Donald Trump. Editorial credit: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com

By America’s Voice

Washington, DC —The final night of the RNC, and Donald Trump’s 90-minute speech should be a reminder why he’s unsuitable for office. The speech culminated a week of disinformation and incitement to violence – based on white nationalist conspiracy theories about an immigrant “invasion” and a plot “replace” white people, which are linked to specific acts of violence – and unprecedented nativist chanting not seen in a political convention in this century or the last.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: 

“Donald Trump was not the ‘uniter’ his team was promising ahead of his RNC remarks. He, along with the rest of speakers at the RNC, focused on dividing, fear mongering and promoting hate against immigrants. Republicans are leaning even further into the idea that ‘real’ America is a white, Christian America and that our nation, our politics, and our communities need to be cleansed of immigrants and others who don’t fit in.

We must refuse to accept this as normal or okay. We must reject and denounce the thousands of pre-printed signs touting ‘Mass Deportation Now!’ and the gleeful chants of ‘send them back!’ The spectacle this week was shocking and a reminder that the Republican Party has fully embraced a dangerous and destructive brand of nativism and nationalism that strikes at the heart of who we are as Americans and our values and interests.”

Trump’s speech encapsulated the anti-immigrant ugliness we have been witnessing throughout the week:

• Dangerous conspiracies – including saying “invasion” 13 times: Trump touted the dangerous immigrant “invasion” conspiracy 13 times in the speech, including asserting we are experiencing, “the greatest invasion in history.” Keep in mind, we are less than two weeks away from the fifth anniversary of the El Paso mass-shooting by a white nationalist whose manifesto was anchored in “invasion” framing.
• Lurid migrant crime depictions and lies: This included an extended focus on victims of migrant crimes – real tragedies that Trump is exploiting for political purposes in the style of Willie Horton – as well as Trump’s assertion that immigrants and asylum seekers, “They’re coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums … I will not let these killers and criminals into our country. I will keep our sons and daughters safe.”
• The great  purge – promising the largest deportation operation in U.S. history: Trump pledged that Tom Homan would “launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. Even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.” As both Trump and Homan have made clear, these deportations would be unsparing and target not only the recent arrivals who have been flashpoints in recent years, but long-settled immigrants throughout America – a horrifying prospect that would devastate the U.S. economy, spike inflation and tear apart families and communities.

  Donald Trump, mass deportation, RNC, speech