Trump's speech to National Federation of Independent Businesses is undisguised rant of a dictator

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Trump's speech to National Federation of Independent Businesses is undisguised rant of a dictator




Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday June 19, 2018 · 11:01 AM PDT

Donald Trump spoke on Tuesday morning to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. In the speech, which received a frighteningly level of cheers, Trump declared those who oppose him are criminals, declaimed that he wants “security, not judges” and repeatedly insisted that his political opponents should simply shut up. In a stunning, angry tirade, Trump talked about Canadians smuggling shoes, repeated his lies about crime rates in Germany, and make a shocking claim that in reporting about families being separated by his immigration policies the news media was supporting criminals and child smugglers.
Though Trump supposedly came to talk about health care, he jumped immediately into questions of immigration in a speech that was not just unhinged, but unbound. In just a few rambling minutes, he claimed that Democrats want criminals to come into the country, attacked both Canada and Mexico, and repeatedly returned to deeply racist, xenophobic message that saw him come gliding down a golden elevator at the start of his campaign.
The idea that there is some kind of organized effort among foreign governments to select bad people and put them up for the lengthy, heavily vetted and extremely unlikely prospect of receiving a diversity visa is a conspiracy that exists only in Trump’s mind. But that did not stop Trump from using it as not just the basis of actions he’s taken so far, but of new, even less sensible foreign policy.
And that’s still not the worst or most frightening part of this speech.
Trump is punishing countries for something he dreamed up. Following this point, Trump claimed that the United States had surpassed Germany in the number of people who had applied for asylum—treating that as it represented a great failure. Trump then followed up by talking about how Germany had taken in “millions” of immigrants and repeating his false claim that Germany’s crime rate had gone up. But Trump doesn’t have to be telling the truth. Because this was just one of at several occassions in the speech where he declared that he was right simply because he won.
Trump’s claim that countries are intentionally sending criminals to the US is a complete fantasy, but Trump now claims it was proven true “because I was elected.” Hilary Clinton can’t cite statistics, because she already had “her chance.”
Trump isn’t making arguments. He’s saying that he doesn’t have to argue. He won. So he’s right. About everything, all the time. And since Trump is now privileged to make up statistics, he can make them say anything he wants.
There is indeed something “ridiculous” in that statement, because the statistic is closer to 80 percent. Even the most immigrant-angry Republicans had previously made claim of “only two thirds.” Trump has now pulled out a number that’s wrong by an order of magnitude. And then some.
In mid-speech, Trump wandered in and out of talking about the IG report, which he claimed showed that the government was full of “terrible people” and that Hilary Clinton got away with terrible things. Trump also insisted that Mexico was a hellhole where no one could live for more than a “couple of days” and Canada so burdened by tariffs that Canadians came to the US to smuggle back shoes, which they made appear old by “scuffing them up” and wearing them across the border.
Trump also reserved part of his attack for Democrats.
What evidence does Trump offer for this? Because he won. That’s all. And because he won, he doesn’t have to answer to anyone. Which, so long as Republicans in the House and Senate agree, is absolutely right.
Trump’s speech may seem on the surface like just another of his bumbling rants. But there’s a serious, deeply concerning theme here: He can’t be questioned. He can’t be contradicted. He hasn’t been elected, he’s been anointed as ruler.

Before going any further today, I want to take a moment to address something you’ve been reading a lot about: the illegal immigration crisis on our southern border. It’s been going on for many, many decades and many years. And it has its ups and its downs. And all we need is good legislation, and we can have it taken care of. And we have to get the Democrats to go ahead and work with us. Because as a result of Democrat-supported loopholes in our federal laws, most illegal immigrant families and minors from Central America who arrive unlawfully at the border cannot be detained together or removed together, only released.


These are crippling loopholes that cause family separation, which we don’t want. As a result of these loopholes, roughly half a million illegal immigrant family units and minors from Central America have been released into the United States since 2014 at unbelievably great taxpayer expense. Nobody knows how much we’re paying for this monstrosity that’s been created over the years — legislation that nobody has any idea what they’re doing. They don’t even know what it means. And you have to see this; it’s a mile high.


Child smugglers exploit the loopholes, and they gain illegal entry into the United States, putting countless children in danger on the perilous trek to the United States. They come up through Mexico. Mexico does nothing for us. You hear it here: They do nothing for us. They could stop it. They have very, very strong laws. Try staying in Mexico for a couple of days. See how long that lasts. Okay? (Laughter and applause.)

Under current law, we have only two policy options to respond to this massive crisis: We can either release all illegal immigrant families and minors who show up at the border from Central America, or we can arrest the adults for the federal crime of illegal entry. Those are the only two options. Totally open borders or criminal prosecution for law breaking. And you want to be able to do that. We don’t want people pouring into our country. We want them to come in through the process, through the legal system. And we want, ultimately, a merit-based system where people come in based on merit. (Applause.)



