Villainizing
2018
2018-01-11 Trump denounced countries like Haiti, El Salvador, and certain African nations as “shithole” countries during a meeting and complained that the US didn’t receive more immigrants from what he considered better countries like Norway.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/10/politics/donald-trump-shithole-countries-phrase
https://abc7.com/post/haitian-migrants-donald-trump-former-president-immigration/11108741/
https://x.com/VicenteFoxQue/status/951586161931235328
2018-12-15 Tucker Carlson said on his show that immigrants make our country “dirtier” and “poorer”.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/16/business/tucker-carlson-potomac-river
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46610642
2022
2022-04-05 In a JD Vance campaign commercial as an ‘America First Conservative’, he said, “Are YOU a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? The media calls us racist for wanting to build Trump’s wall. They censor us, but it doesn’t change the truth. Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs, and more Democrat voters pouring into this country. This issue is personal. I nearly lost my mother to the poison coming across our border. No child should grow up an orphan.” [approved by JD Vance. Paid for by JD Vance for Senate Inc.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qYJoSV0lI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2024
2024-06-22 Trump floated the idea of a “migrant UFC” league during a Faith and Freedom conference in DC.
2024-07-10 Vance said during a National Conservatism convention, “Look, the thing on immigration is that no one can avoid that it has made our societies poorer, less safe, less prosperous, and less advanced.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-debate-immigration-housing-prices-real-estate-federal-reserve
https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-4-2024/presenters/sen-jd-vance/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXH1p8_jhc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2024-09-17 During a campaign stop in Eau Claire, JD Vance was quoted by a local newspaper saying, ”We’re bankrupting… a lot of hospitals by forcing [them to] provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country”.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-debate-immigration-housing-prices-real-estate-federal-reserve/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/02/vance-immigration-housing/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2024-10-02 During a debate with Tim Walz, Vance claimed, ”Illegal aliens competing with Americans for scarce homes is one of the most significant drivers of home prices in the country”.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-vp-debate-transcript-walz-vance-2024/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-debate-immigration-housing-prices-real-estate-federal-reserve/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/02/vance-immigration-housing/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2025 February
2025-02-14 The White House posted a Valentine’s Day deportation poem on X, “Roses are red, violets are blue. Come here illegally and we’ll deport you”.
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1890441976417264027
2025-02-18 The White House released “ASMR: Illegal alien deportation flight.”
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1891922058415603980?lang=en
2025 May
2025-05-01 Stephen Miller claimed that Biden imported a “terrorist army”, that the media covers up rape-torture-and-murder, and blamed due process for the killing of a woman.
2025 June
2025-06-30 Laura Loomer posted, “Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now”.
https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1939831588902109629?lang=en
2025 July
2025-07-01 Kristi Noem claimed an immigrant attempted to eat their own arm during a deportation flight.
2025 August
2025-08-26 Andy Ogles reposted a racist anti-immigrant Babylon Bee meme.
2025 September
2024-09-05 During a campaign rally in Phoenix Arizona, JD Vance said, “There is a logic to what the Democrats are trying to do. It’s disgusting, but there’s a logic to it. They want illegal aliens to steal everybody’s job, and now they want illegal aliens to steal everybody’s vote.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2024-09-11 JD Vance defended spreading Springfield pet rumors on CNN, “When you have a lot of people saying ‘My pets are being abducted’ or ‘Geese at the city pond are being abducted and slaughtered right in front of us’, this is crazy stuff. And again, whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be – Kaitlan, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in. Health care costs are up. Housing costs are up. Communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris’s border policies have done. And I think it’s interesting, Kaitlan, that, that the media didn’t care about the carnage brought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2025-09-18 Kristi Noem released an ICE raid montage set to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
2025 October
2025-10-02 Trump falsely claimed that Democrats want to give healthcare to illegal immigrants.
