told border patrol that breaking federal immigration laws would be met with a pardon?

Trump made the comment to the Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan during an April 2019 visit to the border at Calexico, California. It was not clear if the comment was a joke.

Kevin McAleenan was later chosen to serve as acting Homeland Security Secretary. He resigned from the post on October 11, 2019.

Kevin McAleenan official photo.jpg
Former Acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan. Wikipedia

In 2020, Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official, confirmed that Trump promised pardons to anyone who would illegally shut down the border.

CNN – Trump told CBP head he’d pardon him if he were sent to jail for violating immigration law 
The Hill – Trump told border official he’d pardon him if he went to jail over immigration moves: CNN
Wikipedia – Kevin McAleenan
Independent – Trump promised pardons for staff who broke law following his orders, former official says

referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and parts of Africa as “shithole countries”?

Trump prompted international outcry with his remark. He had also asked why any immigrants should be allowed from such countries, instead of “more people from Norway.”

The Washington Post – Trump attacks protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries
AP News – Trump: Why allow immigrants from ‘shithole countries’?
Reuters – ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ – Norwegians reject Trump’s immigration offer

said that the border wall needed to be physically transparent for border control to see through?

He explained, “One of the things with the wall is you need transparency, you have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can’t see through that wall – so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side of the wall.”

In another instance, he said the need for transparent walls was from the possibility of harm from projectiles from the southern side. Trump explained, “as horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them–they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of the stuff? It’s over.”

He reiterated the need for a see-through wall during a subsequent press conference, where he noted that it would be “a more powerful wall and a more beautiful wall.”

Business Insider – Trump says his wall along the US-Mexico border will have to be see-through so people don’t get hit with giant sacks of drugs
Business Insider – Trump doubles down on the need for a ‘see-through’ border wall because he wants ‘to be able to see’
USA Today – ‘A WALL is a WALL!’ Trump declares. But his definition has shifted a lot over time
Wired – Let’s Talk About Trump, Border Walls, and Flying Heroin

said he lost the popular vote because of fraud?

Trump claimed that he lost the popular vote because of millions of double votes and illegal immigrants committing voter fraud. Though he repeated the claims many times, no evidence has been provided. He has asserted that voter ID laws are necessary to curb fraud, saying that Americans need ID to buy groceries but not to vote.

The claims began immediately after Trump’s election victory.

Trump repeated the assertions even after inauguration. Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in Trump’s defense,

I think he’s stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have presented to him.

Spicer also defended the President’s claim that he had the largest inaugural crowd size ever. After six months, Spicer resigned and was replaced by Anthony Scaramucci, who held the office for a record 11 days.

Though the Trump administration created an elections integrity commission to find evidence of fraud, none was ultimately found. He has continued to repeat the claim.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Congressional proposals included an expansion of voting by mail. Trump said that such measures would never allow for a Republican to be elected again.

BBC News – Trump claims millions voted illegally in presidential poll
Politico – Spicer makes misleading voter fraud claim to defend Trump’s false voter fraud claim
NBC News – Trump Again Makes Debunked Claim: ‘Illegals’ Cost Me Popular Vote
Politifact – No proof of Trump’s conspiracy theory that millions voted many times
Washington Post – Yet again, Trump falsely blames illegal voting for getting walloped in California

told Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, “you don’t have this problem, but I can send you 25 million Mexicans and you’ll be out of office very soon”?

The remark came during a G7 meeting in closed-door discussions between heads of state. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, cited a senior EU official.

25 million people represents a fifth of the Mexican population, and about two and a half times the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal – Behind the Scenes at G-7 Meetings, Allies Dismayed by Trump’s Jabs
Pew Research Center – 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S.

said that a Mexican-American judge could not be fair in ruling on the border wall?

Trump made the claim that because Judge Gonzalo Curiel is Mexican-American, he was unfair in his past rulings against Trump University, and had a conflict of interest in his upcoming decision on the legality of the border wall. The Indiana-born judge ultimately ruled in favor of the wall’s legality.

The Wall Street Journal – Trump Says Judge’s Mexican Heritage Presents ‘Absolute Conflict’
The Hill – Mexican-American judge who Trump attacked rules in favor of border wall
Politifact – Donald Trump’s racial comments about Hispanic judge in Trump University case

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