While speaking on the final night of the GOP midterm convention, Vice President JD Vance said the country was “poorer” and “dirtier” before President Donald Trump was reelected for a second term.

“We were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer, and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said on the final day of the two-day convention in Dallas, Texas.

His sentiment appeared to reflect the administration’s efforts to combat rising immigration rates in the U.S., a key campaign point during the 2024 election. Vance himself promoted unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, in September 2024, spreading misinformation about the community abducting and eating pets.