Former President Donald Trump sparked controversy with remarks about creating a migrant fighting league to rival the UFC during a Christian conservative gathering.
“Dana, I have an idea for you to make a lot of money. You’re going to go and start a new migrant fight league. Migrants, only migrants. And then at the end of the year, the champion migrant is going to fight your champion,” Trump said.
“And I hate to tell you Dana, I think the migrant might win. That’s how tough they are. They’re just getting comfortable now. They’re going to start hitting us very hard.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta criticized Trump’s comments, labeling them as disgusting.
“This is ugly stuff,” Acosta said.
“I find it really disgusting. You know, my grandparents were immigrants. Everybody’s parents came here, or grandparents as immigrants at some point,” Chuck Rocha added. “He just keeps throwing so much red bait to the base of his party. I know what he’s doing. Anybody who’s done campaigns for more than 30 seconds knows what he’s doing, but at a certain point, you know, it just crosses the line over and over again.”
“Family separations and everything else we’ve seen during the Trump presidency… the Trump experience,” Acosta said. “They’re talking about deportation camps in this country. Fight clubs, I mean, come on. At what point does your side say enough is enough on that kind of rhetoric? It’s dehumanizing.”
“This is not a serious… He’s clearly joking at these rallies, but he’s drawing attention to something that’s no laughing matter, and that’s the violence being committed against to something that’s no laughing matter, and that’s the violence being committed against a number of people,” conservative analyst Scott Jennings said.
Trump’s idea was confirmed by UFC President Dana White as a joke.
“No, it was a joke. It was a joke,” White said. “I saw everybody going crazy online, but yeah he did say it.”
Polls indicate Trump gaining support from Black and Hispanic voters for the 2024 election, potentially setting records for a Republican candidate.
