Last month, former President Donald Trump said publicly to crowds of his supporters that immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally were “poisoning the blood" of the country. Now, a new poll by CBS News finds that nearly half of Americans agreed with this language, and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself made them even likelier to agree.
Jon Lewis is a research fellow at the GW Program on Extremism. He studies domestic violent extremism and homegrown violent extremism, with a specialization in the evolution of white supremacist and anti-government movements in the United States and federal responses to the threat. Lewis is the co-author of two major Program reports on the events of January 6th, as well as numerous long form publications on the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and their role in the events of January 6th. In addition, Lewis manages the Program's Capitol Hill Siege database, which is a public tracker for all federal cases stemming from J6 participation.
Lewis published a recent op-ed on the mainstreaming of the great replacement and white replacement theory, in which he and his co-author examine how these far-right conspiracy theories pose a threat in 2024 and beyond. The full op-ed can be found here.
In response to this new poll, Lewis says:
“That nearly half of Americans agree with Trump's claim that illegal immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of this country highlights the degree to which "white replacement" conspiracies have become part of mainstream discourse in the United States. Years of sustained efforts by right-wing actors have seen these white supremacist, nativist beliefs seeded into the American consciousness, with predictable results. In an election cycle already dominated by fascist rhetoric, the invocation of antisemitic and racist conspiracies only increases the likelihood of stochastic lone actor violence.”
If you would like to speak to Jon Lewis, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-