Trump's Apocalyse America tour heads to Colorado
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Donald Trump plans to visit Aurora, Colorado, on Friday — not because his team thinks he can win Colorado, but because he wants another backdrop for his apocalyptic tale of an America overrun by undocumented immigrants.
Why it matters: Despite being criticized for his misleading and false attacks on immigrants, Trump and his campaign see it as an effective strategy to blame immigration and border security problems on President Biden and Vice President Harris.
- In recent weeks Trump has made bogus claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio, and fueled misinformation about the federal government's storm relief efforts in the South.
- He's falsely said the government is short on disaster funds because of what Biden's administration is spending on undocumented immigrants.
Zoom in: Now, as much of the campaign focuses on the seven swing states likely to decide the election, Trump will stop in mostly Democratic Aurora to highlight what local officials say are false claims about a violent Venezuelan gang "taking over the town."
- Last month, reports of the gang supposedly taking over an apartment complex spread across social media sites — and caught Trump's attention.
- He brought it up in his opening statement when he debated Harris last month, falsely claiming that migrants in Aurora "are taking over the town, taking over buildings ... they're destroying our country."
- Aurora officials say the gang activity there was dramatically exaggerated and involved a few people, most of whom were arrested.
- "TdA [Tren de Aragua] has not 'taken over' the city. The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true," Mayor Mike Coffman and City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky, both Republicans, wrote in a joint statement.
Between the lines: Some Republicans think his Aurora messaging could be more grounded in truth than Trump's claims about Haitians in Ohio and FEMA relief efforts in North Carolina.
- The Denver area has struggled to deal with an influx of more than 40,000 migrants, and Aurora police last month announced they'd arrested 10 members of Tren de Aragua on charges that included attempted first-degree murder, child abuse and domestic abuse.
- But there's no evidence that gangs are running apartment buildings or that Aurora is a "war-zone," as Trump claims.
The bottom line: For Trump, any opportunity to talk about immigration is a good one.
- "The more he talks about immigration, the better chances he has to win," Justin Sayfie, a former spokesperson for ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, told Axios.
- "It honestly doesn't matter where he does it because voters across the country will see that he is with them on that issue," he added.
What they're saying: "These claims [about Aurora] are not false. They were well documented by local and national news outlets," Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Axios.
- "President Trump will continue to highlight the concerns of American citizens about the dangerous impact of Kamala's open border crisis and migrant crime wave in their communities."
The intrigue: In yet another departure from campaigning in swing states, this weekend Trump plans to head to Coachella, Calif. — a town that's 97% Hispanic — after campaigning and fundraising in the swing state of Nevada on Friday.
- The visit to heavily Democratic California — described by one GOP strategist as "way too cocky" of a strategy — will give Trump a chance to hammer Harris, a Californian, on what he's called the state's "radical liberal policies."
