Diogenes
Nemo me impune lacessit
One-third of Americans agree with Trump's racist remark on immigrants
One in three Americans survey red recently say that immigrants entering the country illegally today are "poisoning the blood of our country" — language echoing the rhetoric of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler.
Why it matters: The results suggest that in a nation of immigrants, many Americans have bought into the historically racist rhetoric that Donald Trump has used to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment while promising mass deportations if he's re-elected president.
The big picture: The annual survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with the Brookings Institution, measured the nation's deep political divisions in part by checking their feelings toward the phrase "poisoning the blood of our country."
- Six in 10 Republicans (61%) agree with that statement, compared with 30% of independents and just 13% of Democrats.
- Seven in 10 Americans who say they trust far-right news the most agree with the statement, while 65% of those who trust Fox News the most agree, the survey found.
- White evangelical Protestants (60%) are the only religious group in which a majority agree that the statement applies to undocumented immigrants.