Speaking in Iowa on Tuesday at a rally billed as an address on the economy, President Trump veered near the end into a tirade in which he vilified the thousands of people arrested by ICE in Minnesota, falsely describing them as “hardened, vicious, horrible criminals.”
Raising the specter of immigrants who may “blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms, kill people,” Mr. Trump asserted while speaking near Des Moines that “2 percent of the population causes 90 percent of the crime.” He added, “So when you start decimating that 2 percent, boom,” miming a falling gesture with one finger as he spoke.
In reality, most of the immigrants that ICE has arrested in city crackdowns since Mr. Trump took office have no criminal record. In Washington, which Mr. Trump characterized in his speech as a “horrible,” crime-ridden city before his recent show of force, only 2 percent of those arrested by ICE had been convicted of a violent crime.
Tim Hogan, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, criticized Mr. Trump’s rhetoric toward detained migrants as dangerous, saying that voters will hold him accountable in November’s midterm elections.
“At a time when our entire nation is reeling from multiple tragedies in Minnesota, Donald Trump continues to pour gasoline on the fire,” Mr. Hogan said, adding “He knows damn well that his lies sow chaos, but he does it anyway.”
The dark turn in Mr. Trump’s language came amid a growing outcry against his administration’s show of force in Minnesota. After suggesting to Fox News earlier on Tuesday that he might “de-escalate” the crackdown, he then pushed back on the idea that any change in approach in Minnesota was a retreat, attacking anti-ICE demonstrators as “paid insurrectionists” and “paid agitators.”
He returned to that language in his speech. Mr. Trump was heckled throughout the address and outside the rally venue by people he described as “lunatics.” A crowd lined up for blocks along the president’s motorcade route, blowing whistles, beating drums and chanting “ICE out now!” A woman attending the rally screamed, “Release the files,” presumably referring to the Epstein files, and was being escorted out. A young man was dragged out by security officers for heckling the president.
“They get paid,” Mr. Trump said as the man was removed. “These are all paid agitators, that’s all they are. They get paid to go and — they don’t even know when they interview them. ‘Why are you here? I don’t know.’ They have no idea. They’re paid insurrectionists, really, in some cases. They’re sickos.”
Before Mr. Trump’s sidetrack, he had delivered an unusually focused hourlong speech, campaigning for the midterms and seeking to counter criticism of his tariffs and the rising cost of goods. In recent months, when Mr. Trump has been frustrated by continuing criticism over the state of the economy, he has vacillated between blaming immigrants for the country’s economic woes and assuring his supporters that life has been better than ever under his administration.
Mr. Trump repeated many of his false claims about the economy on Tuesday. He falsely said that he had eliminated taxes on Social Security, when he has not. He said that his administration had collected $600 billion in tariff revenue, when in reality the sum is $287 billion. And he claimed that prices for groceries and pharmaceutical drugs were falling, but the reverse is true: Drug prices are still rising and prices for groceries are now rising faster than during any month since October 2022.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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