AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Donald Trump headed to Texas on Friday to talk about border security, a trip that comes as the former president escalates his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration in the race’s final stretch.
While in Austin, Trump also will sit down with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most listened-to podcaster, creating another opportunity for the Republican nominee to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid.
The brief foray into Texas is Trump’s first public campaign event in the state since receiving the GOP nomination. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, will visit Texas on the same day for a rally on abortion rights with superstar Beyoncé. Neither candidate expects Texas, a solidly conservative state, to be competitive, but they are aiming their message at voters in battleground states and hoping to influence the more competitive U.S. Senate race.
Trump is speaking in a border state for the second time in two days, underscoring his focus on immigration with early voting in many states already under way. During a rally in Arizona Thursday, Trump railed against Harris for the Biden administration’s record on the border, which he said had “unleashed” an “army of migrant gangs” that are “waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.”
“We’re like a garbage can for the world,” Trump said, adding a new insult to a litany he’s used to describe the state of the nation under the Biden administration.
At an event in Las Vegas later in the day, Trump claimed towns had been “invaded and conquered” by violent immigrants, adding: “We have a lot of towns that haven’t yet been infected.” Trump has long echoed tropes about immigration in portraying migrants as disease carriers, dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump views immigration as the issue that won him the White House in 2016. He accuses Harris of perpetrating “a wicked betrayal of America” and having “orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people,” even though crime is down.
While migrants have been charged with some high-profile crimes that Trump repeatedly highlights, research has shown that immigrants — including those who entered the country illegally — are charged with fewer violent crimes than American citizens.
He has also spread false theories that Democrats are registering immigrants without legal status to vote.
With Harris visiting Houston, Trump and his allies on Friday morning made illegal immigration the centerpiece of their pushback. They pointed to the killing of a 12-year-old Texas girl, Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found in June. Prosecutors have charged two Venezuelan men in the U.S. illegally with capital murder.
Rogan interview underscores Trump’s focus on masculinity
Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and tapping surrogates who sometimes use crude language.
At a Trump rally Wednesday, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, a “weak man” and compared Trump’s return to the White House to a dad who comes home ready to punish his misbehaved children.
“When Dad gets home, you know what he says?” Carlson asked. “You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you are getting a vigorous spanking right now.”
Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he declined to host Trump on his podcast before because he did not want to help him.
Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that then-candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. was the only candidate running who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.
“It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring???” Trump wrote on his social media site in August, referring to Rogan’s experience as a commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The podcaster is known for his hourslong interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed as a comedian friend described repeatedly coercing young women comics into sex.
