Trump mocks asylum seekers, Democrats during inflammatory speech
It appears that President Trump's trip to the U.S.-Mexico border this week did little to sway his public stance on the situation there.
During a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Saturday, Trump made several inflammatory statements about the situation at the border, which he has declared a national emergency. Trump reportedly told the crowd that the asylum seekers he saw at the border were "some of the roughest people you've ever seen" and that many of them "look like they should be fighting for the UFC," referring to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a company that promotes mixed martial arts competitions.
Trump went on to claim that the asylum seekers are "coached," and called the process a scam, The Hill reports. "They read a little page given by lawyers that are all over the place," Trump said. "You know lawyers, they tell them what to say."
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Trump also vented to the crowd about the Democratic Party and the attitude of some of its members toward Israel. He mocked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for her controversial comments about Israel, just a day after a man was arrested in New York for threatening to murder the congresswoman. The president then criticized Democrats in Congress for not "fighting for Israel" and allowing the "terrible scourge of anti-Semitism to take root" within the party.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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