President Donald Trump has come under fire for remarks he made about undocumented immigrants performing farm labor, after claiming they do the challenging work “naturally.”

Trump has repeatedly flip-flopped on his position on undocumented immigrants working on farms, moving from demanding “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” to declaring accommodations must be made for them—in large part because the farmers cannot operate without them. Trump has called some undocumented farm workers “almost impossible to replace.”

Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday (video below), the President claimed that currently there is a program where these undocumented immigrants can get a “pass” to return to the U.S. legally after they receive “schooling.”

“We’re doing things that are that are very difficult to do and very complex, but it works really well,” Trump claimed. “We’re sending them back, and then they’re schooling, they’re learning, they’re coming in, they’re coming in legally. We have a lot of that going on, but we’re taking care of our farmers.”

READ MORE: Trump Melts Down Over Elizabeth Warren’s Accusations

“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody, you know, these are these people, they’re—you can’t replace them very easily.”

He then went on to claim that “people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work, and they’ve tried, we’ve tried, everybody tried , they don’t do it.”

“These people do it naturally, naturally,” he said of the undocumented.

He went on to describe a recent conversation he said he had with a farmer, where he asked, “What happens if they get a bad back?”

“He said, ‘They don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die.'”

“I said, ‘That’s interesting, isn’t it?'”

Critics blasted the president, with some describing his remarks as racist.

READ MORE: ‘This Is a War’: Hochul Joins Blue-State Map Push in Gerrymander Arms Race

“This was literally one of the arguments that slave owners in the U.S. used to justify slavery,” noted attorney Joseph M. Azam.

Economist Sky Marchini said that Trump is “inventing entirely new forms of racism every day.”

“Apparently, inner-city folks are lazy, but undocumented immigrants have indestructible spines. Amazing what a little economic exploitation can do for your posture,” wrote “recovering media guy” Marc Leunissen.

“‘Everyone has tried to get Black people to do menial labor in America but they’re too lazy so we’ve got to make the Mexicans do it, says THE F—— PRESIDENT,” wrote organizer and New York Times bestselling author Shannon Watts.

“‘They do it naturally?’ Where have I heard that phrase before? Oh, yeah! American History 501: The History of the South,” observed healthcare administration instructor Anthony M. Hopper.

“This is the same type of racist lie that says that black people don’t experience as much pain as white people, causing medical racism and leading to severely different outcomes for black patients,” wrote Cybersecurity expert Jackie Singh. “It’s stereotyping and racism, pure and simple.”

“This is so ridiculously racist and cruel. Yes, immigrants take jobs that American citizens will not. No, they are not ‘naturally’ suited to it – they’re forced to by our broken immigration and labor system. They deserve legal pathways and protections,” wrote Claudia Hernandez, a communicator for racial and economic justice.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump on undocumented farm workers: “People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’ve tried, we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally. Naturally … they don’t get a bad back, because if they get a bad back, they die.” pic.twitter.com/HxXtKtIPLa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2025

READ MORE: Trump Rages About ‘Rigged’ as CNBC Host Struggles to Reel Him In

Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump ranted and raged about the 2020 election he lost while discussing his Justice Department’s new investigation into allegations—dismissed by some experts—that the Obama administration engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” against him during the 2016 election.

CNBC’s Joe Kernen asked Trump on Tuesday if he had directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the 2016 election, and the President professed he had “nothing to do with it,” before launching into a rant about the 2020 election.

“Pam’s doing a great job. I have nothing to do with it. I will tell you this. They deserve it. I was happy to hear it. I actually read it just like you did. I have nothing to do with it. But what they did in the election, what they did and even the last election—but it was too big to rig,” Trump rambled.

READ MORE: ‘Frightening Escalation’: Leaked DHS Memo Fuels Fears of ‘Military Police State’

“But what they did in the 2020 election is… grotesque. I mean, that was a rigged election—” Trump said before Kernen stopped him.

“We can’t litigate that. We can’t relitigate that,” the CNBC host insisted nervously.

