Donald Trump, who was found liable for sexual assault last year, boasted during his speech in Detroit on Thursday that he had called undocumented immigrants rapists.
“We let them come in and plunder and rape our country,” Trump said of migrants during his appearance at the Detroit Economic Club. ‘That’s what they did. “Oh, he used the word rape.” That’s right, I used the word rape. They raped our country.”
Trump: ‘We let them come in and invade and rape our country. “Oh, he used the word rape.” That’s right, I used the word rape. They RAPED our country.” pic.twitter.com/u6k4hShz0l
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2024
There is no evidence that immigrants, documented or undocumented, rape people at a higher rate than Americans. Research shows that immigrants are significantly less likely to be charged with crimes than non-immigrants, and that there is no correlation between the presence of undocumented immigrants and an increase in crime.
Still, Trump and Republicans have repeatedly pointed the finger at immigrants for an increase in every conceivable crime, from rape and fentanyl distribution to murder and gang violence.
His accusation of rape dates back to the launch of his first campaign for president, when he declared that immigrants from Mexico were “bringing drugs. They bring crime. They are rapists.”
Trump has repeatedly promoted the rapist lie, despite the fact that at least 26 women have publicly accused him of sexual assault. Last year, a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s and ordered him to pay her $5 million in damages.
Although the jury found him not liable for rape, the judge overseeing the case said it was still accurate to call Trump a rapist.
“Based on all the evidence at trial and the jury’s verdict as a whole, the jury’s finding that Mr. Trump ‘sexually assaulted’ Ms. Carroll implicitly established that he forcibly digitally penetrated her — in other words, what Mr. Trump in fact ‘raped’ Ms. Carroll, as that term is commonly used and understood in interactions outside New York criminal law,” Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in denying Trump’s demands for a new trial.
