Former President Donald Trump recently lamented that immigrants coming to the U.S. were not from "nice" countries "like Denmark" at a multimillion-dollar fundraiser on Saturday night at Palm Beach, Fla. according to The New York Times. The comments follow increased anti-immigration rhetoric throughout his reelection campaign.
The comments were made during a roughly 45-minute presentation at a mansion owned by the billionaire financier John Paulson in Palm Beach, an exclusive town known for its affluent community.
The Times received the exclusive by one of the dinner's attendees, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the private event but provided an extensive readout of the former president's remarks.
"There are people coming in from prisons and jails. They're coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster," Trump told his guests, according to the attendee. The former president has made similar claims the heart of his campaign speeches.
He then appeared, the Times reported, to refer to an episode during his presidency when he drew significant criticism after an Oval Office meeting with federal lawmakers about immigration during which he described Haiti and some nations in Africa as "shithole countries," compared to countries like Norway.
"And when I said, you know, why can't we allow people to come in from nice countries, I'm trying to be nice," Trump said at the dinner, to chuckles from the crowd. "Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?"
At the event, dozens of wealthy donors helped write checks that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee claimed totaled more than $50 million, an amount that would set a record but had not been verified, according to The New York Times. Campaign finance reports encompassing the dta of the event won't be available for months.
During his remarks, Trump also condemned the surge of migrants, particularly from Latin America, saying that gang members "make the Hells Angels look like extremely nice people."
Palm Beach, where the event took place, is an exclusive community—which, according to the Census Bureau, is 93.8% white— physically separated by a body of water with West Palm Beach, a town that houses a more diverse population. His claims suggested that migrants would soon make their way into the private community.
"They've been shipped in, brought in, deposited in our country, and they're with us tonight," Trump said.
This isn't the first time Trump makes comments of this nature. During his rallies, he frequently laments migrants from a list of countries from Africa, Asia and the Middle East as he stokes fears around the surge at the border, which he blames for a spike in crime, despite this not being supported by available data.
Just last week, the presidential nominee called immigrants illegally in the United States "animals" and "not human" in a speech in Michigan. He has also claimed that migrants "poison the blood" of America.
Asked to comment, a Trump campaign official pointed to an official readout of the former president's event, including that he had discussed the border crisis and the tax cuts that he enacted while in office. The official did not address the specific quotes and did not respond to a question about whether the campaign was disputing them.
Trump ended his remarks with an assessment of America's future with apocalyptic rhetoric.
"The most successful people in the whole country are in this room," he said. "This could very well be the last election this country ever has. July 4 is not as important as this as far as I'm concerned."
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