A surprising number of Americans agree with Donald Trump’s harsh language against immigrants, and his claim that undocumented arrivals are “poisoning the blood” of the nation, our survey shows.
A DailyMail.com/TIPP poll shows that more Americans agree with Trump’s rhetoric than disagree: 47 percent of respondents said the Republican was “right,” while 46 percent objected to his language use.
That razor-thin difference falls within the poll’s margin of error — but nevertheless shows more support for a grim message than many expected, and sheds light on a key issue in this year’s presidential race.
“They are poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump said of undocumented immigrants at a rally in New Hampshire
Migrants are taking part in a caravan in southern Mexico this week on their way to the US border
Trump made his controversial comments last month at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, where he railed against the record number of migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.
“They are poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told his thousands of supporters in the city of Durham.
In addition to South America, immigrants came to the U.S. from Asia and Africa, he added, saying, “They’re pouring into our country all over the world.”
He vowed to crack down on illegal immigration and limit the flows of legal people if elected to a second four-year term.
The comments echoed previous statements by Trump, but this time were widely criticized for being xenophobic and reflecting the rhetoric of Nazi Germany.
The campaign of Trump’s Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, compared his words to those of Adolf Hitler.
Our national survey of 1,247 voters found that nearly half said Trump spoke correctly, including 30 percent who strongly agreed with his comments.
Trump was compared to Adolf Hitler for his comments about immigrants ‘poisoning the blood of our country’
The Mexican government disbanded the ‘Exodus from Poverty’ caravan last week, but its members regrouped on January 8 in Chiapas, a state on the country’s southern border
Similar numbers disagreed with the former president.
White respondents, men and people over 25 were more likely than others to endorse Trump’s message.
Not surprisingly, Republican-leaning voters were far more likely than Democrats to agree that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” in America.
Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination and has made border security a top issue of his campaign.
He promises to restore the harsh policies of his 2017-2021 presidency and implement new ones that further restrict human flows.
President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has tried to implement a more humane and orderly immigration policy but has struggled with record levels of migrants, a vulnerability to his re-election bid.
During his campaign, Trump has repeatedly used inflammatory language to describe the border issue and condemn Biden’s policies.
Since Biden took office in January 2021, increasing numbers of migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border and sought asylum.
U.S. border agents have since made more than five million arrests of migrants crossing the southern border illegally — that is, not through a controlled border station.
President Biden has called Trump, his main rival in this year’s race for the White House, a threat to democracy
The trend is fueled by more and more people fleeing political chaos in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In December alone, there were more than 10,000 arrests for illegal crossings per day, over several days.
In cities such as Chicago, New York and Denver, migrants who do not have access to work permits sleep in the foyers of police stations and at airports.
These scenes dominate the early stages of the 2024 presidential campaign, as Republicans excoriate Biden and weigh whether to oust his Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans want Biden to support more restrictive policies that would, among other things, dramatically reduce asylum protections, and they believe they can exert influence if the president wants them to approve tens of billions in aid to Ukraine.
They also say migrants are putting pressure on budgets, and even Democrats like New York Mayor Eric Adams say social services are being overwhelmed by newcomers.
A CBS News survey released Sunday found that as many as 93 percent of respondents said the border was in a “crisis” or that border patrol agents were dealing with a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” issue of undocumented arrivals.
Only 7 percent of the 2,157 respondents said it was “not a big problem.”
The share of Americans calling it a crisis has risen from 38 percent in May last year to 45 percent now.