Donald Trump unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade about undocumented immigrants and predicted this “could be the last election ever” if Kamala Harris wins during a private fundraising dinner this summer.
The Guardian obtained a 12-minute recording of a speech the Republican presidential candidate gave at an August 10 dinner in Aspen, Colorado, where attendees were required to donate between $25,000 and $500,000 per couple.
Trump devoted most of his speech to border security and immigration, recycling xenophobic claims now familiar from his rallies. “Radical left-wing lunatics” want people out of prisons, mental hospitals and insane asylums, he claimed without evidence, adding that the US was harboring “a record number of terrorists.”
The former president insisted that “smart, very street-wise” leaders of Venezuela and other South American countries sent murderers and drug dealers to the US to reduce their own crime rates, ease the burden on their prisons and save money.
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Trump cited a false example of 22 people he claimed came to the US after being released from prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We said, ‘Where are you from?’ They said: ‘Prison’. “What have you done?” “What we did is none of your damn business.” Do you know why? Because they are murderers.”
The candidate added, “I hate using that bad language,” apparently realizing that his use of the F-word went beyond his campaign rallies. The Congolese government has said that Trump’s statements are not true.
The candidate continued: “These are the toughest people. These people come from Africa, from the Middle East. They come from all parts of Asia, the bad parts, the parts where they are rough, and the only good thing is that they make our criminals look extremely nice. They make our Hell’s Angels look like the nicest people on earth.”
Research shows that immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than native-born Americans.
Trump flew to Aspen on a Gulfstream G-550 jet once owned by Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, after his own private plane — a Boeing 757, colloquially known as Trump Force One — developed engine problems.
The dinner was held at the $38 million home of investors and art collectors John and Amy Phelan. Guests included casino magnate Steve Wynn, billionaire businessman Thomas Peterffy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, Colorado Congressman Lauren Boebert and former Colorado Senator Cory Gardner.
Trump, who staged an attempted coup on January 6, 2021 and claimed that his Democratic rival Harris is the true threat to democracy, used the exclusive event to warn of dire consequences if she were to become president.
“Look, we have to win and if we don’t win this country is going to hell,” he said. “You know, there’s an expression, this could be the last election we ever have and it’s an expression that I really believe in, and I believe this could be the last election we ever have.”
The ex-president spoke against Harris a month before his first and probably only televised debate, with polls and pundits widely considering her the clear winner. That was not what he predicted.
“I’m telling you we have a radical leftist who is going to be president – if she wins it will be a disaster – she really wants to be president. Thank goodness she should be terrible at debating, even though she is mean, and she should be really bad at interviews. She can’t do an interview.’
Trump also claimed that Harris supports the “defund the police” movement, suggesting she is a typical politician who will revert to type once elected.
“Her policy is to defund the police. She wants to defund the police. She wants open borders. With a politician – and I’ve seen it because I’ve been on both sides of politics for a long time; now, a short time for this side, but I’ve always contributed – she wants to go out and she wants to defund the police. And they always return to their original plot. They always do that.”
Harris, a former courtroom prosecutor, expressed support for the “defund the police” movement in a radio interview in June 2020, but later changed her position after becoming Joe Biden’s running mate.
Trump also reflected on surviving an assassination attempt at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Thomas Crooks opened fire from a rooftop, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, and wounding two other Trump supporters .
Trump recounted how members of his Florida golf club, Mar-a-Lago, asked for a contribution to Comperatore’s family. “I said absolutely and they gave me a check for a million dollars. That’s a lot of money. Perhaps even more impressive is that we launched a GoFundMe and raised over $6 million for the group that was injured, which is essentially three people.”
He then recalled a meeting with Comperatore’s widow Helen and made a risky attempt to find humor in the tragedy. “So they’re going to get millions of dollars, but the woman, the woman, this beautiful woman, I handed her the check – we handed her the check – and she said, ‘This is so nice, and I appreciate it, but I have a lot rather my husband.’ Now I know some women in this room wouldn’t say the same thing.”
As dinner guests burst into laughter, Trump joked, “I know at least four couples. There are four couples, Governor [Abbott]I know that and you are not one of them. At least four couples here would have been happy.”
The event is believed to have raised $12 million for Trump’s campaign, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Harris from raising more than four times as much as her opponent in August, the first full month of her bid for the White House .
