Trump Launches Campaign with 'Rapists' Remarks About Mexican Immigrants

The Announcement

On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in Manhattan to announce his candidacy for president. The rambling, off-script speech touched on trade, jobs, and foreign policy, but one passage immediately dominated the news cycle and would come to define the early months of his campaign.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump declared. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” The remarks were a dramatic departure from the carefully managed rhetoric that typically characterizes presidential campaign launches.

Immediate Fallout

The backlash was swift and far-reaching. NBC Universal severed its business relationship with Trump, pulling the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from its networks. Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, also cut ties with the Trump Organization. Macy’s dropped Trump’s clothing line. The PGA of America moved a major golf event away from a Trump-owned course.

Latino advocacy organizations condemned the remarks as racist and dangerous. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda called on all presidential candidates to denounce Trump’s characterization. Fact-checkers pointed out that research consistently showed immigrants were less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

A Campaign Strategy Takes Shape

Despite the backlash from corporate partners and civil rights groups, Trump’s poll numbers among Republican primary voters rose sharply in the weeks following his announcement. The pattern would become a defining feature of his campaign: inflammatory remarks that generated universal media coverage, condemnation from establishment figures, and surging support from a significant portion of the Republican base.

The speech established immigration as the central issue of Trump’s candidacy and introduced the promise that would become his signature rallying cry: building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, with the insistence that Mexico would pay for it. It marked the beginning of a campaign that would fundamentally reshape the Republican Party’s approach to immigration and identity politics.