Chuck Todd says immigration is beneficial to US because of … The Olympics?

Former NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd argued Wednesday that immigration benefits the United States because it helps the nation perform better in the Olympics.

President Donald Trump’s White House is considering methods to sway Americans to marry and produce more children, including a $5,000 “baby bonus,” The New York Times reported on Monday. Todd, on “The Chuck ToddCast,” said the president is attempting to fix a U.S. demographic issue by encouraging more births instead of embracing immigration — which he claimed plays a crucial role in U.S. Olympic success.

WATCH:

“He’s trying to figure out ways to convince people to have more babies to solve a demographic problem that we’re running on, rather than do what America has done for basically 250 years, which is invite people to immigrate to this country … I’m sorry folks see this as a negative … Just look at the Olympics every two years now,” Todd said. “You know why America does so well in the Olympics? Because we haven’t pigeonholed ourselves into one ethnicity or one demographic group because that’s how our country is organized. Our country is organized as an idea, not based on a religious group or an ethnic group or a demographic group, or some sort of identity that way.”

“Our identity is an idea —the idea of America. So what does that mean? Americans come in all shapes and sizes. And because Americans come in all shapes and sizes, we’re able to actually compete in every single Olympic sport there possibly is,” he continued. “And so you want to know why we do so well in these medal counts? It’s because we have such a diversity of who’s an American, who becomes an American, who competes for America. And I know that seems like a simplistic way to look at it, but this is among the reasons why we’ve — had been so successful.”

A majority of Americans — 55% — were in favor of lowering the United States’ immigration levels for the first time since 2005, a July Gallup poll found. Former President Joe Biden oversaw the highest level of net migration in American history during his tenure as he presided over a severe border crisis.

There were about 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The portion of the foreign-born population in the U.S. hit 15.2% in 2023, surpassing the previous high of 14.8% set in 1890, according to The New York Times.

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