Donald Trump lashes out at critics linking him to Hitler

Former President Donald Trump responded strongly to Democrats who are trying to paint him as being a “student of Hitler.”

During an appearance Friday on Hugh Hewitt’s podcast, Trump was asked about his critics accusing him of using “Hitlerian language” by saying the migrant crisis under President Joe Biden is “poisoning our blood.”

“No, and I never knew that Hitler said it,” Trump told Hewitt. “And I never read ‘Mein Kampf.’ They said I read ‘Mein Kampf.’ These are people that are disinformation horrible people that we’re dealing with. I never read ‘Mein Kampf.’

“I know nothing about Hitler. I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works.”

Asked whether his “poisoning” comment intended a “racist sentiment,” Trump responded: “Dear, no.”

Trump, the current clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, explained what he meant by saying the migrant crisis was “poisoning our country.”

“When you look at it, and 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,” he told Hewitt.

“They’re coming from all over the world. They’re coming from prisons. 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.”

Trump’s critics also claim the former president will rule as an authoritarian in a second term.

“Not at all,” Trump said after being asked whether he would rule as a dictator. “No, I’m going to rule as somebody that’s very popular with the people.”

Hewitt, a moderator during the most recent Republican presidential debate, asked Trump about other issues. The former president has skipped all four debates so far.

• On being indicted: “People have to understand these are all Biden trials. These were all inspired by and pushed by DOJ. So this is somebody attacking a political opponent like never before. Every single trial is a Biden trial.”
• On appealing the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision banning him from the 2024 state ballot: “We’re in the process of doing it. … They’re trying to take the election away from the voters.”
• On Biden’s relationship with Israel: “Since then [visiting Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack], he’s gotten weaker and weaker and weaker. But where he’s really let them down is what happened during three years.”
• On the polls showing a tightening GOP race in New Hampshire: “I’m not worried about it. No, I’m not worried about it. I think it was a fake poll. I saw the one poll where I was up by 4 or 5 points. It’s a fake poll.”
• On a potential vice-presidential running mate: “We’ll have somebody that’s really going to be very, very popular and very, very good. I know a lot of great people. We have a lot of great Republicans.”
• On the Bidens saying Joe knew nothing about Hunter’s business dealings: “Only a fool would believe that, because you see the pictures now. You see pictures. You see phone conversations.”
• On stopping fentanyl from entering the country: “Well, I had it done pretty much, and then we had the election result. I’ll tell you what happened. I met with President Xi [Jinping]. He was going to criminalize the making of fentanyl. Most of it comes out of China, as you know. And then it gets passed through the border.”
• On crime-ridden U.S. cities: “We are going to give a form of immunity, it’s a guarantee that we are going to back that police person, and maybe the precinct. We might bring it to a precinct level. We might even bring it to a state level, because some of the states are having a big problem, because today, everybody gets sued for anything. I know that better than anyone.”