Fury over Donald Trump saying immigrants ‘poison the blood’ of US

Donald Trump has triggered outrage by accusing undocumented immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country” in a recent interview.

Mr Trump made his remarks in a 37-minute interview with Raheem Kassam, the editor-in-chief of The National Pulse and a former director of Breitbart News in London.

“Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons,” said the former president. “We know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists.

“Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with disease. People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.”

The former president’s remarks echo far-Right and white supremacist rhetoric about the threat posed to America by immigrants.

The Great Replacement Theory, a popular far-Right trope, claims that white Americans are being replaced by non-white newcomers in the country’s demographic make-up. 

Mr Trump’s comments also echo those he made early in the 2016 election campaign when he launched an attack on Mexican immigrants, saying: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Mehdi Hasan, a MSNBC talk show host, described the former president’s remarks as “a straight-up white supremacist neo-Nazi talking point”.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League said racist rhetoric had inspired deadly attacks in Pittsburgh and El Paso.

But Mr Trump’s remarks were defended by Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, who told The Telegraph: “That’s a normal phrase that is used in everyday life – in books, television, movies, and in news articles. For anyone to think that is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed with nonsensical outrage.”

Immigration is certain to be a key issue in the presidential election, with a surge in migrants has left the Joe Biden administration vulnerable.