With Election Day closing in, former President Trump took a surprising detour to ultra-blue California to spotlight the state’s sky-high inflation, crime and illegal immigration.
Trump touched down in Coachella Valley on Saturday evening to take on Vice President Kamala Harris on her home turf. Joining him at the rally was Hollywood A-lister Dennis Quaid, star of a new biopic on former President Ronald Reagan.
Voters in the decidedly blue state came out in droves, with Trump remarking on the sheer size of the crowds as he took the stage at 5:30 p.m. PST.
“We have had a great reception here. Look at this crowd,” Trump said, marveling at the crowd. “This is like record stuff as far as the eye can see.”
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Trump highlighted California’s failed policies, saying that “we gotta make it better.”
“I stand before you today in the heart of the majestic Coachella Valley, to declare that the Republican Party will always put America first and lead us on to victories like you have never seen before,” he said. “Because we’ve become the party of common sense.”
The former president promised that he’d fight for “hard-working citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.”
During the Trump campaign’s announcement that the former president would make a rare visit to California, spokesperson Steven Cheung said that it was to “highlight Harris’ poor record and show that he has the right solutions for every state and every American.”
Trump highlighted Harris’ as well as Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s track record in the state, promising to “save it.”
“The radical left Democrats have destroyed this state, but we are going to save it,” he said. “And we’re going to make it better than ever before.”
“I’ve come here today not only to talk about California, where you have one of the worst governors in the country, Gavin Newsom, but you definitely had somebody here that was horrible – Kamala,” he said. “And now she wants to destroy our country.
“She wants to destroy our country like she did San Francisco,” he said.
Trump noted how California has changed, transitioning his speech to a promise of a safe and secure southern border.
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“California’s really is a paradise lost, but we’re going to bring it back,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. We’re bringing it back. It’ll happen fast.
“We’ll stop the murderers from coming in. The drug dealers, everybody coming into California,” he said.
Trump reminisced of what California used to be, saying it was a ‘beacon of what our country aspired to become.”
“It had the weather, it had the water,” he said. “The state had the best schools, the safest communities, and a booming middle class, but all that was eradicated by decades of the very policies that Kamala Harris wants to now force upon America.”
The Republican nominee for president pointed to California’s sky-high cost of living, ongoing crime crisis and continuing illegal immigration crisis.
“Today, California has the highest inflation, the highest taxes, the highest gas prices, the highest cost of living, the most regulations, the most expensive utilities, the most homelessness, the most crime, the most decay, and the most illegal aliens,” he said.
“Other than that, I think you’re doing quite well, actually,” he quipped.
While acknowledging the economy is top of mind in California and across the nation, Trump highlighted illegal immigration as a top issue for voters, saying that the U.S. is considered an “occupied country.”
“But we are known all throughout the world now as an occupied country,” he said. “We got people taking over parts of Colorado. We have people taking over other states, a lot of states.”
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Trump promised to “liberate our country from criminals” and “rescue California.”
“To everyone here in California and all across our nation, I make this pledge to you. November 5th, 2024 will be liberation day in America,” he said.
“We’re going to liberate our country from criminals. I will rescue California in every town across America that’s been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of the country,” he said.
Trump pointed to Eduardo Sarabia, an illegal immigrant, who was recently arrested in Los Angeles after he allegedly viciously raped two women in his windowless Ford Transit van.
“He was charged with sadistically raping two women in the back of a windowless van that police said was disgustingly outfitted as, quote, a rape dungeon on wheels,” Trump said. “Detective believes this monster had many more victims.”
Trump also pointed to Victor Hernandez, an illegal migrant from El Salvador, who escaped his country of origin after committing a heinous crime and allegedly murdered Maryland mother, Rachel Morin.
“We had the strongest border in the history of our country. Now we have the worst border in the history of the world,” he said.
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“My message to the American people is very simple,” Trump said. “No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that our harass has unleashed on our country can never be allowed to become the President of the United States again.”
Trump promised that Harris’ “reign of terror” would end the first day he took office.
“Anyone who orchestrates an invasion of America cannot lead America,” he said. “Kamala Harris, her reign of terror ends the day I take office.”
Quaid drew cheers when he asked the crowd the famous Reagan question, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Like Reagan did with opponent Jimmy Carter more than 40 years ago, Trump and his surrogates are using that theme to point out high inflation during his predecessor’s term in office.
With time an extremely precious commodity for the presidential campaigns in the final stretch of a White House showdown in a margin-of-error race with Harris, many are wondering why Trump is stopping in blue states.
The stop in Coachella may benefit Trump with Latino voters — who have been trending towards the GOP in recent years — not only in southeast California, but more importantly in neighboring Arizona and Nevada, two of the seven crucial battleground states that will likely determine if the former president or Harris wins the 2024 election.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
