{"slug":"campaign-rhetoric-vermin-poisoning-blood-enemy-within-2023-2024","title":"'Vermin', 'Poisoning the Blood', 'the Enemy From Within': Campaign Rhetoric Against Opponents and Immigrants, 2023–2024","date":"2023-11-11","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"During the 2024 campaign Donald Trump vowed to 'root out' political opponents who 'live like vermin,' said undocumented immigrants were 'poisoning the blood of our country,' and proposed using the National Guard or 'if really necessary, … the military' against 'the enemy from within,' a phrase he applied to Rep. Adam Schiff. Historians and civil-rights groups said the language echoed fascist and Nazi rhetoric; the ADL said the 'poisoning the blood' phrase 'has the potential to cause real danger and violence.' The statements were made out of office and are recorded as documented intent for later conduct.","summary":"As a candidate, Trump called opponents 'vermin' to be 'rooted out', said immigrants were 'poisoning the blood' of the country, and suggested deploying the military against an 'enemy from within' that included a sitting congressman. Historians compared the language to fascist propaganda. Rhetoric is not an act, and no direct harm is tied to these statements in the sources reviewed; they are recorded as stated intent relevant to later second-term deployments and prosecutions of opponents.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"significant","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-compares-political-opponents-vermin-root-alarming-historians/story?id=104847748","title":"Trump compares political opponents to 'vermin' who he will 'root out,' alarming historians","publisher":"ABC News"},{"url":"https://www.vox.com/2023/11/14/23958866/trump-vermin-authoritarian-democracy","title":"Trump's 'vermin' comments are a reminder he's an authoritarian","publisher":"Vox"},{"url":"https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/politics/trump-anti-immigrant-comments/index.html","title":"Trump's anti-immigrant comments draw rebuke","publisher":"CNN"},{"url":"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-05-23/trump-gop-nazi-presidential-election-politics","title":"Trump and GOP echo Nazi, far-right ideology ahead of election","publisher":"Los Angeles Times"},{"url":"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-suggests-hell-use-the-military-on-the-enemy-from-within-the-u-s-if-hes-reelected","title":"Trump suggests he'll use the military on 'the enemy from within' the U.S. if he's reelected","publisher":"PBS NewsHour (Associated Press)"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_Donald_Trump","title":"Rhetoric of Donald Trump","publisher":"Wikipedia"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["dehumanizing rhetoric","vermin","enemy from within","poisoning the blood","political opponents","immigrants","2024 campaign","intent evidence"],"relatedEntries":["trump-ms13-dehumanizing-rhetoric-racial","protest-crackdown-insurrection-act-threats","national-guard-illegal-deployments","doj-weaponization-political-prosecutions"],"timeline":[{"date":"2023-10-06","title":"'Poisoning the blood of our country'","summary":"CNN reports that in an interview published the previous week by The National Pulse, Trump said undocumented immigrants were 'poisoning the blood of our country'. The ADL condemns the remark."},{"date":"2023-11-11","title":"'Live like vermin'","summary":"At a Veterans Day rally in Claremont, New Hampshire, Trump pledges to 'root out' communists, Marxists, fascists and 'radical left thugs that live like vermin'. Historians compare the language to Hitler's and Mussolini's (ABC News)."},{"date":"2024-10-12","title":"Schiff named an 'enemy from within'","summary":"Trump applies the phrase 'enemy from within' to Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the House investigation behind his first impeachment (AP via PBS NewsHour)."},{"date":"2024-10-13","title":"Military against the 'enemy from within'","summary":"In a Fox News interview, Trump says the 'enemy from within' should be 'very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military'."}],"location":{"name":"Claremont, New Hampshire, and campaign events nationwide","lat":43.3767,"lng":-72.3468},"custom":{"era":"post-presidency","posture":"documented","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 20(2)","provision":"States shall prohibit advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. This is a state obligation, and the United States reserved that Article 20 requires no action restricting constitutionally protected speech."}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"No specific victim harmed by these statements is identified in the sources reviewed. The groups targeted were political opponents described as 'vermin' and an 'enemy from within', and undocumented immigrants described as 'poisoning the blood' of the country.","perpetrators":"Donald Trump (then a candidate for president)","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and then nominee","institution":"Trump 2024 campaign"}],"keyPoints":["Claremont, New Hampshire, Veterans Day, November 11, 2023: 'we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country' (ABC News; Vox).","Historian Jon Meacham: 'To call your opponent 'vermin,' to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes' (ABC News). Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called such comparisons the work of 'snowflakes'.","Interview with The National Pulse, published the week before CNN's October 6, 2023 report: 'It's poisoning the blood of our country. It's so bad, and people are coming in with disease' (CNN). ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the phrase 'echoes nativist talking points and has the potential to cause real danger and violence.'","Trump repeated the 'poisoning the blood' line in a December 2023 speech and said he had never read 'Mein Kampf' (Los Angeles Times).","Fox News interview aired October 13, 2024: 'I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within … radical left lunatics … it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.' The day before, he had applied the phrase to Rep. Adam Schiff (AP via PBS NewsHour)."],"legalBasis":"ICCPR Article 20(2) (state obligation, subject to the US reservation); domestic First Amendment protection of political speech short of incitement to imminent lawless action","postureNote":"Documented public statements by a candidate out of office. No legal proceeding concerns them. They are recorded as evidence of stated intent for later second-term entries on domestic military deployments and prosecutions of political opponents.","relatedIncidents":["trump-ms13-dehumanizing-rhetoric-racial","protest-crackdown-insurrection-act-threats","national-guard-illegal-deployments","doj-weaponization-political-prosecutions"]}}