Some day I’ll have to count up all of Trump’s honors here as an ethics dunce, “asshole of the year,” unethical quote of the week/month, etc. I know the total is impressive, and that’s even with the Julie Principle limiting his exposure. In a post yesterday I mused that a legitimate question could be posed regarding why Trump wasn’t far ahead in the polls, given the abysmal quality of his opposition and the multilateral botch the Biden Administration represents. This latest episode answers the question.
In an interview yesterday with conservative (though not always Trump-friendly] commentator Hugh Hewitt, Trump again was railing against the open border immigration policies of the Biden/Harris administration and the unvetted “migrants” who had, have or will commit serious crimes here. “Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States. 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.”
Translation: “Here, everybody, take this huge stick with nails in it and beat me bloody!”
Above you will see a graphic representation of Donald Trump’s learning curve. In his very first major statement about illegal immigration, the moment that launched his successful 2016 run for the White House, his broad-brush, meat-axe characterization of illegal immigrants was used to tar him as a racist, bigot and xenophobe. A fair and objective examination of his remarks shows that he was only saying that “murderers and rapists” were not Mexico’s “best,” and not that all illegal immigrants (or Mexicans) were murderers and rapists. Never mind: like so many other sloppy Trump ad-libs—his “very fine people” comments, the “dictator on Day One” line, his “bloodbath” statement—the Axis gleefully, intentionally, misrepresented his meaning and continues to do so. So Trump, locked in a close race for the Presidency with epic consequences for the nation and the Constitution, decides that it’s time for another one. Brilliant.
You can make a good case that there is nothing inherently wrong with claiming that murderers have “bad genes.” OK, Trump isn’t a nurture over nature guy. Similarly, as the Axis media today accuses Trump of “dehumanizing” the objects of his words, I’m not troubled by language dehumanizing murderers, and I wonder a bit about the priorities of anyone who is. Nevertheless, ranting about the “bad genes” of undesirable segments of the U.S. population plays right into the “Trump is Hitler” and “Trump is a racist” Big Lies that have dogged him since 2015.
Here’s the kind of unbiased reportage Trump can count on, as he should know: from Reuters today:
The former president has frequently attacked migrants on the campaign trail, particularly those who have been implicated in crimes. At times, he has used dehumanizing language, and he has increasingly turned to extremely graphic depictions of the crimes even though a range of studies show immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Ugh.
1. Trump is talking about illegal immigrants, not legal ones, which is what “migrants” includes. This is the obfuscation that the Left has been using for decades: if you oppose illegal immigration, you oppose immigration.
2. “Implicated in crimes.” Nice. Are readers so slow that they can’t see what Reuters is doing there? Trump is talking about the actual criminals among the illegal immigrants, and there are certainly plenty of them. He’s not talking about alleged criminals. This kind of journalism is indefensible.
3. As I noted above, using dehumanizing language to describe murderers is a minor transgression at worst.
4. Oh no, that statistical rationalization again! First, there have been no studies comparing the crime rate of citizens with the crime rate among illegal immigrants. Reuters uses the dishonest “migrants” for illegals switch twice in a single paragraph. Second, as EA keeps pointing out, even if the statistic was accurate, so what? Every single crime committed by an illegal immigrant is a crime committed by someone who never should have been in a position to harm an American.
Nevertheless, Trump’s incorrigible rhetorical carelessness is again going to be spun, exaggerated and weaponized, all distracting from more substantive issues that indict Harris and her party. Trump should win this election, but if he loses, he will have had a major hand in his defeat.
Truly effective leaders do not have flat learning curves.
Ethics Alarms 
We don’t want to dehumanize the poor Mexicans.
Mayor reportedly beheaded days after taking office in Mexico (msn.com)
Sheinbaum, inaugurated as Mexico’s first woman president less than a week ago, is expected to unveil a policy that prioritizes reestablishing law and order in the most deadly areas plagued by violence linked to drug cartels and organized crime.
Her highly anticipated security plan comes as Mexico reels from the murder of Alejandro Arcos, the mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of Mexico’s violence-plagued state of Guerrero, who was killed just six days after taking office. Photos circulated on messaging app WhatsApp and in Mexican media outlets on Sunday depicting a severed head on top of a pick-up truck, appearing to be that of Arcos.
The country’s most recent elections, in which Sheinbaum won the presidency, were the bloodiest in the country’s modern history with 37 candidates assassinated leading up to the June 2 vote, several in brazen acts of public violence.
Of course not all Mexicans are blood thirsty savages but there is a significant problem with our neighbors south of the border and we really don’t want the unvetted coming here and bringing a culture that seems to turn a blind eye toward such grotesque and brutal behavior.
Hey, Trump’s just “keepin it real man”. Like Kamala does on “She’s Your Daddy” porncast sorry podcast.
Is the Mexican government going to sue a US business that sells machetes for this atrocity?
Every single media outlet and opponent of Trump is ethically estopped from complaining about dehumanizing language. Not only could they not refrain from calling Trump a “literal monster” or a “bug” two days after the most recent assassination attempt, they responded with umbrage that anyone would even dare suggest that they ought to refrain. They don’t get to play the dehumanizing language card.
AP
good point.
It must be infuriating to be a Trump aide. No matter how many times he is warned to stop using vague language like this, he does it again.
Who was it that said you could smell the Trump supporters at Walmart.
I don’t think you can come up with a pejorative not used by any Democrat candidate for president against Trump supporters.
That is actually true. Trump supporters use deodorant. ;’)
The crimes statistics are warped in many ways, but what this argument misses is the enabling of many more associated crimes.
An illegal immigrant won’t have the papers for legal employment, so they may camp outside a building supply store to serve as day labor for a cheapskate contractor.
That contractor commits a whole host of labor law crimes, and many more committed on the jobsite, plus code violations. Yeah… not committed _by_ the immigrant, but _because of_.
The laborer goes home to a slumlord who has packed him with others a dozen to a room and threatens deportation if any complain. Many more crimes, _because of_.
The immigrants themselves have a strong disincentive to report crimes committed amongst themselves, again due to perceived risk of deportation. Skew of the statistics.
This is one simple slice, there are many examples of human trafficking, organized crime, drug offenses, threats to life and well being, child abuse, etc. enabled by lax immigration enforcement.
If those immigrants were legalized, all of those problems would disappear.
You really are an idiot. If all of them were legalized, then it would be an incentive for more illegals to come here, knowing they would benefit. I just banned you anyway. Bye.