Opinion: Is Trump’s UFC vs. Migrant Fighting League His Worst Idea Ever? Almost

Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program, “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him further Wires. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.

CNN
—

As the son of a Palestinian immigrant father, former President Donald Trump’s frequent expression of hatred and lies against non-white immigrants has always been personal to me. I’ve often wondered whether my late father — who came to the United States in the mid-1950s — would have chosen this nation to live in as a fanatic if Trump was a prominent politician at the time and made demonizing immigrants a cornerstone of the policy made. his campaign.

That same question came back to me after watching Trump’s latest attempt to stoke hatred against people whose only “crime” is believing the famous poem on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal that promises our nation would be a place of refuge for the ‘huddled masses who long to breathe free.”

The incident occurred Saturday afternoon when Trump – at a gathering of conservative Christians – shared with the crowd his “Hunger Games”-themed idea to pit migrants against each other in physical combat. Trump first asked the audience if they had ever heard of Dana White, the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

From there, Trump boasted that he told White, “Why don’t you create an immigrant league of fighters and have a regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league – these are the greatest fighters in the world – fighting the champion of the migrants.” Trump then added: “I think the migrant guy could win, that’s how strong they are.”

You would think that Trump would have spoken at a Christian event about the teachings of Jesus Christ, who encouraged compassion for those in need. Perhaps Trump could have quoted from the famous passage from the Book of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat… I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

But Trump – despite his recent venture into Bible sales – is not about these core tenets of Christianity. Trump is only about what he thinks will help him return to power.

Clearly, Trump’s point in his UFC proposal for migrants was that despite the toughness of the professional UFC fighters, the migrants coming to America are actually stronger, tougher and more dangerous. Trump wants his supporters to see migrants as a threat from which only he can protect them.

This is the same theme Trump has leaned on since he launched his first presidential campaign nine years ago, when he told the crowd that migrants crossing the southern border “bring crime; they are rapists.” The irony, of course, is that now that Trump has been convicted of 34 crimes and charged with crimes in three other jurisdictions, he is the one causing the crime.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump escalated his demonization of migrants with comments such as the claim that they are “poisoning the blood of our country” — which was condemned by many as parroting not only white supremacists, but also Adolf Hitler, who raged about the “contamination of the blood” in “Mein Kampf.” Trump has also repeatedly claimed that migrants have been responsible for a spike in crime, when in reality our country in 2023 was at or near its lowest violent crime rate in more than fifty years. Additionally, studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the US.

But facts have never mattered to Trump. All that matters is what Trump thinks will help him personally.

However, Trump said one thing that was true on Saturday. That moment came when Trump told the crowd that the UFC president didn’t like the idea of ​​the migrant fighting league, adding, “But actually, this isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever had.”

Trump is telling the truth there: musing about a league to fight immigrants is despicable – but it is not his worst idea. That’s reserved for a few other Trump ideas, including his attempt to overturn the 2020 election to stay in power despite his losses — which has led to Trump being indicted on numerous criminal charges in both federal and state courts.

There’s also Trump’s idea to invite his supporters to Washington on January 6, 2021 for a “wild” time and then lead the angry mob to the Capitol to “stop the steal.” This is a key reason why the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol concluded in its final report that “the central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump,” adding : “None of the January events would have happened without him.”

And we can add even “worse” ideas than Trump’s repeated celebration of the Jan. 6 attackers’ migrant fighters organization, recently praising them as “warriors” and promising to pardon his supporters who wanted to end Trump on Trump’s behalf our democratic republic.

Trump proposing a dehumanizing physical battle between migrants who would then fight the UFC champions – reminiscent of Roman gladiatorial contests – is simply proof of Trump’s depravity. It’s also another reason why Trump must be defeated in November. A convicted criminal who staged a coup and politically weaponized hatred should never again serve as president of this great nation.