Ex-president disparaged Black and Latino voters at Tempe rally, the two groups Republicans are trying to win over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump, campaigning in the border swing state of Arizona on Thursday, called the country a \u201cgarbage can\u201d because of immigration policies under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re like a garbage can, you know, it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever said that,\u201d Trump said in Tempe, Arizona<\/a>, the home of Arizona State University. \u201cAnd every time I come up and talk about what they\u2019ve done to our country, I get angry. First time I\u2019ve ever said garbage can, but you know what, it\u2019s a very accurate description.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Candidates and their surrogates for both presidential campaigns are blitzing swing states like Arizona in the final two weeks before election day. The Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance<\/a> held two campaign rallies<\/a> in Arizona earlier this week. Joe Biden<\/a> and the former president Barack Obama are set to visit this week, as is Tim Walz<\/a>, the Democratic vice-presidential pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A banner behind the stage said, \u201cVote early!\u201d \u2013 a change in strategy for Republicans and Trump, who have cast doubt on early and mail-in voting by falsely claiming it is an avenue for widespread fraud. He said of Arizona voting: \u201cThey got a problem. Gotta make it too big to rig.\u201d An image of Trump, raised fist and bloodied ear after his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania<\/a>, showed before he came out. Early on, he displayed on screens behind him the chart of migration that he has attributed with saving his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must defeat Kamala Harris and stop a radical left agenda with a landslide that is simply too big to rig,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re doing that. We\u2019re doing that, we\u2019re doing that. If these numbers hold up, and they probably will, why wouldn\u2019t they? Who the hell wants these people in office?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His speech started on a menacing message about migration, a key theme for the Trump re-election bid, in what campaign officials have cast as his final pitch to voters: that Harris \u201cbroke\u201d the country and Trump will \u201cfix\u201d it, according to Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He called increased immigration under the Biden administration \u201cthe most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people\u201d, by allowing in an \u201carmy of migrant gangs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He laid out a host of policies aimed at migrants: invoking the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer, ending migrant flights, outlawing sanctuary cities and hiring 10,000 more border agents and increasing their pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He sought to tie Medicare and Social Security to immigration, saying the presence of migrants will \u201cobliterate\u201d the two programs, and claimed that Latino and Black people are losing jobs to migrants, an appeal to two of the groups Republicans are trying to win more votes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump called Biden a \u201cstupid fool\u201d and Nancy Pelosi \u201ccrazy as a bed bug\u201d. He said Harris is a \u201clow IQ individual\u201d. He implored women watching to tell their husbands to vote: \u201cGet your fat ass off the couch, you\u2019re going to vote Jimmy, you\u2019re going to vote, we\u2019re going to save our country, Jimmy.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n He boosted Elon Musk, the ultra-rich owner of X, who\u2019s become one of Trump\u2019s most vocal supporters and financial backers, and praised Musk\u2019s businesses, including Starlink and SpaceX. Among his list of campaign promises was that he would \u201cland an American astronaut on Mars\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you, Elon, thank you,\u201d he said. \u201cHow good was his endorsement? I mean, his endorsement just kept coming. He said that we will not have a country if we don\u2019t win this election. And he is a smart cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump again asked former Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for harsh immigration policies that cost county taxpayers<\/a> hundreds of millions for the resulting legal issues that followed, to stand and receive applause, though he did not kiss him on the cheek as he did at a prior Arizona rally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n