Donald Trump continues to spread callous lies about migrants as America heads to the polls. During a rally last night, he made a statement so shocking that in a normal election surely it would have been a dealbreaker – but sadly, that’s not the world we’re living in.
While speaking at Grand Rapids, Michigan, the viciously anti-immigration Trump said, “One hundred percent of the net jobs created in the last year have gone to migrants. One hundred percent of the jobs that were created went to migrants, not to people.”
This is, as you might have guessed, a lie. One hundred percent of the jobs created in the last year have categorically not gone to migrants. CNN thoroughly debunked this one back in June, when Trump made a similar claim. After Biden became president, the number of US-born workers actually increased.
And then there’s the cruel dehumanization. Trump clearly does not believe that migrants are people, and that’s horrifying. (This despite the fact that one of his biggest cronies, Elon Musk, was born in South Africa and was most likely in the USA illegally during the ’90s.)
If you want a good example of Trump’s bigotry in action, look no further than the lies he helped spread about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio eating people’s pets. The rumor started on social media, and there was absolutely no evidence that a Haitian person had ever eaten a pet. Yet it spread like wildfire, with JD Vance snarking “Keep the cat memes flowing” about the situation and other racists running with the story as far as it would go. Trump himself claimed during his debate with Kamala Harris, “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” Again—this cannot be overstated—this was nothing but a lie.
Trump may not have meant to say that migrants weren’t people. His cognitive abilities are clearly diminishing, and his speeches are often rambling, disconnected streams of consciousness. But none of that erases the very real danger he poses as an anti-immigration racist.
Published: Nov 5, 2024 01:04 pm