Keep in mind, those who apply for asylum, legally, at ports of entry, are not prosecuted. The fake news media back there doesn’t talk about that. (Laughter and applause.) They’re fake. They are helping — they are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe. They know it. They know exactly what they’re doing and it should be stopped — because what’s going on is very unfair to the people of our country. And they violate the law. People that come in violate the law. They endanger their children in the process. And frankly, they endanger all of our children.



You see what happens with MS-13, where your sons and daughters are attacked violently. Kids that never even heard of such a thing are being attacked violently, not with guns, but with knives because it’s much more painful. Inconceivable — here we are talking about business — inconceivable that we even have to talk about MS-13 and other gangs. They attack violently, the most painful way possible. And a bullet is too quick. And we’re allowing these people into our country? Not with me. We’re taking them out by the thousands. (Applause.) We’re taking them out by the thousands.


So what I’m asking Congress to do is to give us a third option, which we have been requesting since last year — the legal authority to detain and promptly remove families together as a unit. We have to be able to do this. This is the only solution to the border crisis. We have to stop child smuggling. This is the way to do it.

And ultimately, we have to have a real border — not judges. Thousands and thousands of judges they want to hire. Who are these people? When we vet a single federal judge, it goes through a big process. Everybody that’s ever met her or him — they come, they complain, they don’t complain. They say he’s brilliant; she’s brilliant; he’s not smart enough to be a judge. Now we’re hiring thousands and thousands. What country does this? Judges. (Laughter.) I won’t say it. I refuse to say it. I hope they picked that up back there. (Laughter.) They won’t.


No, what — seriously, what country does it? They said, “Sir, we’d like to hire about five or six-thousand more judges.” Five or six-thousand? Now, can you imagine the graft that must take place? You’re all small business owners, so I know you can imagine a thing like that would happen. But here’s a guy — they say, “Could you please be a judge? Come on, get it.” They line up to be a judge. It’s horrible.


We don’t want judges; we want security on the border. We don’t want people coming in. We want them to come in through a legal process like everybody else that’s waiting to come into our country. (Applause.)


And it got so crazy that all of these thousands — we now have thousands of judges — border judges — thousands and thousands. And, by the way, when we release the people they never come back to the judge anyway. They’re gone. They’re in your system. That’s it. If they’re good, that’s great. And if they’re bad, you’ll have killings, you’ll have murders, you’ll have this, you’ll have that, and you’ll have crime. You’ll have crime.

And remember, these countries that we give tremendous foreign aid to in many cases, they send these people up and they’re not sending their finest. Does that sound familiar? (Laughter.) Remember I made that speech and I was badly criticized? “Oh it’s so terrible, what he said.” Turned out I was 100 percent right. That’s why I got elected. (Laughter and applause.)



We want a great country. We want a country with heart. But when people come up, they have to know they can’t get in, otherwise it’s never going to stop. Whether it was President Bush, President Obama, President Clinton — same policies. They can’t get them changed because both sides are always fighting.



This is maybe a great chance to have a change. But one of them says we want to hire 5,000 more judges. I don’t want judges. I want border security. I don’t want to try people. I don’t want people coming in. Do you know, if a person comes in and puts one foot on our ground, it’s essentially “welcome to America, welcome to our country.” You never get them out, because they take their name, they bring the name down, they file it, then they let the person go; they say show back up to court in one year from now. One year. But here’s the thing: That in itself is ridiculous. Like 3 percent come back.



The other thing they have is they have professional lawyers. Some are for good, others are do-gooders, and others are bad people. And they tell these people exactly what to say. They say, “Say the following:” — they write it down — “I am being harmed in my country. My country is extremely dangerous. I fear for my life.” “Say that. Congratulations. You’ll never be removed.” This is given to them by lawyers who are waiting for them to come up. And they’re not all bad people. They’re impractical people.


But, in a way, that’s cheating becau

There’s been a 1,700 percent increase in asylum claims over the last 10 years. Think of that. Think of that. We’re a great country but you can’t do that. Smugglers know how the system works. They game the system; they game it. It’s so easy for them. They’re smart. They didn’t go to the Wharton School of Finance. (Laughter.) But you know what? They’re really smart.



The United States has just surpassed Germany as having the most asylum seekers of any nation on Earth. Can you image that? Can you image? And Germany — we talk about Germany — they allowed millions of people in. And, by the way, their crime, from the time they started, is up more than 10 percent. And that’s one of the reasons it’s at that level is because they don’t like reporting that kind of crime, so they put it down as different kind of crime. But their crime is up more than 10 percent since they started taking them in.


I heard somebody said that Crooked Hillary Clinton was questioning that statistic. She said, “It’s not true. It’s not true.” Didn’t she already have her chance? I mean, I’ve — (laughter and applause). I’ll tell you what, when you read the IG report with these really dishonest people — and I was never a deep-state guy, but let me tell you, we got some bad people that are doing bad things. But when you read that IG report about how she got away with what she got away with, it’s a disgrace. It’s a total disgrace. (Applause.)


