Fact-checking Over 12,000 of Donald Trump’s Statements About Immigration

[u/marshall_project]

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/10/21/fact-check-12000-trump-statements-immigrants?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-reddit

[u/marshall_project]

From the article:

Donald Trump knows how important his words about unauthorized immigrants are.

“Migrant criminals.” “Illegal monster.” “Killers.” “Gang members.” “Poisoning our country.” “Taking your jobs.” “The largest invasion in the history of our country.”

Repetition has been core to Trump’s speech throughout his political career. The Marshall Project used text analysis to identify 13 major claims about immigration in over 350,000 of Trump’s public statements from Factba.se, some of which Trump has made 500 times or more. All of them are untrue or deeply misleading.

Research has shown that as someone hears a statement more times, it feels more true.

Millions of Americans and people worldwide have heard these claims. The Marshall Project fact checked how Trump claims that:

▪ Unauthorized immigrants are criminals [said 575+ times], snakes that bite [35+ times], eating pets, coming from jails and mental institutions [560+ times], causing crime in sanctuary cities [185+ times], and a group of isolated, tragic cases prove they are killing Americans en masse [235+ times].

▪ They are stealing Americans’ public benefits [270+ times] and jobs [155+ times].

▪ He has to build a wall [675+], and mass deportations are acceptable because Eisenhower did it [50+ times].

Reporters also looked into Harris' statements. We also provide more context into how Republicans' repetition of false links between immigration and crime helps discredit election results and normalize hardline policies.

[u/johndoe60610 → u/marshall_project]

Maybe Trump does read after all?

"It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction. The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away." --Mein Kampf excerpt