Donald Trump is more than doubling down on spreading unhinged lies about the United States being “occupied” by migrants, apparently — as he claimed in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on Saturday — in “hundreds of towns” throughout the Midwest. Trump continued to push the idea that if he doesn’t win the election, “you’re gonna lose your culture.”
Railing against migrants and the border has been central to Trump’s campaign, though on Saturday he ramped up the rhetoric to focus primarily on tapping into unsubstantiated fears of a “mass migrant invasion.” He appeared before a backdrop that featured the words “Deport Illegals Now” and “End Migrant Crime” emblazoned in several places across it.
Trump claimed that President Joe Biden and vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris were both mentally challenged. “Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” he claimed. “Kamala was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.” He added under the Biden-Harris administration, there have been more terrorists entering the United States. “We have the some of the greatest terrorists in the world, in our country right now,” he said. This claim has been debunked, however.
Trump played on fear-mongering to a small-town crowd in Wisconsin, where he claimed criminal migrants are running rampant. “You’re talking about areas of the Midwest where they’re becoming famous because they’re being occupied, and this is hundreds of little cities and little towns — they’re petrified, and their law enforcement is petrified. You have a sheriff and a deputy, or you have a small group, and you’ll have a group of Venezuelan killers, street gangs occupying the town with MK-47s,” he claimed (he probably meant AK-47s). “I know that gun very well,” he continued. “I got to know it very well. I’ve become an expert on guns quickly.”
He also once again brought up Springfield, Ohio, where he and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have for weeks pushed baseless lies about the city’s Haitian immigrants, most of whom are in the United States legally. On Saturday, he claimed: “In Ohio, Springfield, they can’t speak English. They’re taking over the schools. There’s nobody that can speak English, and the mayor is looking for interpreters.”
“These are vicious monsters in our government that are also stupid people,” Trump said, referring to the current administration. “They are vicious, but they are stupid, which is a very dangerous combination. Today, I stand before you to make this promise. I will liberate Wisconsin from this mass migrant invasion of murderers, rapists, hoodlums, drug dealers, thugs and vicious gang members. We are going to liberate our country. I will liberate our nation. Our nation will be free again if we win this election,” he said.
Wisconsin is a pivotal battleground state in the election and a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll finds Trump and Harris running neck and neck, with Trump garnering 47 percent and Harris winning 49 percent of voters if the election were to be held now.
Trump will hold his next rally tomorrow, Sept. 29, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
