The approaching presidential election has already caused many issues among the masses, several of them surrounding Donald Trump. Trump’s presidential campaign came as a surprise for many, but the majority were willing to hear what he had to say. Well, that is until they weren’t, until I, myself, wasn’t.

Hate has been a constant in our society for a very long time, and America especially has barely begun to take an obvious stance against it. However, people tend to forget that prejudice, in all honesty, is a form of hatred. Trump is many traits; hardworking, motivated, influential, but unprejudiced he is not.

By blatantly painting a picture of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals in part of Trump’s response to illegal immigration, Trump has gone farther than just insulting a race or group of people. This degrading image has begun to spread and promote prejudice as a perfectly acceptable idea. As Mexico’s Foreign Relations Ministry states on NPR, “Trump’s words reflect prejudices [that] don’t coincide with reality and illustrate a profound ignorance of the contributions Mexicans make to U.S society.”

Yes, illegal immigration needs to be addressed, but there are other ways to go about the issue without degrading a whole race. The possibility of Trump not meaning his words is there, as shown in the Republican candidate’s released statement on July 6th, as he states that there are immigrants that he assumes are also “good people.”

However, the fact remains that his words resonated very strongly in the Hispanic community who felt the weight of Trump’s statement the most. Trump’s mere candidacy is already spreading fear among Mexicans, immigrant or not. This should not be happening in the declared country of the free. In the end of the day, once prejudice spreads, it will not stop with just Mexican immigrants.

Most who excuse Trump’s behavior as him just speaking his mind and actually fighting for ideals do not see the gravity of an overconfident president who might just “jump the gun” and irrevocably change America negatively. If Trump is not even able to word his ideals and beliefs without causing mass outrage and prejudice, then how do we expect him to run a country?