Surprise! Donald Trump is wrong about immigrants and crime
*A fresh look at the Donald Trump Mexico-comment story. After two weeks, with the list of companies dumping Trump growing (mattress manufacturer Serta droped Trump yesterday) and the commentary and op-ed’s coming faster than we can read them, I’ve been searching for something new, something that hasn’t been said already. I’m happy to see the Post do some old-fashioned reporting – a fact-check on what Trump said. This may not be the first Trump fact-check, but it’s the first one I’ve seen. This is important because it’s hard to sustain an emotional surge without eventual fatigue, without facts the anger and indignation toward Trump will wear themselves out. It’s one thing to say he’s ignorant, it’s another to prove it. VL
By Philip Bump, The Washington Post
Donald Trump’s two-week-old campaign has been pretty good at sticking to two core points: defending the candidate’s anti-immigrant remarks at his announcement and pretending that the companies that responded to those comments by ending their business relationships with him were, instead, rejected by him first.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]How Trump’s mind works: He’s always right, until he’s not, in which case he was never wrong. You were.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote] As a result, we’ve gotten a wonderful look at the unassailable way in which Trump’s mind works: He’s always right, until he’s not, in which case he was never wrong. You were.Take the statements that started all of Trump’s troubles; they came within the first few minutes of his campaign kick-off, after he rambled for a bit about the crowd and the Islamic State and Japan.
[pullquote]… data show that new immigrants — including illegal immigrants — are actually less likely to commit crime, not more.[/pullquote]“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
With all of the furor that resulted, it’s worth noting the two hallmarks of classic Donald Trump that emerged from his response. First, he unfailingly stood by the comments, despite the fallout. And second, he’s wrong.
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[Photo by Thomas Hawk/Flickr]
