Trump passes off video of migrants in Hungary as Mexicans entering US Donald Trump has put out what will probably be his last campaign message, ending his bid for the White House. In […]

Donald Trump has put out what will probably be his last campaign message, ending his bid for the White House. In it he has suggested immigration, the establishment and the shutting of factories are responsible for what he sees as America’s fall from greatness.

Footage showing hundreds of people streaming along a highway is shown as he decries “massive illegal immigration” into the US (38 seconds in).

However in yet another dangerously farcical snafu, the images shown in the video are those of refugees marching through Hungary, en route to Austria in September 2015, as first reported by The Intercept.

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6,000 miles from the Mexican border

The people he claims are flooding into the United States are actually 6,000 miles from the Mexican border.

The video was shot by Nabih Bulos for the New York Times, who condemned the Republican candidate’s use of the video misleadingly and without permission.

“When this footage was taken, thousands of refugees were on an odyssey through the Balkan corridor and Europe… The last thing I would want this footage to be used for is to embody Trump’s xenophobic, repugnant message,” he wrote on Twitter.

The special correspondent is the son of Palestinian refugees – “a naturalised American welcomed to this country even after 9/11”.

Not the campaign’s first fabrication

The image from Bulos’ video flashes on-screen for less than a second, over a backdrop of emotive music. The Trump campaign has form in this area – Trump kicked off his bid for the presidency with a campaign video showing people jumping a fence. But the footage was actually from a Spanish enclave of Morocco. Oops.

Mexicans are actually leaving America

Trump’s campaign may struggle to find images of Mexicans storming the border as fears don’t reflect reality. The US Department for Homeland Security estimates the number of illegal immigrants in America peaked in 2007 and has gradually declined ever since.

Since 2009, Mexicans in the US have been leaving because of fewer working opportunities.

But stoking anti-immigrant rancour has been a ratings boon for Trump. At rallies his plan for a Mexico border wall and mass deportations of undocumented people are welcomed with whoops and howls of applause.

During the Republican primaries Rick Perry saw his ratings slump overnight after he was attacked for educating immigrant children as Texas governor.

Immigration has emerged as a dominant issue in the hearts and minds of many Republican voters, even if it doesn’t reflect a growing problem.

Echoes of Brexit

Trump’s video has been compared to Nigel Farage’s campaign poster just before the EU referendum vote.

Trump has repeatedly invoked the memory of Brexit during his campaign, including – last week – describing his assault on safe Democratic seats as an upset that would be “Brexit times ten”.

But there are greater concerns among US commentators – most significantly the use of anti-Semitic tropes in the video entitled ‘Argument for America.’

Trump complains about a group of people controlling power in Washington, funneling money into “pockets of large corporations” over pictures of prominent Jews such as George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire who funds progressive causes, Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, and Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs.

It seems the enemy of America’s path to greatness emerges as the age-old minority groups in what many are describing as a deeply worrying campaign video.