In Sun Belt swing, Trump continues to lie about immigrants : NPR

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday. Trump has used a swing through the south west to focus on economic issues but despite touting his economic policies, the candidate has continued to focus on immigration and repeating false and debunked conspiracies about immigrant communities.

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump is on swing through the southwest, with rallies in Tucson, Ariz. and Las Vegas, and a press conference this morning at his southern California golf course.

According to campaign statements, he’s focused on the economy in Arizona and Nevada, where the cost of living — particularly the cost of housing — is top of mind for voters in states where rents and mortgages have soared since the pandemic.

On Friday morning, he also used the economy and high costs of living to attack Vice President Harris. Trump labeled her and California Gov. Gavin Newsom responsible for what he described as the economic demise of the state.

“It’s very sad when I have to stand out here on my property and say how bad California is,” Trump said in Ranchos Palos Verdes.

Trump spoke in his typical meandering fashion for almost 40 minutes before taking questions in an event the campaign called a press conference. He then answered questions from the assembled journalists for a little under 30 minutes.

In this border state, he continued to peddle false information about immigrant communities in Aurora, Colo., and Springfield, Ohio, just like he did in his first post-debate rally in Arizona.

After bringing up debunked claims about immigrants in Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump spent much of his rally address in Tucson repeating false claims that legal Haitian migrants — who he falsely claims are illegal — are abducting and eating family pets.

And despite pushback from officials in Colorado, he continues to say Venezuelan gangs are running rampant and unchecked in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

During his California press conference, Trump repeated his campaign promise for mass deportation, name checking Ohio and Colorado.

“We will have the largest deportation in the history of our country. And we’ll start with Springfield and Aurora,” Trump said.

Pleas from officials in both cities to stop inciting hate in their communities have gone unheeded by Trump and his campaign.

When asked about the danger such rhetoric can have in those communities – schools and public buildings in Springfield have faced bomb threats for two consecutive days related to the city’s Haitian migrant community – Trump deflected.

“No, the real threat is what’s happening at our border. Because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in and also dying. You have women dying as they come up,” Trump said.

“And then when they get here, they can go into the country, and they end up being sex slaves and everything else. Those are your real problems, not the problem that you’re talking (about).”

Trump went on to try to fact check his false claims about a rise in violent crime — again attributing it to an increase in migrant-related crime without evidence. He claimed that the FBI falsified its own reporting on violent crime without giving any reasoning for that claim. There is no evidence the FBI has been reporting crime statistics differently.

The former president’s rhetoric is not new, but the false reports spread by him and fellow Republicans play into his campaign message of fear of the immigrant community, and his attacks of Vice President Harris for the Biden administration’s border policies.