Washington, DC — In a new interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Donald Trump reiterated his lie about the rigged nature of the 2020 elections, downplayed January 6th, and refused to pledge to accept the results of the 2024 election should he lose. These comments are disturbing in their own right, but as America’s Voice has been highlighting, Trump and the GOP are increasingly making immigrants the central villain in their 2024 election lies.
According to Zachary Mueller, Senior Research Director at America’s Voice:
“Trump and the GOP are using lies about immigrants to convince their supporters to distrust American democracy, courting another violent assault on our democratic process if they do not win in November. Lies about non-citizen voting and migrant invasions to replace ‘real’ American voters are far too frequently promoted by far too many Republicans, which provides jet fuel to election deniers. Lest we forget the research that showed the ‘replacement’ theory – the antisemitic, xenophobic conspiracy theory that white Christian voters are being replaced – was the most commonly shared belief of the insurrectionist movement after 2020. Trump and the GOP are combining the xenophobic lies and the lies about a stolen election into a toxic brew that anyone who believes in democracy cannot afford to ignore.
Trump’s threats of deploying the military on U.S. soil for mass roundups, his threats to become a dictator, and his refusal to respect American democracy are interrelated. It is critical we start to see the dehumanizing of migrants as an existential threat and how that relentless xenophobia is connected to the larger authoritarian designs and threats. He is not just coming after immigrants; he is coming after our democracy and all of us.”
See below for excerpts from the Journal Sentinel interview (which followed an earlier interview this week with TIME in which Trump’s most dedicated comments were reserved for his pledge to rely on the military and National Guard to conduct a mass purge of all undocumented immigrants in the nation).
“…[Trump] did not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election.
‘If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,’ Trump said in an interview Wednesday. ‘If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.’
In the interview, Trump again falsely claimed he won Wisconsin in 2020. ‘If you go back and look at all of the things that had been found out, it showed that I won the election in Wisconsin,’ Trump said. ‘It also showed I won the election in other locations.’”
Join a Monday, May 6 press briefing that will include a focus on right-wing disinformation and anti-immigrant conspiracies and their ties to the larger threats to our democracy.
Contact press@americasvoice.org for more details.
Read an op-ed in Univision from America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas: “How Trump’s relentless anti-immigrant focus is tied to his threats to democracy”
Read AV’s commentary: “Trump’s Defining Vision for Second Term: ‘Deploying American Troops in American Communities’ to Round Up and Purge Immigrants”