2025-10-05 Kash Patel posted false video evidence on his X account of the so-called ramming of DHS vehicles by Marimar Martinez, which later turned out to be video from another unrelated vehicular assault. This came to light after video evidence surfaced that DHS was lying about the events concerning Marimar Martinez, who they shot multiple times.
2025-10-14 ICE posted an immigration-arrest video set to music containing antisemitic slurs. The post had since been taken down but copies were made and shared on X.
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/15/border-patrol-antisemitic-slur-michael-jackson-song
https://x.com/AFpost/status/1978305706018144460
2025-10-27 ICE used Halo imagery and memes for recruitment campaigns.
https://mashable.com/article/ice-use-halo-for-social-media-recruitment
https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-drops-a-halo-meme-gamestop-replies-with-bloated-jd-vance-as-cortana
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1982638578913206632
https://x.com/gamestop/status/1982654845166428607
2025-10-27 DHS posted “DESTROY THE FLOOD” recruitment messaging on X.
https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1982819431894901043
2025-10-29 During an interview on Pod Force One with Miranda Devine JD Vance stated, “It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jd-vance-totally-acceptable-want-211843082.html
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/vance-seems-think-segregation-acceptable-193006549.html
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jd-vance-neighbors-same-language/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCsB7WxMBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2025 November
2025-11-26 After an Afghan national shot two National Guard troops in DC, the Trump administration weaponized the tragedy. Kristi Noem suggested the suspect was radicalized in the U.S., and Trump used the shooting to ban Afghan asylum seekers from entering the country. For context, Operation Allies Welcome was a program set up to allow Afghans targeted by Taliban for working with U.S. forces to reach asylum, and many of them have waited 20 or more years to work through a rigorous vetting process to get here. By singling out Afghani immigrants, current Afghani residents of the U.S. reportedly fear for their safety. The Trump administration blamed Biden for the shooting even though the suspect was vetted during both the Biden and Trump administrations.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/27/nx-s1-5622991/afghan-refugee-program-national-guard-shooting-suspect
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwk2p0d94xo
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6385764249112
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/shooting-washington-dc-national-guard-11-26-25
2025-11-27 Trump claimed Somali refugees were taking over Minnesota and called Minnesota a money-laundering hub. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said, “This is what he does, and he tries to stoke division and make people hate each other”.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115625429081411360
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115590786862216464
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/30/walz-klobuchar-trump-attack-minnesota-00671132
2025 December
2025-12-02 Trump said about Somali immigrants, “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”. He also said, “These are people who do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from they got nothing. When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/trump-somali-immigrants-minnesota
2025-12-03 The Trump administration announced Operation Metro Surge, a task force designed to specifically target Somali immigrants in Minnesota.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5631530-trump-targets-minnesota-somali-community/
https://www.house.mn.gov/members/Profile/News/15535/41031
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/ice-somali-immigrants-minneapolis-st-paul/
2025-12-03 Tom Emmer claimed on Fox News that 80% of crimes in Minnesota were committed by Somalis.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1996231534542512489
2026 February
2026-02-24 During the State of the Union, Trump stated, “The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA, and it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes, and perhaps most importantly, crime.” Representative Ilhan Omar looked on in horror, while JD Vance and Mike Johnson laughed and applauded.
2026 March
2026-03-18 Senator Markwayne Mullin said he regretted calling Alex Pretti a “deranged individual” during a Senate hearing.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/markwayne-mullin-alex-pretti-deranged-individual-regrets/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWhxPLhnMkg
2026 April
2026-04-26 ICE detained a mother and her five children, imprisoning them for 10 months until a judge ordered their release. In a statement DHS called the judge an “activist judge” who is “releasing this terrorist’s family onto American streets AGAIN”. After the ruling, DHS detained the family a second time. When the family was released, they reported no medical care, rotten food, and that they were not allowed to practice their Islamic faith.
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/26/nx-s1-5800196/alleged-colorado-attacker-family-released-detention
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/25/egyptian-family-ice-custody
SUB WALL https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/us/family-ice-detention-released-dilley-texas.html