Former President Donald Trump told donors at a fundraiser this weekend that he wanted immigrants from “nice” countries “like Denmark” to travel to the United States and vowed to extend his controversial tax cuts for rich Americans if he’s elected to the White House later this year.
The New York Times first reported Trump’s remarks about immigrants from his high-dollar fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend. Trump spoke to guests at a mansion owned by a billionaire financier and appeared to defend his controversial 2018 remarks where he called certain nations — including Haiti and some in Africa — “shithole countries.”
“And when I said, you know, Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, I’m trying to be nice,” Trump told donors, the Times reported. “Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”
“And you know, they took that as a very terrible comment, but I felt it was fine.”
The comments echo his longstanding anti-immigration rhetoric as he seeks a second term following his defeat in 2020. The former president also railed against migrants entering the U.S. along its southern border with Mexico on Saturday, claiming people were coming in “from prisons and jails.”
Megan Briggs via Getty Images
“They’ve been shipped in, brought in, deposited in our country, and they’re with us tonight,” Trump told guests, per the Times.
The Trump campaign said it raised more than $50 million at the event, although the official figure will not be made public in campaign finance reports for some time.
The former president also spoke about his signature 2017 tax cuts, which were heavily titled toward wealthy Americans and corporations. Most of the provisions are set to expire in 2025, including a controversial deduction for so-called pass-through businesses (like partnerships), but Trump told supporters he planned to expand those benefits if elected to another term.
“Trump spoke on the need to win back the White House so we can turn our country around, focusing on key issues including unleashing energy production, securing our southern border, reducing inflation, extending the Trump Tax Cuts, eliminating Joe Biden’s insane [electric vehicle] mandate, protecting Israel, and avoiding global war,” an official read-out of the event shared with reporters said.
The comments prompted a quick rebuke from President Joe Biden’s campaign, which blasted Trump for telling “his rich friends” he’ll give them tax cuts “when he thinks the cameras are not on.”
Trump’s mammoth fundraising haul comes as the presumptive Republican nominee seeks to close the war chest gap with Biden. The president raised more than $90 million in March, with $192 million in the bank, far outpacing his predecessor.
Trump has been sending some of his fundraising dollars to a PAC that he has largely used to help pay his legal bills.
