Donald Trump 'Judas' Effigies Burned by Mexican Christians Celebrating Easter
Effigies of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, standing in place of Judas Iscariot from the Bible, were burned by Mexican Christians celebrating Easter rituals Saturday night.
Reuters reports that effigies of Trump were burned across Mexico in retaliation to the billionaire businessman's divisive comments on illegal immigrants coming to America. Traditionally, such Easter effigies are modeled after Judas for his betrayal of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
"Since he started his campaign and began talking about immigrants, Mexico, and Mexicans, I said 'I've got to get this guy,'" said Felipe Linares, one artisan who crafted a Trump effigy.
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Photos and videos from an effigy burning event in Mexico City's poor La Merced neighborhood showed a papier-mâché model of Trump, with a blue blazer, red tie, and blond hair, going up in flames to the sound of cheering residents.
Trump has repeatedly insisted throughout his presidential campaign that one of the main ways he will stop illegal immigration is by building a giant wall across the U.S. southern border, and would make the Mexican government pay for it.
He also said back in June: "I like Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I do business with the Mexican people, but you have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they're bad. They're really bad. You have people coming in, and I'm not just saying Mexicans, I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they're coming into this country."
Trump's comments prompted much controversy in the U.S., with several big-name companies, including Macy's, NBC Universal, and Univision, immediately severing their business relationship with the real estate mogul.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has further rejected any suggestions that Mexico would agree to pay for such a wall, and has compared Trump to German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity," the Mexican president said earlier in March.
"That's how Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis," he added.
