Trump Escalates Attacks on Non-White Immigrants in Renewed Xenophobic Rhetoric

U.S. president Donald Trump, who once denied calling certain nations “shithole countries,” has now begun openly repeating the phrase as part of increasingly aggressive anti-immigrant rhetoric.

At a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday—an event billed as focused on economic policy—the 79-year-old Republican launched into a tirade, again questioning why the U.S. accepts immigrants from what he described as “shithole countries,” and contrasting them with nations like Norway and Sweden. He singled out Somalia in particular, calling it “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime,” and has recently referred to Somali immigrants as “trash.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey condemned the remarks as further evidence of Trump’s “racist, anti-immigrant agenda.” But Florida Republican lawmaker Randy Fine defended Trump on CNN, saying the former president “speaks in language that Americans understand.”

Historians note that harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric has long existed on the far-right, but University of Albany professor Carl Bon Tempo emphasized that what is different now is that it emanates directly from the White House. During his 2023 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” a comment widely compared to rhetoric used by Adolf Hitler.

Since returning to power, Trump’s administration has launched sweeping deportations and halted immigration applications from citizens of 19 of the world’s poorest countries, while simultaneously directing that white South African farmers be granted entry over claims of persecution.

Immigration scholars say Trump has abandoned any restraint he once had. According to Mark Brockway of Syracuse University, Trump portrays even long-term, law-abiding immigrants as part of an invented threat. Senior officials have echoed similar themes, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently labeling certain immigrants “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” framing them as scapegoats during a period of rising living costs and economic anxiety.

Experts point out that Trump’s worldview mirrors older “nativist” ideologies from the 1920s, which asserted that white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant identity defined American culture and influenced immigration policies favoring Northern and Western Europe. This thinking aligns with concepts promoted by European far-right writers such as Renaud Camus, including “reverse migration,” which calls for the mass expulsion of foreigners deemed unable to assimilate.

White House adviser Stephen Miller recently amplified this line of argument on X, claiming that mass migration effectively imports entire societies and recreates the “terrors” of migrants’ home countries.