"Bad genes": In latest racist attack, Trump says immigrants are genetically inferior

Donald Trump on Monday claimed that immigrants are predisposed to becoming murderers because they have “bad genes," a racist claim belied by studies showing immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans.

“Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States,” the former president said in an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

“You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. They left, they had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here, that are criminals,” Trump continued.

The GOP nominee's comments on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" are just the latest in a string of lies from the Republican candidate attacking immigrants, the most outrageous of which is that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating pets.

Trump has had a long obsession with genes and bloodlines, often citing superior genetics as a reason for success long before he got into politics. 

At an anti-immigration rally in 2020, he told the predominantly white Minnesota crowd that they have “good genes.” 

“You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe?" Trump said. He went onto reference the “racehorse theory," an idea popularized in Nazi Germany that suggests selective breeding can improve a country’s performance. 

In 2023, Trump said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing language used by the Nazis.