Today is the day. Former President Donald Trump will be heading south to witness for himself the bombed out border caused by Biden’s horrific immigration policies.
Trump’s border visit serves a couple of purposes for the Republican Party. Firstly, the Former President plans to highlight the failures of the current administration and discuss the glaring difference in policy, and what can result from crumbling border security. Secondly, Trump hopes to re-excite the GOP voter base as the country considers which party to support in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. Trump has repeatedly stated his current goal is to reestablish Republican majorities in both the House and Senate before considering a 2024 White House run.
Texas Republican Rep. Roger Williams will be joining Trump in his tour of the border.
“We have serious illegal behavior going on at the border and Republicans understand that. The truth is that the Biden administration is doing nothing about it,” Rep. Williams said.
Adding:
“Trump is going to remind people in Texas that the wall needs to be built. That catch-and-release needs to end. He will remind voters of what they just recently had — a safe and secure border.”
Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott will also be joining Trump on his journey through Biden’s border. The Lone Star Republican will first join the Former President in Weslaco, Texas for a roundtable talk with other lawmakers and border officials, then the two will make their way to the Rio Grande Valley to tour the destruction.
Trump and Abbott will then be joined by members of the House Republican Study Committee — a group of 24 America-First lawmakers which includes Rep. Williams and is let by Rep. Jim Banks. The cadre will meet at Trump’s unfinished border wall.
Later in the afternoon, Trump and Abbott will participate in a town hall in a hangar in the South Texas International Airport in Edinburg. The event will be moderated by Fox News’ Sean Hannity and will be attended by supporters of the former president, reports The Hill.
The trip to Texas is Trump’s second major public appearance in less than a week, after he held a massive campaign rally on Saturday in Ohio, during which he campaigned against GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, one of a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol.
The former president is also planning a large Fourth of July rally at the fairgrounds in Sarasota, Fla., this weekend.
Trump has continued to make it clear that he plans to act as kingmaker while rewarding loyalists with endorsements in their congressional and other races, and is flirting with another run for the White House in 2024.
His trip to the Texas border comes after he and other Republicans repeatedly slammed Vice President Kamala Harris after she did not visit the border for several weeks after President Joe Biden appointed her to lead the administration’s response to the immigrant surge that has been happening since he took office.
She visited El Paso on Friday, announcing the trip after Trump announced his, and came under fire for visiting a location that is not considered the epicenter of the immigration crisis.
“Kamala Harris, your vice president, only went to the border yesterday for the one simple reason…” Trump began:
.@KamalaHarris your VP — only went to the border yesterday for one simple reason, because I announced that I was going next week — and I am!
— President Trump at the #SaveAmerica #TakeBackTour rally in Wellington, OH.https://t.co/9LCoyxKHdW pic.twitter.com/vN5GjZ5Mkf
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) June 27, 2021
Trump last visited the McAllen, Texas, area on Jan. 12, a few days before he left office.
Meanwhile, Republicans gained unexpected votes from Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley in the 2020 election, and the party got another push recently with Republican Javier Villalobos defeating Democrat Veronica Vela Whitacre by roughly 200 votes in McAllen’s mayoral race. The city’s population is 85% Hispanic.
“The president made tremendous inroads in the Hispanic vote down in the Valley,” said Williams. “They think like we Republicans do: They want less government, and they want to be free to realize their dreams, and these Democrats have taken that for granted.”
Author: Elizabeth Tierney
