, or confirmed firsthand accounts from participants in the conversations. The 2015 announcement speech, the 2018 roundtable, and the 2023 rally remarks are all on video. The "shithole countries" remark was confirmed by a senator present in the room and later by Trump himself. This entry documents the rhetoric itself. The policy consequences of the underlying immigration positions are outside the scope of this entry.