Donald Trump continued his weekend stump, following-up his appearance in Durham, New Hampshire, on Saturday with another Commit to Caucus rally in Reno, Nevada, at Reno-Sparks Convention on Sunday. The Nevada Republican Party will be hosting a caucus on Feb. 8, which the former president referenced several times during his speech, asking everyone in attendance to make sure they turn out and bring their friends.
While his speeches have become rote to anyone watching (a recitation of the song “The Snake,” a metaphor for his anti-immigration policies; comparing his indictments to Al Capone’s; claiming President Joe Biden is incompetent; falsely claiming the 2020 election was “stolen,” blah-di blah blah), Trump still manages to eke out something staggering every time he takes a stage. On Sunday, he said should he return to office, he’s going to order “massive portions” of federal law enforcement to pivot to immigration, because immigrants who come to the United States are from prisons, mental institutions, and/or are gang members — as Trump tells it during rallies.
“I will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement including parts of the DEA, ATF, FBI and DHS,” he said to cheers on Sunday. “And I will make clear that we must use any and all resources needed to stop the invasion of our country, including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas in countries that don’t like us.”
“They laugh at our current president. They think he’s a fool. And we shouldn’t be there,” Trump continued. “We shouldn’t be there. We have to protect our own borders first. Before we defend the borders of foreign countries, we have to get our act together. We have to be able to do it for ourselves.”
His remarks follow Rolling Stone’s reporting last week that Trump plans to send vast numbers of U.S. troops — potentially “hundreds of thousands” — to close the southern border and help build a network of immigrant detention camps should he serve a second term.
On Saturday, he echoed the words of Adolf Hitler during another anti-immigrant rant in Durham, where he used the words “poison” and “blood” — words Hitler used in Mein Kampf about those he believed threatened the purity of the Aryan race. Trump said in New Hampshire of immigrants: “When they let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country — when they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country.”
Trump evoking Hitler rhetoric came days after he declared that he’ll act as a “dictator” should he be reelected, but only for “Day One.” On Saturday evening following Trump’s comments, the Biden-Harris campaign criticized his remarks. “Tonight, Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
“Trump is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over 7 million votes three years ago,” Moussa continued.
Trump heads to Waterloo, Iowa — his second visit to the state in a week — on Tuesday for another rally.