Former President Donald Trump spoke Thursday at a campaign event in Tucson, Ariz. Trump has been focusing on economic issues as he tours the Southwest, but even as he touts his economic policies, the candidate continues to focus on immigration, repeating false and debunked conspiracies about immigrant communities.
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Former President Donald Trump is currently on a tour of the Southwest, holding rallies in Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, and this morning held a press conference at a golf course in Southern California.
He’s focused on the economies of Arizona and Nevada, according to a campaign statement, as the cost of living, especially housing, has become a top concern for voters in those states, where rents and mortgages have skyrocketed since the pandemic began.
On Friday morning, Trump attacked Harris over the economy and the rising cost of living. He blamed her and California Governor Gavin Newsom for the state’s economic decline.
“It’s very sad that I have to stand on my own land and say how terrible California is,” Trump said at Ranchos Palos Verdes.
Trump spoke in his usual rambling manner for nearly 40 minutes before opening for questions at what his campaign called a news conference, then spent just under 30 minutes answering questions from gathered reporters.
In this border state, he continues to spread false information, The immigrant community of Aurora, Colorado.He held a similar rally in Springfield, Ohio, just like he did for his first rally after the Arizona debate.
After bringing up false claims about immigration during Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump spent much of his speech at a rally in Tucson repeating the false claim that legal Haitian immigrants — whom Trump has falsely claimed were illegal — are kidnapping and eating family pets.
And despite pushback from Colorado authorities, he continues to say Venezuelan gangs operate unchecked in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
At a press conference in California, President Trump reiterated his campaign promises of mass deportations, singling out Ohio and Colorado by name.
“We’re going to carry out the largest deportation campaign in the history of our country, and we’re starting in Springfield and Aurora,” Trump said.
Officials in both cities pleaded with them to stop inciting hatred in their communities, but Trump and his campaign ignored them.
When asked about the dangers such discourse poses to the community, For the second day in a row, Springfield schools and public facilities have received bomb threats linked to the city’s Haitian immigrant community. – Trump evaded the point.
“No, the real threat is what’s happening at the border, where thousands of people are being killed and dying because of illegal immigration. Women are coming to the border and dying,” Trump said.
“And then they come here, they get into the country, and they end up being sex slaves and all sorts of things. That’s the real problem, not the problem you’re talking about.”
Trump also sought to fact-check his own false claims about an increase in violent crime, again attributing it, without evidence, to an increase in immigration-related crime. He claimed the FBI falsified its own reports on violent crime, but provided no evidence for that claim. There is no evidence that the FBI reported crime statistics differently.
While the former president’s rhetoric is not new, the false narratives he and his Republican allies have spread have played into his campaign messaging of fear for immigrant communities and his attacks on Vice President Harris over the Biden administration’s border policies.
