White House slams Trump's 'grotesque rhetoric' on immigrants on campaign trail

Donald Trump, campaigning to be the Republican presidential candidate for a third consecutive time, said at weekend campaign rallies Nevada and New Hampshire that undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country," repeating language that has previously drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing of Nazi rhetoric.

Trump has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration once again if elected to a second four-year term in office, though his language has been more incendiary than during his 2016 and 2020 election campaigns.

"They're poisoning the blood of our country," Trump told a rally in the city of Durham, N.H., on Saturday attended by several thousand supporters, adding that immigrants were coming to the U.S. from Asia and Africa in addition to South America. "All over the world they are pouring into our country."

On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly used inflammatory language to describe the border issue and slam Biden's policies. In the wake of the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, Trump pledged if elected to bar refugees from Gaza from entering the U.S., and to begin "ideological screening" of all immigrants and bar those who sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists.

Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of a book on fascism, said Trump's  words echoed the rhetoric of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who warned against German blood being poisoned by Jews in his political treatise Mein Kampf.

"He is now employing this vocabulary in repetition in rallies. Repeating dangerous speech increases its normalization and the practices it recommends," Stanley said. "This is very concerning talk for the safety of immigrants in the U.S."

Phrase wasn't in prepared remarks

The "poisoning the blood of our country" language was not in Trump's prepared remarks distributed to media prior to Saturday's event, and it was not clear whether his use of that rhetoric was planned or adopted on the fly.

When asked for comment on Saturday, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung did not directly address Trump's remarks and instead referred to the controversies over how U.S. colleges are handling campus protests since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, saying media and academia had given "safe haven for dangerous anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas rhetoric that is both dangerous and alarming."

In a post on his preferred social media site, Truth Social, Trump repeated the claim, saying "illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation."

WATCH l Title 42 and the recent issues at southern U.S. border:

Crisis at the U.S. border: Title 42, explained | About That

2 years ago

Duration 9:22

Migrants are gathering at the Mexican border as the U.S. lifts its COVID-19-era immigration policy, Title 42, which included restrictions that blocked migrants seeking asylum. About That producer Lauren Bird speaks with The Washington Post's Maria Sacchetti about the expected spike in migrants trying to cross the border and what may happen next.

President Joe Biden has sought to enact more orderly immigration policies, but a yearslong backlog of immigration court cases and factors pushing people to flee from Central and South American countries have hampered the administration.

A White House spokesperson said Trump's weekend comments were "the opposite of everything we stand for as Americans."

"Echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists and threatening to oppress those who disagree with the government are dangerous attacks on the dignity and rights of all Americans, on our democracy, and on public safety," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Republican Graham not concerned

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the U.S. enacted Title 42, a public health measure, to deny asylum claims, Trump's White House during his four-year term enacted hardline policies that restricted irregular and legal immigration to unprecedented levels for modern presidents. By one count, the administration made more than 400 immigration policy changes, even drawing criticism from business leaders, as a freeze was imposed on new green cards for high-tech and seasonal workers.

The most controversial measures were a ban on refugees from several Muslim-majority countries, and over 5,000 cases where children were separated from their families after arriving at the southern border between ports of entry.

A federal judge earlier this month prohibited the separation of children from families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years. District Judge Dana Sabraw, appointed by president George W. Bush, has said the policy "represents one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country."

The government during Trump's term often to failed to track those it separated. The government and volunteers have yet to locate 68 children separated under the policy to determine if they are safe and reunited with family or loved ones, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Trump's heightened rhetoric comes as the White House and the Senate are trying to reach a deal on border security.

Republicans have refused to approve more Ukraine funding without additional measures to reduce the number of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. between points of entry, leading to a complex negotiation pairing the largely unrelated issues.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, was repeatedly pressed on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday on the language used by Trump to describe migrants this weekend.

"I could care less what language people use as long as we get it right [at the border]," said Graham.