Trump’s ‘Animals’ Remark Referred to Migrants Who Entered US Illegally and Were Charged with Murder

A rumor circulating online in September 2024 claimed that a seven-second video clip showed former U.S. President Donald Trump saying of immigrants in a blanket manner, “They’re not humans, they’re animals.” Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) originally broadcast the video from a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 2, 2024.

Our examination of the full-speech video showed the literal context that Trump’s “animals” comment specifically referenced migrants entering the U.S. illegally and who also later faced murder charges.

Trump’s April 2024 remark followed other instances of the former president mentioning the same word. For example, in May 2018, after Trump mentioned “animals” in reference to MS-13 gang members, then-U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Il., who is Latino, responded to a reporter for The Associated Press, saying, “Let’s remember. You might make that distinction between members of MS-13 and the rest of the Latino community and the rest of the immigrant community. I assure you that most of Americans don’t make that distinction when he says we’re ‘animals.'”

For years, Trump placed immigration (and a Southwest U.S. border wall) as a focus of his political campaigns and rally rhetoric, including for the 2024 presidential election — a race in which Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, vowed that, if elected, they would deport millions of migrants. During the September 2024 presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump baselessly claimed “millions of criminals” crossed the border into the U.S.

In one of the more prominent examples of Trump providing his thoughts on immigration from 2015 — while launching his bid for the White House at his Trump Tower in New York — he said of Mexico and migrants, “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

In this story, we’ve broken down all of the facts regarding the April 2024 “animals” quote, including a transcript and video. We’ve also noted that U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign originally promoted this rumor, prior to Harris accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election. We contacted the Harris-Walz campaign to ask about the clip’s brief length and omitted context, and will update this report if we receive a response.

Trump: ‘They’re Not Humans, They’re Animals’

Our examination of the Trump remark, “They’re not humans, they’re animals,” began with a look at a Sept. 16, 2024, X post (archived) featuring the seven-second video and showed Trump delivering remarks at a podium. Several men dressed in law enforcement uniforms or suits and ties formed a line and stood behind the former president. The post’s caption read, “Trump: Democrats said please don’t call immigrants animals. I said, no, they’re not humans, they’re animals.”

Trump: Democrats said please don’t call immigrants animals. I said, no, they’re not humans, they’re animals.
pic.twitter.com/LV6rUxcEab

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) September 16, 2024

Following that post, other users also shared the same clip, including on Reddit (archived) in the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit displaying over 67,000 points — a very high mark for a Reddit post. Michael Hayden, the former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency, reposted (archived) a post showing the same video on X and questioned the people standing directly behind Trump, writing, “Law enforcement officers. Why are you doing this?” Hayden’s repost displayed a different user’s post (archived) claiming Trump said the words, “Immigrants are not humans. They are animals.”

The captions shared by these posts did not reflect the exact words spoken by Trump. He did not use the word “immigrants” during these specific statements.

The brief length of the video clip and the incorrect transcription of Trump’s remarks revealed that the user who originally uploaded the clip omitted context. That user was @KamalaHQ (formerly @BidenHQ) — the official rapid response account for U.S. President Joe Biden’s former campaign and Vice President Kamala Harris’ subsequent campaign.

The @KamalaHQ account’s managers originally shared (archived) the video on April 2 — the same day Trump delivered the remarks. The post featured the same caption from The Intellectualist’s post with the word “immigrants.”

Trump: Democrats said please don’t call immigrants animals. I said, no, they’re not humans, they’re animals pic.twitter.com/yJ7fFHEUlh

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) April 2, 2024

The RSBN YouTube channel previously live-streamed Trump’s remarks in full. The context surrounding the “animals” comment showed that, just before his “animals” remark, the former president listed off crimes allegedly committed by migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, including the murders of Michigan resident Ruby Garcia, a young Michigan mother named Leah Gomez and Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, among others. He also referenced the MS-13 transnational gang minutes earlier.

At the time of Trump’s comments in April, The Associated Press correctly reported his “animals” remark pertained to “people in the U.S. illegally who are suspected of committing crimes.” At the same time, the article’s author noted the comment constituted “dehumanizing language that those who study extremism have warned increases the risk of violence.”

Reuters also reported the larger context of the same comment, adding that the former president frequently claimed migrants crossing the border with Mexico illegally have escaped from prisons and asylums in their home countries and are fueling violent crime in the United States. The story continued, “While available data on criminals’ immigration status is sparse, researchers say people living in the U.S. illegally do not commit violent crimes at a higher rate than native-born citizens.”

Trump’s ‘Animals’ Remark Video and Transcript

The moment in the RSBN YouTube video when Trump made the remark in question begins at the 1:35:11 mark.

We transcribed the relevant portion of Trump’s speech, bolding the part featured in the seven-second video clip:

And just a few weeks ago, I met with the grieving family of Laken Riley. You know Laken. She’s, uh, she was incredible, top of her class. Everything was the top. She was the top of everything. She was incredible. I met her parents. Incredible people.

The 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia who was barbarically murdered by an illegal alien animal. Uh, the Democrats said, “Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.” I said no, they’re not humans. They’re not humans, they’re animals.

Nancy Pelosi told me that. She said, “Please don’t use the word ‘animal,’ sir, when you’re talking about these people.” I said, “I’ll use the word animal, cause that’s what they are.”

I’ll never forget my vow to her wonderful mother, father and sister. Two weeks ago, and, uh, I said, “I will deliver justice for Laken.” I said that. And now, today, I’m adding something. It’s going to be for Laken and it’s also justice for Ruby. We’re going to deliver justice for Ruby.

Trump’s History of the Term ‘Animals’

In our research, we noted other examples of Trump mentioning the word “animals” in relation to immigration.

For example, on May 18, 2018, NPR updated its earlier reporting to clarify the truth about remarks Trump delivered on the previous day. Following a comment from another person about MS-13 during a roundtable discussion at the White House, Trump said, “We have people coming into the country — or trying to come in, we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” The White House and Trump later said the “animals” remark pertained to MS-13 gang members.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper published (archived) a transcript containing further context:

Here is the full context of President Trump’s “animals” comment during the immigration/sanctuary city roundtable, which came as a Sheriff was complaining about restrictions placed on ICE databases, and MS-13 gang members. pic.twitter.com/sI9uWXr1Sc

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 17, 2018

Then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chided Trump for the May 2018 remark, saying, “Every day that you think you’ve seen it all, along comes another manifestation of why their policies are so inhumane and why we have to continue the debate, striving for bipartisanship, with openness about what is, what is at stake and what the choices are, and to be unifying in every way possible. Calling people ‘animals’ is not a good thing.”

Trump later also called Pelosi an “animal” during a November 2022 campaign rally, just days after a man named David DePape brutally attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer at their San Francisco home. The incident left Paul Pelosi with a fractured skull and injuries on his right arm and hand.

In a different example of Trump mentioning “animals,” on March 17, 2024, Rolling Stone reported that Trump said at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, held on the previous day, “some immigrants are ‘not people … these are animals.'” Again, the context of Trump’s remarks — revealed in a RSBN-hosted YouTube video of his full speech (beginning at 20:31) — showed he specifically referenced MS-13 gang members less than 30 seconds before saying “animals.” The Rolling Stone story did not mention MS-13 or gang members.

Sources