Ex-president avoided past ‘shithole countries’ racist invective, but said the US hadn’t gotten enough immigrants from ‘nice countries’

Ex-president avoided past ‘shithole countries’ racist invective, but said the US hadn’t gotten enough immigrants from ‘nice countries’

Donald Trump bemoaned a lack of immigrants to the US from “nice” countries “like Denmark [or] Switzerland”, offering millionaire donors at a Florida fundraiser a reprise of infamous racist Oval Office remarks about people coming to America from “shithole countries”.

Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president again, despite facing 88 criminal charges and multimillion-dollar civil penalties for tax fraud and defamation, the latter arising from a rape allegation a judge called “substantially true”.

According to the New York Times, which cited an unnamed attendee at the Saturday event in Palm Beach, Trump told his audience: “These are people coming in from prisons and jails. They’re coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster.

“And when I said, you know, ‘Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries,’ I’m trying to be nice. Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    198·
    8 months ago

    He’s complaining that people don’t want to leave countries with socialized health care and more protections for workers? Maybe he is coming to the wrong conclusions about that.

    • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
      1121·
      8 months ago

      Paying 420€ per month at most for comprehensive healthcare and 49€ per month for regional/urban public transportation nationwide is really a chore.

      And additionally, I even have to live with the burden of getting my master’s degree almost for free! It’s horrible over here! I can barely enjoy my 30 vacation days thinking about the situation!

    • No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world
      58·
      8 months ago

      My cousin in the Schengen area got breast cancer and went off to get treatment with 80% of her salary. After the first rounds feeling much better asked the social worker to go back and the answer was, not until you get to the last round and get medical clearance.
      Try that in the US.
      That shit radicalized me.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
        14·
        8 months ago

        You go to work while getting the treatment and hope you don’t run out of sick days.

        Or make industrial quantities of meth.

    • fine_sandy_bottom
      14·
      8 months ago

      I’m from Australia, not some poncy nordic utopia. I wouldn’t describe the US as a shithole country per se, but I sure as shit wouldn’t want to move there.

      The whole republican thing does make me apoplectic, and admittedly that’s pretty much all we see from this far away, but I acknowledge that its probably not a big part of daily life. For example, there’s some 4x4 youtube channels I watch and the people just seem like cool normal people who I’d probably like to know in real life, but I’d bet they vote republican anyway.

  • ShadowRam@fedia.io
    72·
    8 months ago

    You could double my income, even triple.

    …and I still wouldn’t risk rising my children in the US.

    Not a fucking chance…

    • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
      21·
      8 months ago

      Literally, had to make this decision four years ago.

      In the end I went to the German branch of the same tech company and only made 1/4 the money I would have in the US.

      However, because it was a US company they made me do the “what to do when there’s a shooter in the workplace” training course anyway. No regrets about not going.

    • exanime@lemmy.today
      16·
      8 months ago

      I think the same… And I live in Canada, we don’t have it as good as Denmark or Switzerland but still…

      I honestly only go to the States for short visits I dread, because we have family there… Otherwise I wouldn’t even visit

  • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
    60·
    8 months ago

    Why on god’s green earth would I relocate to a country that treats people like farm animals unless I was fleeing war or drug cartels?

    • Rusty Shackleford@programming.devEnglish
      103·
      8 months ago

      Every government treats their people like farm-animals, in my opinion. Some are nicer to their animals than others. “Happy cows make better-tasting milk”, and so on.

      My country’s (the US) government treats us like those industrial hog and cattle farms we have in Nebraska, Louisiana, Texas, etc. I moved to the Netherlands in July of '22; people are treated more like free-range live-stock here, which is an improvement from my condition in the US. I imagine it’s not too dissimilar of a relationship throughout greater Scandinavia as well.

      • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
        102·
        8 months ago

        Every government treats their people like farm-animals, in my opinion.

        Yeah, no. That’s not how normal governments work.

        My country’s (the US)

        Yeah, that checks out. No wonder you think like that, then. You’ve been indoctrinated all your life to believe no better alternative is possible, so that you won’t strive for one, and will just keep on accepting the monstrously inhumane society you were born in.

        • Rusty Shackleford@programming.devEnglish
          22·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, no. That’s not how normal governments work.

          That’s admirable you believe that, but incredibly naive, given the weight of history.

          You’ve been indoctrinated all your life to believe no better alternative is possible, so that you won’t strive for one, and will just keep on accepting the monstrously inhumane society you were born in.

