Trump Entertains Bizarre UFC-Like Concept For Migrants: 'Not The Worst Idea I've Ever Had'
Former President Donald Trump backed an idea for a “migrant league” similar to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in remarks to Christian conservatives at a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference on Saturday.
“Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters, and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants,” said Trump, who claimed he pitched the idea to UFC President and CEO Dana White.
He continued, “I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are.”
The presumptive GOP presidential candidate, who once compared asylum-seekers to UFC fighters in 2019, added that White didn’t like the concept “too much.”
“But actually, it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” Trump said. “These are tough people, these people are tough, and they’re nasty, mean.”
White, in remarks toreporters at a UFC event, confirmed Trump shared the idea.
“It was a joke, it was a joke,” said White, a friend of the former president. “I saw everybody going crazy online. But yeah, he did say it.”
"These people are tough and they're nasty, mean" -- Trump, speaking to a Christian group, says that he encouraged Dana White to create a UFC "migrant league" because they're so tough pic.twitter.com/zGzVOPxjue
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 22, 2024
Trump would later bring up his “new migrant fight league” idea again at a rally in Philadelphia.
“You know, these are tough cookies coming into our country, coming with prisons and mental institutions,” he said.
He added that the idea could make White, who has appeared alongside Trump at multipleUFC events, “a lot of money.”
Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, took aim at Trump over his “incoherent, unhinged tirade” on Saturday.
“Fitting that convicted felon Donald Trump spent his time at a religious conference threatening to round up Latinos, bragging about ripping away Americans’ freedoms, and promising to be even more extreme if he regains power,” Chitika said in a statement.
Trump: I said, Dana, I have an idea for you to make a lot of money. You're going to go and start a new migrant fight League, only migrants, pic.twitter.com/n6C6ZqRhuP
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 22, 2024
The remarks from Trump come amid a campaign in which he’s used dehumanizing rhetoric to refer to migrants, including calling them “animals” and “not people” at an Ohio rally in March and repeatedly accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country.”
He’s pledged to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants should he win November’s presidential election.
