Trump: ‘I’m not a student of Hitler’

Former President Trump on Friday said he is not a “student of Hitler” as he once again asserted immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase critics have said is parroting the Nazi leader’s past remarks about Jews.

Trump called into conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show, where Hewitt pressed Trump multiple times on what he meant when he said illegal immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country, a refrain Trump has repeated multiple times in the past week.

“When you look at it, if you look at what’s coming in, we have from all over the world — not one group — they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America; they’re coming from all over the world,” Trump said. “They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

“They have people coming in — we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language, and they’re loading up our classes, we’re loading up our classes, our school classes with children that don’t speak the language, that don’t speak our language,” he continued. “And nobody knows what’s going on. No, we are poisoning our country; we’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hewitt noted the comparisons critics have made between Trump’s rhetoric and Hitler, who wrote in “Mein Kampf” that German blood was being poisoned by Jews. 

Trump denied that he intended any racist sentiment with his “poisoning the blood” comments, and he pointed to his strong poll numbers with African American and Hispanic voters.

Asked again specifically about the Hitler comparisons, Trump said:  “First of all, I know nothing about Hitler. I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood, he didn’t say it the way I said it either, by the way, it’s a very different kind of a statement.”

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote in her book “Confidence Man,” which chronicled Trump’s years as a businessman through his time in the White House, that Trump was given a copy of the book of Hitler speeches “My New Order” by a friend, Marty Davis, who thought Trump would enjoy it.

Democrats, including the Biden campaign and Vice President Harris, have compared Trump’s rhetoric to Hitler and argued it is the latest example of how he admires authoritarians.

Trump’s allies have largely downplayed the comments, arguing that border security is a real concern for many Americans, and in some cases claiming the former president was referring literally to the way illegal drugs are poisoning Americans.

Hewitt at the end of Friday’s interview again gave Trump a chance to clarify what he meant with his choice of words.

“Exactly what I said. People are pouring into our country unchecked,” Trump replied.