What exact remarks did Donald Trump make about Mexicans and when were they said?
Executive summary
Donald Trump’s most-cited, explicit remarks about Mexicans occurred when he launched his 2015 presidential campaign — “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people” — and he prefaced that by saying “They are not our friend, believe me” [1] [2]. Over the years he has reiterated disparaging language about migrants and Mexico (rallies, tweets, and speeches), while sometimes offering conciliatory-sounding lines such as “I love the Mexican people” in campaign statements [3] [4] [5].
1. The signature 2015 campaign launch line and its immediate context
On June 16, 2015, during the speech that launched his presidential campaign, Trump said of migrants from Mexico: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” and he also declared “They are not our friend, believe me,” a formulation widely reported at the time [1] [2].
2. Campaign and early administration defenses and clarifications
After the backlash, Trump and his campaign offered defenses that framed the comments as factual reporting about border crime and not a blanket indictment of all Mexicans; a campaign press release quoted him saying he “can never apologize for the truth” and that “I love the Mexican people,” while arguing his remarks referred to specific criminality reported in media accounts [3].
3. Repetition and rhetoric across rallies, tweets and speeches
Trump repeatedly used demeaning language about “illegals,” caravans, and Latinx migrants throughout the campaign and presidency, calling large migrant groups “an invasion” and describing caravans as having “violently overrun” Mexican security — language used in public remarks on border security and at rallies and recorded in White House materials [4] [6] [7].
4. Shifts and contradictions in later official remarks
While the 2015 quote remains the most quoted and consequential, Trump’s later public statements sometimes mixed tougher policy rhetoric with acknowledgements of bilateral cooperation: official White House remarks in the Trump administration praised Mexico’s cooperation — for example noting Mexican forces deployed on the southern border — even as administration rhetoric cast migration and cartels as national-security threats [5] [4].
5. Newer 2025–2026-era language about cartels and Mexico
In interviews and statements reported in 2026, Trump escalated rhetoric by saying “the cartels are running Mexico” and suggesting the U.S. might “start hitting land” to target cartels — comments that signal an extension of his earlier framing from migrants to cartel control and that prompted concern among Mexican officials about potential unilateral U.S. actions [8] [9] [10].
6. How scholars and advocacy groups frame those remarks and motives
Academic and advocacy sources read the 2015 lines and subsequent rhetoric as emblematic of persistent anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican themes that influenced policy and social climate; scholars have connected such statements to tangible impacts on Latinx communities, while advocacy groups have framed them as racist and mobilizing [2] [6] [11] [12].
7. What reporting does not establish and where to look next
The sourced reporting documents the exact phrases and dates referenced above — notably the 2015 campaign launch and the 2025–2026 cartel comments — but does not provide a complete catalogue of every utterance across years; comprehensive verification of every tweet, rally line, and private remark would require combing primary archives (campaign transcripts, social media, White House releases) beyond these sources [1] [3] [8].