Donald Trump is the first president we’ve had who engaged to openly in what we call “stochastic terrorism.” That’s when someone influential uses their platform to say such terrible things about someone (or a group of people) that it inspires others to do violence against them.

The person who uses this tactic never explicitly calls for violence themselves, but their fans and followers know what they mean.

When Trump first ran in 2016, the number one group he used it on was immigrants from Mexico. He based his campaign on building a border wall, of course. But the entire time, he kept calling them rapists and drug dealers. He called them an infestation and compared them to insects.

It was reminiscent of the way Hitler talked about the Jews.

Now it looks like Trump found the perfect running mate in JD Vance, because the vice presidential candidate this week straight-up admitted he would use the same tactic.

It’s strange how open JD Vance has been about the fact that he’s lying. He’s not SAYING he’s lying, but he is admitting at least to hyperbole.

He already famously admitted that he was “making up stories” about the Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who Trump supporters were convinced were eating pets in their neighborhoods.

Trump and Vance have continued to spread the long-debunked rumor to this day.

But this week Vance told reporters that he intends to keep calling those same Haitian immigrants “illegal immigrants,” despite the fact that they’re here legally.

Now, while I may not agree with Republicans on the concept of “illegal aliens” (I prefer the term undocumented), I at least knew what they meant by the term. Until JD Vance. It used to mean people who snuck across the US border from another country without going through the immigration process.

Now apparently it means anyone who got here by a method that JD Vance doesn’t like.

The path the Haitians took to come here legally was by using either a US program for probationary legal status or “parole” into the US which can expire (but has not for these people) or through Temporary Protected Status.

Either program is something that immigrants can apply for if there is significant crisis in their country of origin. Regardless of which program the immigrants used to get here, however, they had to apply to come and get approved for entry.

Vance doesn’t like the programs, so he plans to continue using scary terminology when he talks about them.

Asked at a campaign event why he keeps using the term when they are here legally, he responded pretty frankly that he just didn’t like the way “the media” characterized it:

The media loves to say that the Haitian migrants — hundreds of thousands of them, by the way, 20,000 in Springfield, but hundreds of thousands of them all across the country — they are here legally.

And what they mean is that Kamala Harris used two separate programs, mass parole and Temporary Protected Status. She used two programs to wave a wand and to say, we’re not going to deport those people here.

Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make any alien legal. That is not how this works.

There’s a lot to pick apart there.

First, it’s not that “the media” loves to say anything. It’s an accurate description of a legal process for immigration. And secondly, I can’t help but wonder if JD Vance is ready for the possibility, if Trump wins in November, that he’ll be either credited with or blamed for everything Trump does.

Because both of them keep saying that Kamala Harris is responsible for things she does not set policy for. That is to say, everything. Kamala Harris does not now, nor has she ever, set US policy on anything.

Finally, even if this immigration process somehow did involve a literal, physical wand and Kamala Harris herself were tasked by the president (who is still very much Joe Biden) to stand at the actual, physical border or port of entry and touch each immigrant on the head with it one at a time, she still wouldn’t be doing so “illegally,” because this is a legal program.

Don’t get it twisted, folks. JD Vance knows he’s lying. It’s almost refreshing to see him at least admit that he’s deliberately saying something other than what everyone else agrees on for political purposes.

It’s not that this process is just legal. It’s almost OVERLY legal. CBP put out a statement at the beginning of the week. I’ll put the parts in bold that JD Vance needs to re-read:

“All CHNV [Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan] beneficiaries continue to be thoroughly screened and vetted by CBP prior to their arrival to the United States and must meet other eligibility criteria authorization to travel to the United States in a safe, orderly and lawful way once they purchase their own commercial airline tickets. Since DHS has implemented these safe, orderly and lawful processes, encounters of CHNV nationals in between POEs [Ports of Entry] are down 99%.”

In other words, these people are checked and double-checked by the GOP’s favorite agency, the Border Patrol, and then subjected to more scrutiny all the way through the completely legal process that has reduced illegal immigration of people from these countries to near zero.

So you might hear the word “invasion” this campaign season. You might hear about “illegals” eating pets and taking jobs. But what Trump and Vance are talking about is legal immigrants on their way to full citizenship who love this country as much as you or me.