Rachel Maddow draws parallels between Trump plans and Japanese internment

MS NOW host Rachel Maddow discusses the Trump administration’s plans to build several large-scale detention centers for deportees from World War II. He compared it to internment camps built for Japanese Americans during World War II.

On Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Appearing on the show, Maddow was asked about her new podcast series, “Burn Order,” which examines the U.S. government’s 1940s executive order to intern Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After giving the audience a brief synopsis of his new show, the MS NOW host explained that President Donald Trump’s reported plans to build detention centers reminded him of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s past decision to intern Japanese Americans.

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“In World War II, our government had a racial decree that not only immigrants from Japan and therefore Japanese citizens, but Americans born here — U.S. citizens — if they were of Japanese descent, if they had any Japanese racial ancestry, they were to be deported from the west coast of this country, and over 120,000 of them were to be locked up for years.”

“This was something that was very hard to believe about 10 years ago. Looking back, it’s not so hard to believe now, is it?” Kimmel said.

Maddow quoted December report From the Washington Post The Trump administration is allegedly planning to build seven large-scale detention centers for deportees, according to internal ICE documents reviewed by the publication. The facilities can house up to 80,000 people in seven locations, the Post reported.

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The Trump administration plans to build seven large-scale detention centers for deportees, according to a December report by The Washington Post. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

“The Washington Post just reported on internal documents from the administration that say they want a series of temporary relocation camps where they’ll hold people for weeks and then move them to about 10 large warehouse-style facilities where they’ll hold 10,000 people at a time. This is exactly the structure they used to incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II,” the MS NOW host said.

Maddow claimed that the Trump administration was stripping citizens of their rights by “defining people as persons no longer protected by the U.S. Constitution.”

“[The U.S. government] I just said that US citizenship is no longer important. “And I think that’s something that the administration is more than just flirting with at this point,” he argued.

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President Donald Trump tours the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center at the Dade-Collier Training and Transit Airport site in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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When reached for comment by the Post, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the news outlet she “couldn’t confirm” the report and declined to answer questions about the alleged warehouse plan.