Trump Leans Into Border as a Campaign Issue

Donald Trump lavished praise Saturday on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for not allowing the Biden administration entry to remove razor wire in a popular corridor for migrants illegally entering the US. In a speech focused overwhelmingly on border security—potentially foreshadowing a big issue in the general election—Trump said Texas should be given full support for its measures to deter migrants along the US-Mexico border. The state is restricting the US Border Patrol after the Supreme Court cleared the way for these federal agents to cut or remove the sharp metal barrier.

"When I'm president, instead of trying to send Texas a restraining order, I will send them reinforcements," Trump told a crowd of supporters in Las Vegas, where he rallied on an indoor soccer field in a largely Latino neighborhood. "Instead of fighting border states, I will use every resource tool and authority of the US president to defend the United States of America from this horrible invasion." Trump said Hispanic and Black families hurt the most from the arrival of migrants into the country and said President Biden should not have ended restrictions implemented during the Trump administration to deter migration. "I'll get it solved and start the process on day one," he said. "That's why we're going to win the record share of Latino votes."

New verdict: Trump largely avoided talking about a verdict delivered by a jury in a defamation case Friday, ordering him to pay an additional $83.3 million to columnist E. Jean Carroll, whom he called a liar for accusing him of sexual assault. The former president said he was the victim of the Biden administration weaponizing law enforcement against him. "What they're doing with elections and election interference as an example of what they do with me," he said. "Look at yesterday, look at all this crap that's going on, but we keep marching forward, we just keep going and somehow it all works out." (Biden says he would shut down the border to solve the current "crisis" if a bipartisan deal passes.)

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