Former President Donald Trump, speaking at a multimillion-dollar fundraiser Saturday night, lamented that people were not immigrating to the United States from “nice” countries “like Denmark” and suggested that his well-heeled dinner companions were temporarily safe from immigrants in the country illegally living nearby, according to an attendee.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made the comments during a roughly 45-minute presentation at a dinner at a mansion owned by billionaire financier John Paulson in Palm Beach, Florida, a rarefied island community.

Guests were seated outdoors, looking out on the waterway that divides the moneyed town from the more diverse West Palm Beach, a mainland city, according to the attendee, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the private event but provided an extensive readout of Trump’s remarks.

Dozens of wealthy donors helped write checks that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee claim totalled more than $50 million, an amount that would set a record but had not been verified.

About midway through his remarks, the attendee said, Trump began an extensive rant about migrants entering the United States, at a time when President Joe Biden has been struggling with an intensified crisis at the southern border.

“These are people coming in from prisons and jails. They’re coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster,” Trump told his guests, according to the attendee. The former president has made a similar claim the heart of his campaign speeches.

During his rallies, Trump frequently laments migrants from countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East as he stokes fears around the surge at the border, which he blames for a spike in crime, blame that has not been supported by available data.

At the dinner, Trump also lamented the surge of migrants, particularly from Latin America, saying that gang members “make the Hells Angels look like extremely nice people.”

Asked to comment, a Trump campaign official pointed to an official readout of the former president’s event, including that he had discussed the border crisis and the tax cuts that he enacted while in office. The official did not address the specific quotes and did not respond to a question about whether the campaign was disputing them.

The New York Times News Service