Did tump say that undocumented immigrants weren’t human and are animals
Executive summary
Donald Trump has repeatedly used the phrase "These aren't people; these are animals" in public remarks about migrants and criminals, and multiple reputable outlets reported him saying immigrants were "animals" and "not human" in recent speeches and roundtables [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and fact-checking show a persistent ambiguity about whether he meant all undocumented immigrants or specific violent gang members (notably MS‑13) — Trump and some supporters later framed the comment as aimed at violent gang members, while critics and civil‑rights groups treat the language as broad dehumanization of migrants [4] [5] [6].
1. What Trump actually said on the record
On several occasions Trump used near-identical language: during a White House immigration meeting he said "We have people coming into the country... You wouldn't believe how bad these people are... These aren't people. These are animals," which was reported contemporaneously by outlets including Reuters and local press [3] [1], and in rallies and campaign events he repeated that some immigrants were "not people ... these are animals" [7] [8]. Reuters explicitly summarized a 2024 Michigan speech as Trump calling immigrants illegally in the United States "animals" and "not human" [1], and multiple news outlets carried similar verbatim quotes [2] [3].
2. Context and competing interpretations: MS‑13 vs. all migrants
News organizations and fact‑checkers have documented that one recorded instance followed a sheriff’s remark about MS‑13, leading the White House and later Trump aides to say he was referring to violent gang members rather than all undocumented migrants [4] [6]. PolitiCo noted the comment "came in response to a comment about MS‑13" but also highlighted that it was "unclear whether Trump was specifically referencing gang members or undocumented immigrants more broadly" [5]. Fact checkers and the Trump campaign both advanced the narrower interpretation — that "animals" described MS‑13 — while critics and immigrant advocacy groups viewed the phrasing as dehumanizing toward undocumented people generally [4] [9].
3. How sources framed the statement and the agendas at play
Advocacy groups like LULAC condemned the remarks as dehumanizing and intended to stoke fear and division, explicitly presenting the quote as an attack on undocumented immigrants [9]. Mainstream outlets (Reuters, Times of Israel) reported the words directly and noted the broader pattern of Trump's immigration rhetoric, while fact‑checking bodies and the Trump campaign emphasized contextual links to MS‑13 to narrow the target of the insult [1] [6] [4]. Each source brings implicit agendas: civil‑rights groups highlight harm to immigrant communities, campaign communications seek to limit political fallout by narrowing intent, and news outlets balance verbatim reporting with context and analysis [9] [6] [5].
4. Verdict: did he say undocumented immigrants “weren’t human and are animals”?
Yes — multiple reputable reports record Trump saying phrases such as "These aren't people; these are animals" and calling immigrants "animals" and "not human" in public remarks [1] [3] [7]. However, there is documented disagreement about scope: Trump and allied statements later framed the words as referring specifically to violent MS‑13 gang members [4] [6], while critics, immigrant advocates, and many news reports treated the language as dehumanizing of undocumented immigrants more broadly [9] [5]. Given the documented quotations, it is accurate to say Trump used dehumanizing language that has been reported as directed at immigrants; whether he intended the phrase to apply to all undocumented immigrants or only to violent gang members remains contested in the record and interpreted differently by different actors [4] [5] [6].