“No, no, we’re back to rigging again. Well, you can use it because everyone knows it,” Trump continued.  “Yeah, You know, a year ago, you would have been upset if I said it. Today, it’s different. I say it all the time. It’s a rigged election. 100 percent rigged.”

“We can’t relitigate,” Kernen said again. “Independent sources, even your Justice Department—but then I’m bringing up Bill Barr—but even they decided that, there wasn’t, there were you know, things that happened, but nothing that would have swayed it.”

READ MORE: Trump Melts Down Over Elizabeth Warren’s Accusations

“Well, they were wrong, and Bill Barr was wrong, and Bill Barr didn’t investigate, and he should have,” Trump continued. “And why didn’t Bill Barr give the—why didn’t he give the Durham report? Why didn’t he give that report the stuff that’s in there that’s all this stuff is coming out of it? Why didn’t he give it earlier? I mean, you know, why did it take so long to do it, and why didn’t he give it why didn’t they announce it earlier?

Because it morphed. What happened is it morphed into the Biden administration, and the Biden administration buried it. So, you know.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

KERNEN: You’ve talked how you want success, not retribution. The DOJ is now tapping a grand jury to look into the intelligence community’s assessment of what was happening with Russia. You have nothing to do with directing that?

TRUMP: Nope. I have nothing to do with it. I will… pic.twitter.com/JZfiKW2JtO

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2025

READ MORE: ‘This Is a War’: Hochul Joins Blue-State Map Push in Gerrymander Arms Race

Image via Reuters 

A leaked Department of Homeland Security memo reveals a plan to dramatically increase the use of the U.S. armed forces on American streets in domestic law enforcement roles, especially in immigration, for “years.”

The memo “provides a glimpse into the thinking of top officials as they seek to involve the Defense Department more deeply in these domestic operations, and it has unnerved experts who believe it portends a frightening escalation,” The New Republic reported.

“The memo is alarming, because it speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment,” Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told TNR’s Greg Sargent. “The military is the most powerful, coercive tool our country has. We don’t want the military doing law enforcement. It absolutely undermines the rule of law.”

READ MORE: Trump Melts Down Over Elizabeth Warren’s Accusations

TNR reports that the “administration seems to be supercharging immigration ‘invasion’ agitprop to manufacture a sense of national trauma similar to the one that arose after the September 11 attacks. That led to another type of ‘war on terror’ hyper-militarization at home (as well as abroad). The administration seems determined to outdo that—this time against the new internal enemy.”

Joseph Nunn, counsel for the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center told Sargent, “Normalizing routine military support to law enforcement could create a kind of domestic ‘forever war,’ but one that is uniquely dangerous.”

The memo was written by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s brother, Philip Hegseth, who works for the Department of Homeland Security as a liaison officer to the Pentagon, as well as a senior advisor to Secretary Kristi Noem.

Philip Hegseth’s memo included an itinerary, and attendees for a July 21 meeting, “including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several of his top advisers, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, and NORTHCOM Commander Gregory Guillot. Staff include Phil Hegseth and acting ICE Commissioner Todd Lyons.”

The Daily Beast, reporting on the Hegseth memo, called it a “secret plan for years of troops on U.S. streets.”

READ MORE: Top Trump Adviser Rejects ‘Rigged’ Numbers Narrative

Prominent attorney George Conway commented on Sargent’s reporting on social media, writing: “And here we go.” He said the plan seems to be “to turn the nation into a military police state. They’re telling each other to be careful what they write down, but they’ve already written down too much.”

“The point of calling illegal immigration an ‘invasion’ is to justify using the military domestically,” noted Cato Institute vice president Alex Nowrasteh.

“Things are going from bad to worse at terrifying speed,” wrote Matt Bennett, co-founder of the moderate think tank Third Way, calling the report “very alarming,”

“Fake the invasion to seize unprecedented power,” added the Cato Institute’s David J. Bier.

READ MORE: Trump’s ‘Rare’ Nuclear Sub Deployment Follows Epstein Scandal, Jobs Slump, Critics Say

Image via Reuters