Former President Donald Trump said that immigrants are “tough, mean and brutal” and that the UFC should create immigrant fight clubs and train asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants in martial arts.
Trump floated the idea in two speeches on Saturday — once at a Christian conservative gathering and then at a rally in Philadelphia — where he recounted how he brought the idea to Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White.
“These people are tough. Really tough,” Trump told conservative Christians at the Faith and Freedom Union in Washington, D.C.
“I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea. What if we formed a league of immigrant fighters, and we brought in fighters from the regular league, and then we had the champions of that league – the best fighters in the world – go up against the immigrant champions.'”
Laughter was heard from the audience as Trump described his discussion with White about the Immigrant Fighting League.
“I think the immigrants might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t really like the idea, but it’s actually not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” Trump quipped. “These people are tough, they’re nasty, they’re nasty.”
Trump, 78, is a longtime UFC fan and attended several fights during his campaign, including UFC 302 in New Jersey earlier this month, shortly after his conviction in a hush-money case.
White later acknowledged to reporters at a press conference in Saudi Arabia that she had discussed the idea of an immigrant fight club with Trump.
“I saw everyone making a fuss online, but he certainly said that,” White later told reporters, stressing that it was a “joke.”
Trump spoke to a crowd at the Washington Hilton for about an hour and a half, and later recounted the story in a speech before an enthusiastic crowd in Philadelphia.
“I said, ‘Dana, Dana, I have an idea that’s going to make you a lot of money,'” Trump recalled. “You’re going to start a new immigration fighting league … just immigrants. And at the end of the year, the immigrant champions will be fighting your champions. I’m sorry, Dana, but I think the immigrants might win. That’s how tough they are.”
“When I return to the White House, I will stop the looting, the raping, the massacre and the destruction in America’s suburbs, cities and towns,” Trump later vowed.
The 45th president has long described himself as a hardliner on illegal immigration, and in the 2016 presidential election he made “building a wall” a central issue.
Recently, President Trump angered some immigration hardliners by suggesting that foreign students who graduate from American universities and colleges “should automatically get a green card as part of their diploma.”
He has called in the past for the U.S. to move further toward a “meritocratic” immigration system.
At the same time, Trump Hardline stance on deportation All illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States.
He also used his inflammatory rhetoric against illegal immigrants to irritate those who advocate a more tolerant approach, and previously “pest” And they said,Contaminate the blood” country’s.
And Trump is gearing up for a cage match later this week when he faces President Biden in the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election season on Thursday in Atlanta.
