Friday, October 11, 2024

Donald Trump slanders Mexico, Mexicans in presidential announcement

Donald Trump

In what turned out to be a gaudy stream-of-consciousness announcement yesterday in his signature skyscraper in Manhattan, billionaire real estate magnate and reality TV star Donald Trump added yet another line to his growing list of titles: Republican presidential candidate. The Donald, often speaking in third-person, made clear that he is not bent on winning the Latino vote in 2016, brazenly besmirching Mexicans as drug-launderers, criminals and rapists while promising to build a Great Wall on the border and, for good measure, adding that he is indeed “really rich.”

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems,” Trump said at his Trump Tower. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting…I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words.”

These comments did not sit well with Latino leaders across the United States, who were quick to denounce Mr. Trump’s words as inappropriate and delusional.

“It appears Mr. Trump is having a difficult time separating fact from fiction. Developing a sound foreign policy with the United States’ most important trade partner and neighbor is not a reality TV show,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

And deriding Mr. Trump’s nonsensical diatribe, the Democratic National Committee added in a statement: “Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward hearing more about his ideas for the nation.”

NBC News