Trump Kicks Off Debate by Ranting About Migrants Like Deranged Person

Donald Trump kicked off the presidential debate Tuesday night with a rant about immigrants taking over towns and Black jobs across America.

It’s a point that Trump has repeated throughout his campaign, and he hit all of the same points: claiming that immigrants from “prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums” were arriving in the United States, taking “jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics,” a slight variation of his usual line about immigrants taking “Black jobs.”

He also alluded to recent right-wing meltdowns over immigrants in the towns of Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio. In the case of Aurora, Trump and the right claimed that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex, only for its residents and the police to say that was completely false. In Ohio, the right have pushed a narrative about Haitian immigrants killing and eating pets, which was rejected by local police and municipal officials.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has also spread the rumor about Haitian immigrants, despite having no evidence of any pets being killed and eaten. Several other conservative politicians, pundits, and influencers have all amplified the rumor, furthering right-wing fearmongering about savage immigrants. Donald Trump, historically, has had no love for Haiti or its people, claiming in 2018 that all Haitian immigrants have AIDS and referring to the country as a “shithole.”