After the last presidential debate, students took to TikTok, Instagram and various other social media platforms to joke about the comments made by Donald Trump. Ranging from his accusations of Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats to his attacks on “transgender operations on illegal aliens,” his words became yet another thing to laugh at him for. Yet, in the wake of how this rhetoric can impact the communities he mocks, should we be making jokes regarding the subject?  

Though Trump has made various comments that have grabbed the public’s attention, his words have become the subject of national humor and scrutiny since his candidacy for president in 2016. Whether it be his seeming reverence for Hannibal Lecter or his distasteful tweets, he developed a reputation for saying odd — often bigoted — things.

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But there’s another, much more violent aspect to Trump’s rhetoric that sometimes gets disregarded when discussions about his publicity focus solely on humor. His comments have the potential to foster real hatred towards communities of color and run the risk of empowering alt-right movements. 

This first became exemplified when he became popular for his tough stance on immigration, making a variety of comments in regards to Latine and immigrant populations in the United States and going so far as to describe them as “animals.” 

Ana Navarro, a journalist at ABC News, emphasized that when he says these things, it puts a literal target on the back of Latine individuals in the U.S. and can intensify already existing stereotypes and prejudice. 

This was exemplified when Trump made comments regarding the use of emergency rooms by undocumented immigrants, which caused fear in many Latine individuals across the country and prevented them from feeling safe in seeking out care. A study led by Dr. Robert Rodriguez, a professor of emergency medicine at UC San Francisco, showed that around 75% of undocumented immigrants and 51% of documented Latine residents felt unsafe about living in the U.S. due to Trump’s comments.  

His reputation continued during the pandemic, when he tweeted about “the Chinese virus” in relation to the COVID-19 virus and made a host of comments on national television with similar wording. This became linked to the rise of anti-Asian hashtags on the social platform X, which was especially significant during a time when many Asian Americans already faced increased discrimination due to stereotypes regarding coronavirus and its outbreak. 

Yet during the 2024 presidential debate, Trump’s words not only demonstrated a continuance of his xenophobic rhetoric, but made clear a very real issue: the possibility that some may start to believe his words. This started with his comments on Springfield, Ohio, where he accused Haitian immigrant populations of eating dogs and cats and warned about the danger they could pose for American society. TikTok responded quickly, with over 16,000 people making humorous videos with Trump’s “they’re eating the dogs” audio as the background sound. 

Though parts of this comment are easy to make fun of within liberal and progressive spaces, it causes material backlash and violence toward the communities outside of them. 

After Trump’s comments, Haitian immigrants in Springfield reported feeling unsafe to the point that they weren’t sure they could leave their homes without being harassed. This didn’t happen simply because Trump created these fears, but rather because his words gave validation to the many stereotypes that people already held and made them feel justified in their xenophobia. 

His anti-immigrant sentiments have also managed to reach beyond the typical conservative, becoming vehicles for alt-right groups to express their violent fantasies. His support for politicians such as Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sending many immigrants to Democratic cities such as New York and Chicago allowed alt-right websites to point to this as the coming of a civil war. 

As we navigate the future of American politics, we must recognize the far-reaching implications of rhetoric. It can be easy to cast aside Trump’s words as silly from afar, but the material violence that has resulted time and time again makes them anything but a laughing matter. 

To protect underrepresented and immigrant populations targeted by Trump, we must recognize how his rhetoric is often used to fuel others’ prejudice. The goal should not be to spread jokes on TikTok regarding the situation, but rather to fight back against the discrimination that already exists and the platform individuals like Trump are given.