America’s favorite faux-political shock jock came back with a vengeance two weeks ago when, during a press conference to announce his candidacy for the presidency, he characterized all Mexican immigrants as drug-peddling rapists.
“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” he said. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. 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. And some, I assume, are good people.”
The comments ended up getting both him and his television programs (the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants) booted from NBC. After a public pressure campaign that racked up more than 200,000 petition signatures, the network decried his words as “derogatory.” Trump, as to be expected, railed against NBC. Instead of apologizing for his words, he later asserted that his stance on immigration “is correct.”
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It’s not the first time Trump has insulted America’s southern neighbor. This past February, when Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu took home an Oscar for his film Birdman, Trump offered dubious congratulations. “Well it was a great night for Mexico, as usual in this country… It was a great night… for Mexico. This guy kept getting up and up and up. I said, you know, what’s he doing? He’s walking away with all the gold.”
Trump has a long history of offending the kind of broad demographics that other candidates might be working to impress for, you know, election-winning purposes. Here’s a roundup of the most cringe-worthy quotes that he uttered aloud or posted on his colorful Twitter account.
On African-Americans:
“I have a great relationship with the Blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the Blacks.”
“Laziness is a trait in blacks.”
On African-Americans and Jews:
On women:
Particularly well-known liberal women:
On Rosie O’Donnell: “You take a look at her, she’s a slob. She talks like a, like a truck driver.”
After retweeting another user (“@mplefty67: If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her thing she can satisfy America?’ @realDonaldTrump #2016president”), Trump made a rare retraction and deleted it. His spokesperson later claimed it was posted by a campaign staffer.
On religion:
“There is something on that birth certificate—maybe religion, maybe it says he’s a Muslim, I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or. he may not have one,” he told Laura Ingraham regarding the ever-mysterious birth circumstances and religious affiliation of Barack Obama.
On environmental degradation:
“It’s freezing and snowing in New York. We need global warming!”
On foreign policy:
“I rented him a piece of land,” he told Fox News about his relationship with Muammar Qaddafi. “He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn’t let him use the land. That’s what we should be doing. I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him.”
“To the victor belong the spoils,” he said to Bill O’Reilly, about his stance of staying in Iraq after the war. Therefore he would “stay and we keep the oil.”
On celebrity relationships he has no stake in:
And most offensive of all—an unlikely claim about his intellectual superiority:
