Remember George W. Bush’s Axis of Evil? Well, Donald Trump has invented a new one. But as you might expect, his axis is a lot bigger. Instead of settling for Bush’s measly three, he has identified NINE nations as potential terrorist threats and described their populations as “animals.”
In what could be his most astonishing racist rant yet, Trump demanded an immediate ban on U.S. immigration from Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Uzbekistan and Yemen. He described these countries as:
“Some of the most dangerous territories anywhere in the world.”
According to AFP and other newswires, Trump told a rally in Portland, Maine on Thursday:
“We are letting people come in from terrorist nations that shouldn’t be allowed because you can’t vet them. You have no idea who they are. This could be the great Trojan horse of all time.”
Trump made a particular point of taking aim at the large number of Somali refugees who have been resettled in nearby Minnesota. He blamed the resettlement effort for:
“…The unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is stressing the state’s safety net as well as creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups.”
Naturally, he also took a moment to lay some blame at Hillary Clinton’s door, saying:
“Hillary Clinton wants to have them come in by the hundreds of thousands. You’re going to have problems like you’ve never seen.”
He completed his insulting tirade against the listed countries, whose combined populations add up to around 482 million, by saying:
“We’re dealing with animals.”
As well as widespread indignation in the countries he lambasted, his hateful remarks sparked a demonstration in Portland on Friday. Protesters chanted “more love, no hate,” and held up placards that read “I love my neighbor.”
Ironically, this latest row coincides with suspicions that his wife, Melania Trump, may have flouted U.S. visa rules while working as a model.
Here’s a local TV news report on what Trump said at the rally. Notice his effort to stay more ‘on message’ by reading from a script!
Featured image: YouTube.
