Trump made the comments during a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday (AEDT) where he railed against migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, which hit new highs in September.<\/p>\n
He has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration if elected to a second four-year term in office.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Former US president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in New Hampshire.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country,\u201d Trump told a rally in the city of Durham, adding that immigrants were coming to the US from Asia and Africa in addition to South America. \u201cAll over the world they are pouring into our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump used the same \u201cpoisoning the blood\u201d language during an interview with The National Pulse, a right-leaning website, that was published in late September. It prompted a rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, whose leader, Jonathan Greenblatt, called the language \u201cracist, xenophobic and despicable.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of a book on fascism, said Trump\u2019s repeated use of that language was dangerous. He said Trump\u2019s words echoed the rhetoric of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who warned against German blood being poisoned by Jews in his political treatise \u201cMein Kampf\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is now employing this vocabulary in repetition in rallies. Repeating dangerous speech increases its normalisation and the practices it recommends,\u201d Staley said. \u201cThis is very concerning talk for the safety of immigrants in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n In October, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung had dismissed criticism of the former president\u2019s language as \u201cnonsensical,\u201d arguing that similar language was prevalent in books, news article and on TV.<\/p>\n Cheung did not directly address Trump\u2019s latest remarks and instead referred to the controversies over how American colleges are handling campus protests since Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack on Israel, saying media and academia had given \u201csafe haven for dangerous anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas rhetoric that is both dangerous and alarming\u201d.<\/p>\n The \u201cpoisoning the blood of our country\u201d language was not in Trump\u2019s prepared remarks distributed to media prior to the event, and it was not clear whether his use of that rhetoric was planned or adopted on the fly.<\/p>\n Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican Party\u2019s 2024 presidential nomination and has made border security a major theme of his campaign. He is vowing to restore the hardline policies from his 2017-2021 presidency, and implement new ones that clamp down further on immigration.<\/p>\n US President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, has sought to enact more humane and orderly immigration policies but has struggled with record levels of migrants, a problem seen as a vulnerability for his re-election campaign.<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly used inflammatory language to describe the border issue and slam Biden\u2019s policies. In New Hampshire, he recited the lyrics of a song he has repurposed to liken immigrants to deadly snakes.<\/p>\n If re-elected, Trump promised \u201cto stop the invasion of our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history\u201d.<\/p>\n