Billionaire and U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump sought to dampen criticism Monday over his recent racist comments on Mexicans by arguing immigrants are carrying “tremendous” levels of disease.
The move came within hours of high rolling Republican donor John Jordan calling for Trump to be blocked from the party primaries debate.
“Someone in the party ought to start some sort of petition saying, ‘If Trump’s going to be on the stage, I’m not going to be on there with him,’” Jordan said, according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Trump doubled down on his description of Mexican migrants as criminals and “rapists,” while adding a new criticism: disease.
“Tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border,” he said.
The real estate mogul also claimed the Mexican government itself is “forcing” Mexicans to migrate to the United States.
“They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. This was evident just this week when, as an example, a young woman in San Francisco was viciously killed by a five time deported Mexican with a long criminal record,” he said.
According to a U.S. State Department Sex Offenders report from 1997, just 3.7 percent of convicted rapists and sexual assaulters were neither Black or white. That statistic doesn’t take into account police and judicial racism.
Trump appeared to be referring to Francisco Sanchez, who was arrested last week in connection to the death of Kathryn Steinle. According to San Francisco's ABC7, Sanchez has stated he accidentally shot Steinle after picking up a firearm he found on the sidewalk. He stated the weapon had inadvertently discharged, though prosecutors have charged him with murder.
Although Sanchez is yet to face a verdict in court, Trump not only argued the migrant “viciously killed” Steinle, but also alleged he was “forced back into the United States because they didn’t want him in Mexico.”
“In other words, the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government,” he added.
He also claimed his original statement had been “deliberately distorted by the media.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best ... They are sending people that have lots of problems ...They are bringing drugs and they are bringing crime and they’re rapists, and some are good people,” Trump said during a speech announcing his plans to run in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections in June.
In the same speech, he claimed if elected president, he would commission the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, which he said would be reminiscent of the Great Wall of China.
The comments sparked a wave of public outrage, and led to a number of Trump's key business partners announcing they would sever ties with his companies. So far, Trump has lost deals with broadcasters NBC and Univision and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's Ora TV. Macy's has also vowed to phase out Trump's line of clothing. The lost deals will cost Trump at least US$78.5 million, according to an investigation by Vice.
Yet according to Trump, the Mexican government itself is partly behind the corporate exodus.
“Univision, because 70 percent of their business comes from Mexico, in my opinion, is being dictated to by the Mexican Government. The last thing Mexico wants is Donald Trump as President,” he said.
Trump's vitriol against Mexico dates back at least to a court battle over the 2007 Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City. In a drawn out legal battle, Trump sued local partners in Mexican courts, accusing them of failing to make good on the US$6.5 million joint venture.
According to a recent Bloomberg article, Trump's lawyers say that although they've won the case, they're struggling to secure their compensation.
“The defendants have been successful in using a corrupt legal and governmental system to delay and stall the fulfillment of their obligation to the Miss Universe organization,” Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump, told Bloomberg.
In February, Trump tweeted, “I have a lawsuit in Mexico's corrupt court system that I won but so far can't collect. Don't do business with Mexico!”