The president has made several false and misleading claims about the Central American migrants travelling to the US border

Donald Trump is not hiding his ambition to conflate the caravan of around 7,000 migrants heading towards the US border with other issues in order to drum up support for Republicans in the forthcoming midterm elections.

In his bid to make the caravan an election issue, Trump has made a number of false and misleading claims about the migrants that are travelling in it.

Trump’s claim: ‘They are from the Middle East’

In a series of tweets sent early Monday morning, Trump claimed the caravan included “unknown Middle Easterners”, presumably in an attempt to link the caravan to fears among some voters about Islam and terrorism.

There are many journalists from a breadth of political backgrounds travelling with the caravan. No reporting has suggested that anyone in the caravan has travelled from the Middle East in order to reach the US via the southern border.

Trump’s reasoning for the tweet is not currently clear, but it was sent shortly after Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth claimed on the morning show that members of the Islamic State were travelling in the caravan.

Hegseth claimed the president of Guatemala had told a local newspaper that they had captured over 100 Isis fighters in Guatemala travelling in the caravan. He appears to be referring to a story that appeared in the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre which reports that President Jimmy Morales made a speech claiming to have captured 100 terrorists. Morales said he couldn’t provide any evidence for the claim because of reasons of national security.

The speech was made on 11 October, before the caravan had formed. No other reporting from Guatemala suggests any Isis members have been discovered in the country.

On Tuesday, Trump himself acknowledged that he had no evidence for the claim. When he was asked about the tweet he responded that US border patrol had previously apprehended many people from the Middle East in previous years and they had also apprehended Isis. (This isn’t true, no suspected members of Isis have been known to attempt to gain entry to the US via the southern border.)

When pushed by a reporter about whether he had specific evidence about people from the Middle East being part of the caravan currently heading to the US border, Trump said: “Well, they could very well be.” When the reporter asked for evidence once again, Trump said: “There’s no proof of anything. There’s no proof of anything. But they could very well be.”

Trump’s claim: ‘They’re hardened criminals’

At a rally in Arizona on Friday, Trump said the people in the caravan were “bad people”, “not little angels” and “tough, tough people”.

Trump has not referenced any evidence for his claims of criminality. We do know that many migrants have said they are fleeing terrible gang violence, with some fearing for their lives.

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When Emily Cochrane, a New York Times journalist, asked Trump for evidence that migrants in the caravan had a history of violence, he responded: “Oh please, please, don’t be a baby … take a look.”

Trump’s claim: ‘Democrats are paying members of the caravan to try and get into the US to harm Republicans in the midterms’

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats are funding the caravan. At a rally in Montana, for example, he claimed that “a lot of money has been passing to people to come up and try and get to the border by election day, because they think that’s a negative for us … They have lousy policy … they wanted that caravan, and there are those that say that caravan didn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) BREAKING: Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source! pic.twitter.com/5pEByiGkkN

There is no evidence that Democrats, donors or other political actors are providing financial support to caravan for political gain. Trump has made reference to a video posted by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, which shows people in Guatemala being handed money. Gaetz suggested – without evidence – the money may have come from billionaire George Soros, Trump has suggested it came from the Democrats.

In reality, the video shows migrants being handed a single note of Guatemalan currency by people who are likely to be local residents or NGOs. Migrants in the caravan have said this sometimes happens as they pass through towns. The money given is normally extremely small amounts, often less than a dollar a person, and is given to help pay for essential supplies like food and water, not for political aims.

Trump’s claim: ‘Democrats want caravans’

Separately from accusing them of funding the caravan, Trump has claimed that Democrats have “openly invited” illegal immigrants to the border, that they want “open borders” and “want caravans, they like the caravans”.

Trump baselessly claims Democrats are behind migrant caravan Read more

While it’s true that some Democrats have been more sympathetic to the migrants than Republican lawmakers, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has voted to make a commitment to strengthening borders part of its platform.

Earlier this year Chuck Schumer coauthored a bill that would resolve the status of the “dreamers”, undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, while providing at least $25bin in increased border security. The bill failed to pass the Senate.