Trump and his “bad genes” comments are unacceptable

Former President Donald Trump once again stirred up controversy during his interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show podcast, where he insinuated that illegal immigrants who committed crimes possessed “bad genes” and claimed that there are: “a lot of bad genes in the country right now.”

Donald Trump suggests undocumented migrants who commit murders have ‘bad genes’ https://t.co/qVzkUkuPa6

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 7, 2024

Donald Trump made matters worse by claiming that Kamala Harris has no idea what she’s proposing on immigration, and that her policies have led to a dangerous influx into the U.S. of “13,000 murderers”, claiming that many of them were involved in several homicides.

Trump falsely claims that Harris is responsible for the entry of “13,000 murderers”, whereas the data in a recent report, from which he extracted this figure, comes from decades ago, well before the Biden/Harris administration, and was therefore also collected during his own administration.

During the interview, Trump attempts to blame border problems on Kamala Harris, stating, “Why not allow people to cross an open border, 13,000 of whom are believed to be murderers, many of whom have killed multiple people, and who are now living happily in the United States?”

In reality, however, these individuals are not living freely and happily in the U.S., but have been convicted and imprisoned in federal jails for decades, according to recent data from the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The White House press secretary, meanwhile, strongly condemned Trump’s comments, calling his assertions “hateful” and “disgusting” and pointing to notable comparisons with Trump’s offensive assertion that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the nation.

This statement has been compared to the hateful ideologies advocated by white supremacists. This comes on top of his campaign promise of mass deportation, following his other shameful comments about legal immigrants settled in Springfield, Ohio.

On Trump’s side, his spokespeople are at pains to link his remarks exclusively to murderers. However, by also making a direct link between illegal immigrants and border problems, and given that these two assertions are made simultaneously in the same trade, it leaves no doubt as to the target of his accusations: “You know, a murderer, I believe, it’s in their genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”

Although his rhetoric of dehumanizing migrants is common at his rallies and forms the core of his election campaign, it has sparked widespread outrage, with the notable exception of Republicans.