The audience at Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday erupted in applause and chanted, “Send them back,” after the former president said some immigrants — who are in America with legal immigration status — will be deported if he beats Democratic rival Kamala Harris and wins back the White House in November.
Trump whipped up the crowd with his inflammatory claims that some states are being “inundated” with migrants and that some cities will “never be the same” because of it.
“Do you think Springfield will ever be the same?” the Republican nominee asked, referring to the Ohio city that’s become a focal point of the election following his and running mate JD Vance’s baseless claims that residents’ pets are being eaten by Haitian migrants, who are actually there with temporary legal protected status.
“The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get ’em the hell out. You have to get ’em out. I’m sorry. But get ’em out. Can’t have it. Can’t have it,” bellowed Trump.
Trump’s supporters lapped up the rhetoric.
“They’ve destroyed it,” Trump added, prompting members of the crowd to begin chanting, “Send them back.”
“It’s terrible, it’s terrible to say and it’s a tough thing to do,” Trump continued. “You know, you’re gonna take in some murderers and things, and you’ll put them on the planes and the buses, and you’re going to start doing it.”
Watch from the 3-hour, 49-minute mark here:
Trump has vowed to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.
Earlier this month, he posted about “remigration” on his Truth Social platform, referring to the concept, that’s become a European far-right talking point, that’s described by the Associated Press as “the chilling notion of returning immigrants to their native lands in what amounts to a soft-style ethnic cleansing.”
Former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau called the rally scene “some dark twisted bullshit.” Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan said Trump was essentially “calling for the ethnic cleansing of legal immigrants in the United States.”
Others slammed the chant as “sickening” and called Trump “sick.”