And you ought to see the hearings that are right now on television but that folks are being — you know, they’re going on to the mainstream, fake news media. They want to focus on immigration because they want to keep the cameras away from the hearings because those hearings are not good for them. In fact, they’re a disaster for them. The whole thing is a scam. It’s a scam. And what’s happened is a disgrace.

So we have a House that’s getting ready to finalize an immigration package that they’re going to brief me on later, and that I’m going to make changes to. We have one chance to get it right. We might as well get it right, or let’s just keep it going. But let’s do it right. We have a chance. We want to solve this problem. We want to solve family separation. I don’t want children taken away from parents. And when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. Now, we don’t have to prosecute them. But then we’re not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. That’s not good.



We want to end the border crisis by finally giving us the legal authorities and the resources to detain and remove illegal immigrant families all together and bring them back to their country. We have to bring them back to their country.



Now, think of all that aid that we give some of these countries. Hundreds of millions of dollars we give to some of these countries, and they send them up. Well, I’m going to go, very shortly, for authorization that when countries abuse us by sending their people up — not their best — we’re not going to give any more aid to those countries. Why the hell should we? Why should we? (Applause.)



So this is a responsible, commonsense approach that all lawmakers should embrace — Democrats and Republicans. And remember, we need the Democrats. People say, “Oh, you have the majority.” Well, in the Senate, we have 1, but you need 60. So we’ll be at — if we get 100 percent, we’ll be at 51. A hundred percent, we’ll be at 51. So we need nine votes. We need 10, 12, 13 votes. We have to have Democrat support because we need to go not just a majority, unfortunately, which we could get. We need to go to 60 — 60 out of 100. We need Democrat support.

They don’t want to give it, because Democrats love open borders. Let the whole world come in. Let the whole world. MS-13 gang members from all over the place, come on in — we have open borders. And they view that possibly intelligently, except that it’s destroying our country. They view that as potential voters. Someday they’re going to vote for Democrats. Because they can’t win on their policies, which are horrible. They found that out in the last presidential election. (Laughter and applause.) In fact, their only policy was that Donald Trump is a bad guy, he’s a bad person. Vote against Trump. And they said it so many — hundreds of millions of dollars of negative ads. Nobody has ever been hit like that. I used to go home — I started disliking myself. It’s true. (Laughter.) I said, “Man, am I that bad?” (Laughter.)


The problem is they never told anybody what they’re doing. They didn’t talk about tax cuts. By the way, they want to take away your tax cuts, and they want to substantially increase your taxes. They didn’t talk about crime. All they talked about was Trump. So when people got to the booth, they said, “Ah, we’re going to vote Democrat. We’re going to vote” — but then they get up, they said, “But what does she stand for? What do they stand for?” They just hate Trump. “No, I’m going with Trump.” And that’s what happened. (Laughter.) We got tremendous Democrat support. It was a beautiful thing. That was a beautiful night. Do you agree? That was a beautiful night. That was some night. (Applause.) That was some night.


But you have to stand for something, and you have to stand for safety and security of our country. We can’t let people pour in. They’ve got to go through the process. And maybe it’s politically correct, or maybe it’s not. We got to stop separation of the families. But politically correct or not, we have a country that needs security, that needs safety, that has to be protected. (Applause.)

We have created more than 3.4 million new jobs since Election Day. 3.4 million. (Applause.) Think of what that means. And, by the way, we do need people coming through the border. We do need people. And again, we want people — you know, I have a lot of companies moving in, big companies. If you look at Foxconn in Wisconsin, they’re coming in. They need thousands and thousands of people. Chrysler is moving from Mexico back into Michigan. (Applause.) Many car companies are coming back into our country. Many companies are coming back. They’re coming back from where they went. Now they’re coming because of all of the things we’ve done with regulations, with tax cutting.

But we need people to take care. We have the lowest unemployment rate — 3.8 percent. We need people. So we want people to come in, but they have to be people that can help us and can help these companies fulfill what they want to fulfill. (Applause.)

Unemployment claims are at a 44-year low. That’s a great number. (Applause.) Maybe the one that makes me happiest is this — because I remember I’d go around, I’d say, “What do you have to lose? Vote for me. The Democrats have always been with you. Vote for me.” They’ve — you know, bad education. The most unsafe parts of the country. All of these different — I’d say to the African Americans, I’d say, what you have to do — “What do you have to do? Vote for me. What do you have to lose?”

Unemployment for African Americans is at the lowest level in history. (Applause.) It’s like, what do you have to lose? I would go around and talk, and some people would say, don’t say that, it’s not nice. I’d say, look, it’s true. So badly treated. And now the lowest level of unemployment in history for African Americans. And for Hispanic, the lowest level of unemployment in history. And for women, the lowest level of unemployment in 21 years. Soon it will be history. (Applause.)

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