Former President Donald Trump took the stage in Tucson Thursday afternoon for the first time this campaign cycle, vowing if elected to begin the βlargest deportation operationβ in the history of the United States.
Trump, whose main messaging has historically centered around immigration, told the rowdy crowd of 2,000 supporters at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall downtown that he would stop migrants from coming from βmental institutions and insane asylums.β
βUnder Kamala Harris, our country is under a thing called invasion,β Trump claimed. βWe are being conquered and occupied by a foreign element. Weβve got to get them the hell out of here. Kamala is flying them here from other countries,β he said, citing no evidence.
Though he recycled some of his most controversial statements from his debate Tuesday night with Democratic Vice President Harris, Trump vowed not to debate Harris again.
He once again mentioned debunked claims that Haitian immigrants are taking peopleβs pets in Springfield, Ohio; referred to βthe Charlottesville hoaxβ; quoted Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbanβs praise for him; complained that President Joe Biden βhasnβt spoken to Putin in yearsβ; and warned βshe wants to confiscate your gunsβ despite Harris saying in the debate that she is a gun owner herself.
He also claimed some states βdo allow abortions even after birth in some casesβ β an act that would be infanticide and is illegal in all states, analysts have said.
On the abortion subject, Trump said Harris says he wants to monitor womenβs pregnancies. βWomen, I wonβt be following you around to the hospital, monitoring you. Sheβs a liar,β he said.
Trump declared that if he was president now, βWe would have had no Russian-Ukraine problem, no Oct. 7, no pullout from Afghanistan in that horrible way they did,β and added, βWeβll also stop World War III.β
Railing on the immigration issue that dominated his speech, Trump said Haitian immigrants in Springfield are βdestroying the entire way of lifeβ of a βbeautiful community (thatβs) now horrible.β
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has defended the Haitian immigrants in the area. βThese Haitians came in here to work because there were jobs, and they filled a lot of jobs,β DeWine told CBS News. βAnd if you talk to employers, theyβve done a very, very good job and they work very, very hard.β
βThere will be no third debate,β Trump declared, despite asserting that he had won it.
Harris swept the first batch of post-debate polls by a 23-point margin and took a five-point edge in the first national post-debate poll, released by Reuters.
That didnβt deter Trump from lashing out in Tucson against his opponent. He repeatedly called her βComrade Kamala."
The former president didnβt focus on policy until the middle of his speech, where he unveiled a new proposal to not tax overtime pay for workers.
βIt gives people more incentive to work,β he said, causing the crowd to break into a deafening applause.
He also calls for no taxes on tips or on Social Security benefits.
Towards the end of his speech, Trump mentioned the βaffordability crisisβ in Arizona, and pledged to cut energy costs in the state by 50% in the first year.
He also pledged to sign an executive order βdirecting the immediate termination of every single rule that is impeding housing construction and driving up the cost of housing,β and said he will rapidly decrease inflation βby slashing energy costs, taxes and regulations," which he said will bring interest rates down.Β
He said he will require all housing that receives federal subsidies to verify citizenship of renters; βtaxpayers will not subsidize rent for illegal aliens.β He said he will βban all mortgages for illegal immigrants. We wonβt let them drive up prices for Americans.β
To βsave the suburbs,β he said, he will protect single-family zoning so that apartments and low-income housing wonβt be built next door in a βMarxist crusade.βΒ
That led him to note that some pundits say suburban women don't want to vote for him, but he said he doesn't think that's true. "I never had any problems with women," he said.Β
Trump also vowed to open up new tracts of federal land for large scale housing construction. About 18% of all land in the state is owned by the βBureau of Land Mismanagement,β he said.
He also pledged, βWe will build a missile defense shield over our country, and much of it will be made right here,β seemingly referring to Tucsonβs Raytheon. He said Ronald Reagan wanted to build one βbut we have the technology now.β
Before Trump came out, Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake warmed up the crowd. In Tucson, she said, βevery block for miles looks like The Walking Dead,β and she blamed the cityβs Democratic leadership.
Trump made sure to give Lake a shoutout, even giving her the new nickname of βBorder Kari Lakeβ because he said she can win on that issue.
Despite the joyous energy in the venue β his supporters were decked in their usual scarlet red Make America Great Again hats and frequently broke out into chants, dances and songs β Trump brought a bit of controversy to the city.
Tucson legend Linda Ronstadt blasted Trumpβs visit to the city on Wednesday evening in a statement released on her social media accounts.
βI donβt just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance β although thereβs that,β Ronstadt wrote. βFor me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum.β
Rondstadt continued: βFamily separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.β
Trumpβs visit came on the same day that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff was scheduled to stop in Tucson, while Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz stopped by in Phoenix on Tuesday and his Republican counterpart, JD Vance, visited the Phoenix Valley last week.
The influx of presidential campaign visits comes after new polls show Trump and Harris neck-and-neck in the state.
Trump has still not paid his $80,000 bill to the city for his 2016 stop at the Tucson Convention Center. The debt has since been wiped from the city books, a city councilman told the Arizona Daily Star.
This time, Trumpβs campaign paid a $145,222 deposit upfront to use the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall for his rally Thursday, says Lane Mandle, chief of staff for the city managerβs office. That covers the use of the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall and the estimated cost of security provided mostly by city police.