Trump gets Texas governor's backing in border trip
Donald Trump picked up the Texas governor's endorsement Sunday during a visit to a U.S.-Mexico border town and promised that his hardline immigration policies in a second presidential term would make Greg Abbott's “job much easier.”
“You'll be able to focus on other things in Texas,” Trump told Abbott as they each appeared before a crowd of about 150 at an airport hangar in Edinburg.
Abbott, a longtime ally and fellow border hawk, said he was proud to endorse the former president, who is the Republican Party's front-runner for the 2024 nomination.
“We need a president who's going to secure the border,” Abbott said, speaking in a town that is about 30 miles from the Hidalgo Port of Entry crossing with Mexico. “We need Donald J. Trump back as our president of the United States of America.”
Earlier, Trump served meals to Texas National Guard soldiers, troopers and others who will be stationed at the border over Thanksgiving. Trump and Abbott handed out tacos, and the former president shook hands and posed for pictures.
“What you do is incredible, and you want it to be done right,” Trump told them.
Abbott said about the Guard members and Texas troopers who are stationed at the border: “They should not be here at this time. They should be at home.” He said that “the only reason why they are here is because we have a president of the United States of America who is not securing our border.”
Trump has been laying out immigration proposals that would mark a dramatic escalation of the approach he used in office and that drew alarms from civil rights activists and numerous court challenges. Though Trump has peppered campaign speeches with his immigration plans, he only made brief remarks in border country on Sunday. He spoke for only about 10 minutes against a backdrop of state police choppers, a plane and an armed patrol boat — all used by Texas at the border.
Trump did not get into the policies he would pursue if elected. He did complain about inflation, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and news media coverage. He said most technology outside of wheels and walls eventually becomes obsolete.
“We just need the walls. And it worked,” Trump said.
His plan calls for building
more of the wall along the border.
He also wants to:
• revive and expand his controversial travel ban, which initially targeted seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump's initial executive order was fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld
what Trump complained was a “watered down” version that included travelers from North Korea and some Venezuelan officials.
• begin new “ideological screening” for all immigrants, aiming to bar “Christian-hating communists and Marxists” and “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs” from entering the United States. “Those who come to and join our country must love our country,” he has said.
• bar those who support Hamas. “If you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you're disqualified,” Trump says. “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you're disqualified. If you support Hamas or any ideology that's having to do with that or any of the other really sick thoughts that go through people's minds — very dangerous thoughts — you're disqualified.”
• deport immigrants living in the country who harbor “jihadist sympathies” and send immigration agents to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to identify violators. He would target foreign nationals on college campuses and revoke the student visas of those who express anti-American or antisemitic views.