TRUMP SEEKS JEW SUPPORT FOR TIGHTER BORDERS
US president declares country ‘full’, asylum system ‘a scam’
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Saturday again declared that the United States was “full” and called its asylum system “a scam”, tying his push to close the country’s borders to immigrants entering the country illegally and asylum-seekers to an entreaty for Jewish voters to support his reelection campaign.
“Our system’s full; our country’s full,” Trump said, speaking to an audience that included descendants of Holocaust survivors, Jews in red skullcaps emblazoned with “Trump” and people carrying Israeli flags.
“You can’t come in. Our country is full. What can we do? We can’t handle any more. Our country’s full. You can’t come in, I’m sorry.”
He was met with applause and cheers at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership
meeting here, underscoring how many conservative Jewish voters, alarmed by rising threats of antiSemitism and energised by his pro-Israel policies, have embraced a president with a history of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes, including remarks that he has made before the coalition.
Fresh from a visit on Friday to a California border town, the president doubled down on his attacks on migrants seeking asylum at the border. The administration has recently toughened its policy for accepting asylumseekers, with stories of fleeing violence and corruption no longer meeting the standard for entry.
“The asylum programme is a scam,” he said, describing people “who look like they should be fighting for the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)”. with large muscles and face tattoos. “Some of the roughest people you’ve ever seen.”