Trump using fear tactics to scare Americans of migrants’: Analyst
US President Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday about immigration and building a border wall was a fear tactic and misinformation to fulfill a 2016 election campaign promise, an American political analyst says.
In a televised speech from his White House office, Trump urged Congress to give him $5.7 billion this year to help build a wall on the US border with Mexico.
Facing Democratic opposition in Congress to a wall that he promised to build as a presidential candidate, Trump said in his first prime-time address from the Oval Office that there was a growing security and humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border.
Using blunt language in an attempt to win public support, the Republican president said illegal immigrants and drugs flowing across the southern border posed a serious threat to American safety.
Trump was “ranting and railing against the minority of the day to instill fear of them to his audience,” said Myles Hoenig, who ran for Congress in 2016 as a Green Party candidate.
“Much of the speech was rehashing his racist demagoguery against Mexicans and others from Central America,” Hoenig said in an interview with Press TV.
“The tone of his message was one of fear,” he added.
“With a majority of Americans opposing Trump on this issue, he did not likely sway anyone towards his position, and he was clearly speaking primarily to his base who he needs for re-election in 2020.”
Trump’s plan for a border wall - and to have Mexico pay for it - was a central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump’s speech came 18 days into a partial government shutdown precipitated by his demand for the wall.
Public opposition to the shutdown is growing and that could hurt Trump, as he said last month he would be proud to close the government to fight for the wall.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found that 51 percent of adults mainly blamed Trump for the shutdown, up 4 percentage points from late December, while 32 percent blamed congressional Democrats and 7 percent faulted Republicans in Congress.
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