Former President Donald Trump once again used harsh language towards immigrants during two separate events on Saturday. He proposed the idea of a migrant fight club to UFC President Dana White, suggesting that a league of migrant fighters could compete against the UFC’s regular fighters.
Trump shared this idea at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, telling the audience, “I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league fight the champion of the migrants. I think the migrants’ guy might win, that’s how tough they are.'” The crowd responded with laughter and applause. Trump repeated the comments at a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
White confirmed the proposal at a news conference in Saudi Arabia, clarifying that it was meant as a joke but acknowledging Trump did make the suggestion. “It was a joke. I saw everybody going crazy online. But yeah, he did say it,” White said.
The comments drew swift condemnation from President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika criticized Trump for making such remarks at a religious conference and accused him of threatening to target Latinos. Kevin Munoz, another spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, also denounced Trump’s remarks on X, formerly known as Twitter, stating that Trump “has spent his entire political career attacking Latinos.”
Trump’s focus on immigration has been a signature issue throughout his political career. He has pledged to deport millions of migrants if he is elected to a second term, a move likely to face significant legal challenges and opposition from Democrats in Congress. Despite his aggressive stance, Trump recently suggested he would support granting automatic green cards to foreign students graduating from U.S. colleges.
Trump’s latest comments are part of a longstanding pattern of inflammatory rhetoric towards undocumented immigrants. At a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, he claimed that immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a statement Vice President Kamala Harris compared to the rhetoric of dictators like Adolf Hitler. A 2019 analysis by USA Today found that Trump used terms like ‘invasion’ and ‘killer’ to describe immigrants over 500 times at his rallies.
Trump’s remarks on Saturday also attracted criticism from public figures such as Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty and Douglas Rivlin, a senior communications director for America’s Voice, an immigration rights organization.