Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s pick to be “border czar” in his upcoming administration, admitted during a Fox News appearance on Thursday that he had no evidence for a connection he alleged between the truck attack in New Orleans and the Tesla explosion in Las Vegas.
Appearing on Fox’s “America Reports” program, Homan told anchor Sandra Smith that he believed law enforcement would find a connection between the two incidents.
Homan used the allegation as a launchpad to continue his advocacy for more restrictive immigration policy and attacked President Joe Biden’s administration over the issue—even though both of the men involved in the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks were American citizens who served in the military.
Smith then pointed out to Homan that law enforcement had not established a connection between the two incidents, and asked him if he had any undisclosed evidence for his premise.
“No, I don’t. This is a gut feeling,” Homan admitted. “I’ve done this for three and half decades. I just think there’s too many similarities, too much coincidence. I think something down the road—they’re going to show some sort of connection.”
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Homan’s choice to connect the incidents to terrorism echoes rhetoric from Trump and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who both previously referred to a false Fox News report that the car used in the New Orleans attack had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Homan is not just a random conservative commentator making the sort of unverified speculation that frequently appears on Fox News. Trump chose Homan as a key member of his administration, with the goal of implementing his hard-line anti-immigration policies. In Trump’s previous administration, Homan led Immigration and Customs Enforcement and oversaw the widely condemned family-separation policy wherein children were held in detention cages without their parents.
There are widespread worries and fears within immigrant communities about Trump’s plans for them, and Homan has shown he won’t be bound by facts as he whips up more anti-immigrant sentiment.
Weaving a connection between incidents where many people died based merely on a “gut” feeling is unlikely to bode well for an administration where Homan will be the point person for a planned program of mass deportation.
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