Seems like if trump’s absurd claims of all the world’s criminals and mental defectives being shipped to America was believed by any of the MAGAts, there would be serious investigations. The fact that (afaik) there are none says they don’t believe it either. But he keeps claiming it. The very least that could be asked of him is “where did you hear that?” Venezuela is crime-free and their jails are empty because all their criminals are now in the U.S. That should be a breeze to debunk.
“They’re emptying out their asylums…”
Based on the costumes and signs I’m seeing at Trump rallies, this statement is harsh, but true.
“People are saying.”
Best cite ever!
Exactly.
One person says it.
Other people hear it and repeat it.
The first person hears it being repeated.
All of them can now claim “People are saying…”
It has been debunked
As for why he claims it at all, who knows what strange twists and turns happen in the dark, garbage-strewn alleyways of his mind, but I posted a theory in the “What’s up with the Hannibal Lector talk” thread I had seen in a YT video that seems plausible.
The theory surmises that trump heard that refugees are seeking political asylum, and seized on that last word and Dunning-Krugered it into ‘insane asylum’ in his addled brain, coming up with the idea that countries are emptying out their insane asylums and sending the patients to the U.S. From there his addled mind associated insane asylums and Hannibal Lector.
At the recent Mar-a-Lardo press conference where trump brought up the “emptying out asylums” line yet again, he also said “insane asylums— those are like mental institutions on steroids”. So he doesn’t even realize ‘insane asylum’ is an outmoded, obsolete term for ‘mental institution’. He thinks there are mental institutions, and then there are even worse places, where the really, really bad and crazy people are, called insane asylums.
Personally, I think he belongs in an insane asylum.
Whatever he says, believe the opposite. Whatever he accuses others of, believe that it is true of him. Whatever he denies, believe it to be the absolute truth. He is a master of projection and dissemblance.
I misread that as “inane asylum.” 
Newsweek? MSM!! Fake news!!
(This post, and my earlier one, are just to illustrate that this kind of argument doesn’t have much if any impact on his MAGA supporters. It may have some influence on in-betweeners, I guess.)
Oh! Oh! Pick me! I know the answer!
“Why did Donald Trump say something?”
Because he thought saying it would benefit Donald Trump.
“Why did Donald Trump do something?”
Because he thought doing it would benefit Donald Trump.
“What is Donald Trump thinking right now?”
What can I, Donald Trump, say or do that would benefit me, Donald Trump.
I have no doubt he thinks of himself in the third person too, and in all caps. With gold leaf.
I agree. One with Hannibal Lecter level security. And he should not receive the visit of Clarice Starling. Only dementors should be allowed near him.
During the Mariel boatlift, Cuba availed itself of an opportunity to encourage “socially undesirable” individuals to emigrate to the US:
Mariel boatlift - Wikipedia (see “Emigration process and violence” section)
Trump knowing this on his own is not something I’d credit him with but he could have been told about this by someone else.
There was also all that fuss not too long ago where border states were gathering up busloads of immigrants and dumping them in sanctuary cities as a way of saying “if you love immigrants so much why don’t you try taking care of them?” Trump openly talks about rounding up immigrants so for him to imagine other countries doing it isn’t too much of a stretch.
In the anecdotal category, I have certainly heard local rumors that so-and-so neighboring cities are giving one-way bus tickets to criminals and/or homeless people, destination here. I’m sure most places have a local variant of this.
He’s seen Scarface just like the rest of us.
And searchlights, kind of like the 20th Century Fox bumper.
Now I’m imagining a version of Silence of the Lambs but Trump in the glass cage doing the accordion hands.
Except Trump is Miggs and the line is ‘Look at the polls’.
I don’t think even that’s necessary. Trump wants to get everybody panicked about immigrants. Trump is probably scared of mentally ill people*, and thinks everybody else is also. Therefore he thinks that if he says immigrants come from “insane asylums” voters will be more afraid of immigrants and therefore more likely to vote for him.
*ETA: he thinks he himself and anyone who votes for him is sane.
Yeah, he could have just come up with the phrase some other way. As I said before, who knows what dark twists and turns the garbage-strewn alleyways of his brain go to?
But some of his addled notions must come from some aspect of his actual reality that he then twists into something uniquely, and horribly, trumpian. ‘Insane asylum’ is a pretty outdated term, but one trump would remember, since he’s old. I can totally imagine he heard that refugees were seeking ‘political asylum’ and morphed it in his broken brain to ‘insane asylum’.
He’s ridiculous.
Mentally ill people are walking allover the US of A. Clearly not immigrants. Many are Veterans.
Fear of more coming here is irrational and not even happening on a grand scale.
I’m sure some immigrants are mentally ill. Just like some have other illnesses. Or kids. Or a limp. Or a dog. Or a bald head. Or a purple shirt on.
Silly old Trump. He makes me laugh.
This I question.
Not the part about what Trump thinks about himself. Nobody can doubt he has the highest possible opinion of himself.
I’m talking about Trump’s opinions about the people who vote for him. I don’t feel Trump respects or even likes the people who vote for him.
First, as I noted, Trump considers himself to be great. So he’s going to look down on his voters for not being him. Worse yet, many of his voters are poor. And Trump, who’s been rich since birth, feels that he accomplished something by being rich and people who are poor are inferior to him.
Second, Trump expects to be handed things. So I think it annoys the hell out of him that he has to go out and ask people to vote for him. I think he resents his voters because he needs them.
Third, Trump thinks he’s smart. So he doesn’t want to think that he’s winning votes and getting elected just because he’s doing what the voters want. He wants to be able to tell himself that he was able to outsmart the voters and trick them into voting for him.