Donald Trump compares migrants to Hannibal Lecter: "We don't want 'em"
Palm Beach, Florida - Donald Trump recently took his anti-immigration rhetoric to a new extreme this week when he compared migrants to one of the most terrifying villains in horror movie history.
On Monday, Trump drew the bizarre comparison during an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network.
"They're rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums," he said. "You know, insane asylums, that's Silence of the Lambs stuff.
"Hannibal Lecter, anybody know Hannibal Lecter?" he added. "We don't want 'em in this country."
In the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs, Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, is a highly intelligent, sadistic serial killer and cannibal.
While he has made cruel comments in the past about migrants coming from jails and asylums, comparing them to cannibals is a first.
The former president also went on to repeat his unfounded claims that foreign languages and migrant children are ruining the US educational system.
"We don't even have teachers of some of these languages... We have languages that are, like, from, from the planet Mars?" Trump continued. "Nobody, nobody knows how to, you know, speak it.
"We have children that are no longer going to school. They're throwing them out of the park. There's no more Little Leagues, there's no more sports, there's no more life in New York and so many of these cities."
Donald Trump continues anti-immigrant rhetoric as border becomes key election issue
As the border crisis has become a leading issue with Republican voters heading into the 2024 general elections, Trump has made it a focal point of his campaign.
He has promised massive deportations and the overturning of birthright citizenship if elected and, on several occasions, has declared that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."
The heightened interest in the issue comes as border crossings have increased in recent months.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has also been sending thousands of migrants by bus to Democrat-run sanctuary cities, including New York and Chicago.
As Trump is expected to win the GOP's nomination for president, the effectiveness of his rhetoric to win over voters will be put to the test in the general election, where he would likely face incumbent Joe Biden.
Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / United Archives & SAUL LOEB / AFP