Yesterday, during a round table discussion about sanctuary cities, President Donald J. Trump called some illegal immigrants “animals”. Oh my gravy. The world is about to end. Can America be saved?

Yes. I am serious. Trump says animals and immediately references to genocidal maniacs and slavery are made. “USA Today”, for instance:

And Trump’s not the first to use such rhetoric: Adolf Hitler justified the Holocaust by saying Jews weren’t people but rats, as NPR notes. In the Rwandan genocide, Tutsis were called not people, but cockroaches, and slaveowners justified slavery by calling their slaves not people, but animals.

Reviewing a book on such rhetoric, NPR’s Neal Conan said that “it’s important to define and describe dehumanization, because it’s what opens the door for cruelty and genocide.”

“Yahoo.com” joined in the dehumanization rally with this paragraph from David Knowles:

That broad-brush assertion itself is jarring, but not uncommon for Trump. In fact, it’s just the latest instance in which Trump has sought to dehumanize those he considers undesirable.

And, California Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown weighed in also:

Is it just me or does Brown sound like he has a big ol’ green eyed monster in his soul. “Fifth largest economy” and “flying in a dozen Republicans to flatter him”? Oh, Jerry Brown is a bitter little man inside. These were not just random Republican brown nosers. These were people on the ground who deal with illegal immigration as noted by “PBS’s News Hour”:

Trump was joined at the Wednesday White House meeting by mayors, sheriffs and other local leaders from California who oppose the state’s immigration policies and who applauded his administration’s hard-line efforts.

“This is your Republican resistance right here against what they’re doing in California,” said Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, coopting a term used by Democrats opposed to Trump’s presidency. She, like others, said the president and his policies were far more popular in the state than people realize.

And Donald Trump did say “animals”. Let’s go to the video tape:

There it is. Trump said the “animals” and every immigrant who has ever immigrated to the United States is a dehumanized animal. Or, maybe not. Trump’s answer was in response to a comment about MS-13 gang members. It was not even about your average, every day, law breaking, illegal immigrant. Context is everything. Read the following from the “UK Evening Standard”:

President Trump’s comments came after one sheriff told the president that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency are unable to check police databases to “find the bad guys” .

She added: “They cannot come in and talk to people in our jail, unless they reach a certain threshold. They can’t do all kinds of things that other law enforcement agencies can do.”

The sheriff warned the president:”There could be an MS-13 member I know about – if they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.”

and:

MS-13 is said to be one of the most brutal street gangs in the world. The founders hail from El Salvador and fled to the US during the country’s civil war.

President Trump told the sheriff: “We have people trying to come into the country, we’re stopping a lot of them.

“We’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are.

“These aren’t people, these are animals and we’re taking them out of the country, at a level and a rate that’s never happened before.”

He then branded the country’s immigration laws as “the dumbest on immigration in the world” and vowed to “take care of it.”

The President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, called some of the most vile cretins on the planet animals and the pearl twisting, knicker knot types swooned on to their fainting sofas. If that makes Donald Trump a dehumanizing asshole, then I am staying on the Trump Train and punching my ticket for another ride.