'I never knew that Hitler said it,' Donald Trump denies Fuhrer's link in ‘poisoning the blood’ remarks

Former US President Donald Trump has defended his use of the words “poisoning the blood” to lament the impact of immigration on the United States, claiming he was unaware that Adolf Hitler also used it in his book ‘Mein Kampf.’ FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during a commit to caucus rally, Trump, who has repeatedly invoked the term in recent speeches and interviews, said he did not intend to echo the Nazi leader’s racist ideology, which claimed that Jewish blood was incompatible with German blood. He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way, it’s a very different kind of a statement.” Trump insisted that he was referring to the dangers of illegal immigration, which he said was bringing in criminals, terrorists, and people from mental institutions, who were “poisoning the blood of our country.” “They are poisoning the blood of our country,” he said. “And I’m not talking about a specific group, and I never read ‘Mein Kampf,’ and I have no idea what Hitler said other than I’ve seen on the news. And we cannot let that … and that is poisoning our country.” ‘We are poisoning our country’ Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, confirmed that Trump was talking about “the terrorists, criminals, and people from insane asylums crossing the border, which is true since individuals on the terror watchlist and members of transnational gangs have illegally crossed.” Trump also complained that immigration was affecting the education system, saying that children who did not speak English were filling up the classrooms.