Day 637: Trump falsely blames Democrats for migrant caravan trying to enter U.S.

Illegal crossings at the Southern border are up under Donald Trump. Despite changes in policy, including trying to deter immigrants from entering the country by heinously splitting families up at the border and putting children in de facto prisons, numbers have continued to rise. On top of that, Trump is no closer to his wall than he was two years ago.

So Trump wants to move the goalposts to blame Democrats for the issue, despite the lack of any evidence and the fact that immigration issues are almost entirely within the purview of the president.

Thursday, Trump tweeted — without any context — a video of apparently would-be immigrants seeking to enter the U.S. However, he blamed Democrats for what they’re “allowing to be done to our Country [sic].”

The video appears to show a migrant caravan coming from one or multiple Central American nations. The members of the caravan will attempt to seek asylum at the U.S. border. Trump is claiming these people all left their homes — and very likely all of their possessions in the world — to try and enter the U.S. because of the Democrats.

To say it’s unlikely that the vast majority of the migrants in the caravan closely follow U.S. politics would be an understatement. These are people simply trying to better their lives and that of their families without following the day-to-day arguments of American politics.

Additionally, there’s nothing Democrats have done to “allow” the situation to occur. Trump largely controls immigration policy and he just doesn’t want to take the blame for anything. Ironically, the influx isn’t even one that most people would blame Republicans (including Trump) for. It has more to do with economics and very tricky policy than anything else.

The overt racism of Trump’s words aren’t even obscured these days either. Derisively calling a group of people “this” dehumanizes them to make them nothing more than objects. He’s already accused immigrants of being overwhelmingly full of rapists, drug dealers and killers, despite evidence to the contrary.

So with the 2018 midterms just weeks away, Trump is trying to stretch any issue — no matter how little sense it makes or how racist the accusations — to blame Democrats and rally Republicans at the polls.

637 days in, 825 to go

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