Trump Calls Immigrants “Snakes” at CPAC

Washington, D.C.—In response to President Trump’s address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in which he repeated campaign rhetoric that compares immigrants to “snakes” that will kill our “tender” country with “vicious” and “poisonous” bites, Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer issued the following statement:

“President Trump has yet again made his animosity towards immigrants and refugees public, and it is terrifying. Targeting minority groups to strengthen one’s own base of support is something you’d expect of a despot, but it’s a new low for the president of the United States. For a president who purports to admire Ronald Reagan, Trump’s views could not be further from the ‘shining city on a hill’ Reagan spoke of. We cannot allow this divisive and xenophobic language to become a new normal in American discourse.”

Also speaking at this week’s CPAC conference was Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Human Rights First condemns any gathering that would seek to align the United States with the xenophobic and racist far-right.