Donald Trump Defends Anti-immigration Comments, Says US is 'Dumping Ground' for Mexico
Despite losing several corporate partnerships over his inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants, Donald Trump has once again doubled down on his anti-immigration statements while accusing the media of "deliberately distorting" his words.
The billionaire real estate mogul has been under fire since he called Mexican immigrants drug traffickers and rapists during his presidential election announcement speech on June 16.
"They (Mexico) are not our friend, believe me. ... The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems," said Trump, later adding, "When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They are not sending you. They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs and they are bringing crime, and they're rapists."
Following his attack on Mexican immigrants, both Univision, the largest U.S. Spanish-language television network, and NBCUniversal canceled their contracts to air the Miss Universe Pageant, which he co-owns. In addition, Macy's, ESPN and Ora TV, a television company controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, also cut ties with Trump.
Still, that has not moved "The Apprentice" host to backpedal or apologize for his remarks. Instead, he released a 900-word statement defending and elaborating on his anti-Mexican rhetoric.
"The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico, and, in fact, for many other parts of the world," Trump said in the three-page statement released by his campaign on Monday, according to Bloomberg Politics. "On the other hand, many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it. But these people are here legally, and are severely hurt by those coming in illegally."
Trump went on to say that there is a "misunderstanding or misinterpretation" of his comments.
"I don't see how there is any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the statement I made on June 16 during my presidential announcement speech," Trump wrote. "I have great respect for Mexico and love their people and their peoples' great spirit. ... The problem is, however, that their leaders are far smarter, more cunning, and better negotiators than ours."
Trump also argued, "After the speech was made, there were numerous compliments and indeed, many rave 'reviews' -- there was very little criticism. It wasn't until a week after my announcement that people started to totally distort these very easy to understand words. If there was something stated incorrectly, it would have been brought up immediately and with great enthusiasm."
Although Trump has suffered from various business losses over the comments, his remarks have helped him surge in the polls. According to the RealClearPolitics, polls show Trump ranking third in New Hampshire among Republicans running in the 2016 election and seventh across the nation.
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