President Trump’s newest comments on asylum seekers has once again gone viral. At a recent speech in Las Vegas, Trump delivered a speech full of mocking insults. Misinformation regarding this speech circulated for a while on social media, falsely claiming that Trump’s May 2018 comment regarding MS-13 gang members being “animals” was actually directed towards Central American migrants. However, this particular comment aside, Trump’s Las Vegas speech was full of hateful words and mocking language. According to CNN, Trump claimed that “the asylum program is a scam” and that asylum seekers pretend to fear for their lives despite having the strength of UFC fighters.
Trump alleged that lawyers foster tough and violent people through the process of asylum seeking. “Some of the roughest people you’ve ever seen, people that look like they should be fighting for the UFC,” Trump said, referencing the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts promotion company. “They read a little page given by lawyers that are all over the place — you know lawyers, they tell them what to say. You look at this guy, you say, wow, ‘that’s a tough cookie.’”
Trump then mocked asylum seekers by impersonating an imaginary migrant, saying in a deep voice, “I am very fearful for my life, I am very worried that I will be accosted if I’m sent back home.”
“No, no, he’ll do the accosting,” he joked.
Trump also decided to attack those in support of asylum seekers.
“Oh, give him asylum — he’s afraid, he’s afraid!” Trump said, in an attempt to impersonate them. “We don’t love the fact that he’s got tattoos on his face, that’s not a good sign. We don’t love the fact that he’s carrying the flag of Honduras or Guatemala or El Salvador, only to say he’s petrified to be in his country.”
Trump also restated his claim that “our country’s full.”
These comments come from an uninformed and racist man who spreads misinformation through making widespread false claims. Before being fact-checked, the comments he makes go viral and are published and covered by every source of popular media. These claims stay in people’s heads as fact, and thus Trump creates a fan base using popular media’s need for speed rather than accuracy or fact-checking. His racist generalizations regarding asylum seekers from Central America become the image that his supporters see when they think “immigrant” or “asylum.”