          No, like all human beings, I must pragmatically hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Time with my wife and the children in my extended family is worth more than overthrowing the government, currently.

  • ben_dover@lemmy.world
    542·
    8 months ago

    Why would someone go from a “nice” country to the US? People want to improve their situation

    • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
      825·
      8 months ago

      The U.S. is not some homogeneous entity. It’s huge. It has its bad regions, but it also has its awesome regions as well. Just like the U.K.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
        321·
        8 months ago

        You’re missing the point.

        People don’t up sticks and move across the world for the fun of it. They do it because they seek a better life, the US mostly can’t offer that for people who already live in an advanced country.

        Like wise, if you don’t want immigrants from “shit hole” countries, your options are to help make their own country better so that they won’t want to leave or to make your own country shitter than theirs so that they won’t want to come.

        • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          8 months ago

          or to make your own country shitter than theirs so that they won’t want to come.

          Republicans are certainly trying!

        • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
          517·
          8 months ago

          I moved to Germany for the fun of it (you could say that I was seeking a better life, I guess.)

          I’ve also moved across states in the U.S. for the fun it.

          It can happen.

          I’m aware that a whole lot of people do it for different reasons, though.

          And yeah, I find it funny when Americans complain about migrants from, say, Central America. They should learn the role the U.S. played in destabilizing the region in the 80s.

      • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
        15·
        8 months ago

        But it has no social safety nets really which is what “nice white countries” tend to have. Who wants to move somewhere without universal health care from a place that does?

        And also about half the population is certifiable.

        • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
          32·
          8 months ago

          You have a point.

          And no, not half of the population. Maybe half of the voting population. The newer generations are less tolerant of the ongoing GOP bullshit.

          Twice in a row Donald Trump lost the popular vote, by millions of people.

    • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
      15·
      8 months ago

      I live in Spain. I’ve lived in the US. There is literally no reason to go to the US except to visit of for tourism. Quality of life, and having an excellent health care system, good wather, basically no gun problems (contrary to popular belief, I can own a lot of types of guns, even non-auto assault guns, they are just properly regulated) etc. I’m very employable , and would probably make 2-3 times as much as here, but have no real incentive.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        2·
        8 months ago

        I cut off the list at 173 because I only wanted to show countries higher than the US.

        Canada ranks surprisingly lower at 156.40. I’m not sure why. Maybe the temperatures / treatment of first nations people.

  • will_a113@lemmy.mlEnglish
    44·
    8 months ago

    Ironically (to everyone but him) Trump himself is the reason a lot of people from the “good” countries would never consider moving here.

  • bstix@feddit.dkEnglish
    38·
    8 months ago

    Thank you for the invitation. Unfortunately I’m busy that day.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      4·
      8 months ago

      What? No, we are the greatest country in the world. I know because of 13 years of my youth spent in public school where they kept telling me about it.

  • undercrust@lemmy.ca
    331·
    8 months ago

    LMFAO, easy answer - because those countries are demonstrably better than the shit hole that is the United States.

    God this fuckin turd just doesn’t shut up and the rest of us are forced to hear about it. Enough already.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
    29·
    8 months ago

    Lmao reminds me of my company. They are headquartered in the US, but have a big office in the UK, and about twice a year someone from the US office comes over to try and recruit us to go over there. And every time no one goes, even though they’re offering us almost twice the equivalent salary to go over, between the women, the queers, non-white people, there’s not a lot of people left that wouldn’t been instantly downgraded the second they stepped off the plane. And out of those left most will care about healthcare or vacation time and uprooting their lives more than a better salary.

    • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      8 months ago

      Not to mention the infara change would feel like such a downgrade.

      Imagine moving to Houston or Atlanta and learning the horror that you must travel to work every single day in a car in traffic for 2-3 hours, and any commercial business is going to be more than a mile away from your home.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
        4·
        8 months ago

        Yeah, im on holiday in Dallas right now and its so bad. The nearest convenience store is over an hours walk away, and if I wanted to go to a supermarket its an almost 40 min walk to a bus stop, and a 20 minute bus ride on a bus that comes once per hour.

  • frickineh@lemmy.world
    28·
    8 months ago

    Uh, on that note, anyone from any nice countries want to get married to an American? Doesn’t have to be majority white, but must have healthcare and like, trains? I like trains and going to the doctor.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    291·
    8 months ago

    despite facing 88 criminal charges

    Who here wanna bet that Stephen Miller advised him do a couple more or fewer in order to land at his favorite number?