Conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch took his turn Sunday at chastising 2016 Republican candidate Donald Trump for his derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants, tweeting succinctly, “Trump wrong.”
“Mexican immigrants, as with all immigrants, have much lower crime rates than native born. Eg El Paso safest city in U.S. Trump wrong,” Murdoch tweeted.
Murdoch, whose media empire includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, also pulled on crime statistics to fact-check Trump, tweeting:
So FBI says 267000 illegal aliens incarcerated. Who are the other two million presently incarcerated? Seems like social breakdown.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) July 12, 2015
The criticism came the same day that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another 2016 hopeful, called Trump a “wrecking ball” for the Republican Party’s future, saying the former reality TV star has “hijacked the debate” around immigration. Graham also called for candidates to push back on the “demagogue” in hopes of repairing ties with the Hispanic community.
The trouble for Trump began in his June 16 presidential announcement, when he said the Mexican government is forcing criminal elements across the U.S. border, including “rapists” and drug smugglers. Since then, NBC Universal, Univision, Macy’s, NASCAR, and celebrity chef Jose Andres have all cut business ties with the billionaire real estate tycoon, along with a flurry of other connections.
Trump shows no signs of backing down from his aggressive stance on immigrants, and a poll released late last week showed Trump leading the crowded GOP field.
