Donald John Trump really and truly doesn’t like those who come into this country illegally.

The president laid some pretty harsh language on them during a White House meeting this week. His description? He calls them “animals.”

There you go, Mr. President. Many of the undocumented immigrants who have come to the United States have managed to, um, graduate from college (some with academic honors), rear their families, pursue fruitful professional careers, serve in the U.S. military (and dying for the country in the process).

These are who the president of the United States calls “animals”?

According to National Public Radio: During a White House roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials and political leaders, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims expressed frustration that California law signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown forbids informing U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement of undocumented immigrants in the state’s jails, even if police believe they are part of a gang.

Trump’s response: “We have people coming into the country — or trying to come in, we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals,” the president said.

The White House meeting dealt with sanctuary cities, where municipal officials have declared their communities to be safe havens for those who enter the country without proper documentation. Trump wanted to make some idiotic generalization about every person who sneaks into the country.

As usual, the president’s overheated hyperbole is inaccurate, unfair and without any basis in fact.

I understand fully that some undocumented U.S. residents them come here and commit violent crimes. They harm others. Has it been proven, though, that undocumented immigrants do so at a more frequent rate than U.S. citizens?

The president continues to speak only for those who comprise his political base. He doesn’t speak for me.

Disgraceful.