Trump, Not Immigrants, Is the Boogeyman
His followers will remain by his side even if he says that the Earth is flat
Cargadas con pancartas y coreando al unísono, decenas de mujeres se reunieron para protestar contra Donald Trump. Crédito: TIMOTHY A. CLARY | Getty Images
By now, we should be used to Donald Trump’s outrageous comments. However, the Republican candidate to the presidency keeps one-upping himself in the lies he continues to repeat, especially when he wants to scare people with the boogeyman of immigrants.
An example is when he says that, if he does not win, 650 million immigrants will come into the United States. This is not a typo: He said 650 million. Instead, it is one of the falsehoods told by a presidential hopeful who is willing to say colossal lies with a straight face as if they were true.
During a campaign stop on Sunday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Trump asked his followers to “think of it; that’s what could happen. You triple the size of our country in one week.” At that moment, he was saying that it was easier to work as an immigration officer under Obama and Clinton than under him because, says Trump, Clinton wants to let people pour in.
It is a waste of time to do the math to demonstrate the absurdity of the statement that such number of people could enter our country in seven days. That equals, for instance, that the entire population of Latin America crossed the southern border in a week.
While Trump’s statement shocks thanks to the number he used in this case, the use of exaggeration and manipulation to create fear of immigrants and undocumented people is one of the pillars of his strategy to win the presidency.
From day one, Trump said without hesitation that Mexican immigrants are rapists, and dedicated part of his campaign to exploiting the presence of families of people who were killed by undocumented immigrants. Anything goes to incite hatred against these immigrants, most of whom are honest workers.
Trump’s pathological ego makes him think that he is the author of this point of view on undocumented people. In reality, he copied it from the Republican Congress, who have been accusing these immigrants of all our country’s ills for years. The millionaire only elevated that falsehood to gigantic lies like the one he just uttered.
Little can be added about the purported invasion of 650 million people that Trump is denouncing. His followers will remain by his side even if he says that the Earth is flat. The problem are the pragmatics, who tolerate the unacceptable in the naïve hope that the millionaire will fulfill some of his promises if he gets elected.
