Daily Wire host likens Trump's mass deportation to the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment, and more: “Mass deportation is as American as apple pie”
Knowles: “Have you ever heard of the Trail of Tears? I know a lot of people don't defend the Trail of Tears. But that was a mass deportation.”
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From the January 24, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): You might argue that mass migration is — or mass deportation, rather, is wrong. That's what Democrats are arguing. You — and there are even some libertarians and right-wingers who argue that mass deportations are wrong. The one thing you can't argue is that mass deportation is un-American.
I don't know if you guys are history buffs or not. Have you ever heard of the Trail of Tears? I know a lot of people don't defend the Trail of Tears. But that was a mass deportation. That was in, what, 1830? Have you ever heard of Operation Wetback when we actually deported a ton of Mexicans, like a 100,000 or more Mexicans? You might not defend Operation Wetback, in part because of the name because it's an offensive word. 1954. That was a mass deportation. How about the Palmer raids of all the communists? 1919, 1920, deported, because a lot of the communists were foreigners who were in America deported lots and lots of commoners — communists, rather. How about the Japanese? We always talk about Japanese internment during World War II. You know, we also deported a lot of Japanese. Again, you might say, well, that was all really terrible. OK. But it's American, though. We sure did. I'm noticing a trend here. How about the Haitians and the Cubans that we deported after the Mariel boatlift in 1980? That was a mass deportation. You say, well, that's wrong. It's anti-American — again, I know. Maybe you don't like it. Maybe you can make an argument that some of these things were unjust. But the one thing you can't say is that it's un-American or anti-American.
Mass deportation is as American as apple pie. OK? We've been doing it for a very, very long time. And, frankly, if you wanna argue that these things were deeply un-American, I would encourage you to look into the details of them, to put yourself in the historical positions of the people making decisions at that time. And I wonder if you wouldn't make the same decision.
In fact, I know the Democrats don't seriously believe that lots of these decisions were were unjust. I just look at Joe Biden. You know, the Japanese internment and deportations occurred on FDR's watch. It was an FDR policy. And so now the libs run their garments and gnash their teeth, and they say this was the worst thing ever. And, you know, they compare it to Hitler's concentration camps. And yet, Joe Biden had a big portrait of FDR hanging above his fireplace in the Oval Office. FDR is still considered one of the great Democrat presidents.
So, anyway, I don't wanna hear it from the libs. It's not American. What are you talking about? These these foreign nationals in our country are not American. The Haitian gang members and the Ecuadorian rapists and the those guys are not American. That's why they gotta go because they're harming Americans.