Former President Donald Trump denigrated undocumented immigrants during a Sunday campaign stop in Nevada that marked the latest example of him ratcheting up anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of the GOP nominating contest kicking off next month.
The front-runner for the GOP nomination stoked fears about migrants coming across the US-Mexico border and pointed to examples of what he said were undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes in the US as he addressed a crowd of supporters in Reno.
In Nevada – which is third on the GOP nominating calendar and also has a large Latino population – he claimed migrants were “invading” the US from prisons and “mental institutions” in other countries and reiterated his promise to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
In the final weeks before voting begins, Trump is leaning into the kind of anti-immigrant language that he used when he secured the nomination in 2016 – and facing backlash reminiscent of that campaign.
The former president’s speech in Reno came a day after he doubled down on language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric, saying at a campaign stop in New Hampshire that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
His comments Saturday were met with immediate criticism from one 2024 GOP rival, Chris Christie. The former New Jersey governor said Sunday that Trump was “dog whistling” to blame the stress caused by the economy and foreign conflicts “on people from areas that don’t look like us.”
“He’s disgusting,” Christie said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Still, even in the face of myriad legal challenges that threaten to complicate the election year, Trump’s lead among GOP base voters remains strong, and the flurry of travel to early contest states like Iowa,…
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