Former President Donald Trump characterized immigrants, singling out those from Africa and Asia, as “poisoning the blood of our country” at recent campaign events. The comments have sparked criticism and comparisons to Adolf Hitler-like rhetoric.

During a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, Trump said: “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.” These comments were applauded by some of his supporters, but have led to outrage elsewhere.

“They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we have a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd. “That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

The Biden-Harris campaign quickly issued a statement, likening Trump’s words to those of Hitler. Trump’s remarks have also faced criticism from within his own party.

“Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy. Trump is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over 7 million votes three years ago,” the Biden campaign said, CNBC reported.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican running for the presidential nomination, labeled the rhetoric as a “tactical mistake” and questioned why such discussions were taking place. “Why are we in a situation where we’re even having those discussions?” DeSantis said.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie went a step further, expressing disbelief that someone making such comments could be considered fit for the presidency.

“He’s disgusting, and what he’s doing is dog-whistle to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strained from the economy and from the conflicts around the world, and he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people from areas that don’t look like us,” Christie said. “The other problem with this is the Republicans who are saying this is OK.”

On “Face the Nation” Christie said, “I don’t know how you could take someone like that and say that they’re fit to be president of the United States.”

Comparisons to Hitler’s rhetoric are rooted in Trump’s use of the term “poisoning the blood,” which bears a resemblance to Hitler’s terminology in his manifesto “Mein Kampf.” Hitler used “blood poisoning” to criticize the mixing of races, specifically blaming Jews for the supposed contamination of German blood.

Trump then repeated the use of “poisoning” in a post on his social media website Truth Social, saying overnight in an all-caps post, that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions — from all over the world,” CBS reported.

The term “blood poisoning” was used by Hitler in his manifesto “Mein Kampf,” in which he criticized immigration and the mixing of races. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” Hitler wrote.

Former President Donald Trump gestures after announcing he is running for president for the third time as he speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)