President Donald Trump challenged journalists Monday to “take your cameras into the middle of the caravan” and then show Americans the gang members, terrorists, and other “bad people” mixed among the migrant marchers hoping to make it to the U.S.
“Take your cameras into the middle of the caravan. You will see MS-13, you will [see] Middle Easterners, you will see everything. And guess what, we’re not letting them in this country,” Trump said in response to a reporter while answering questions in an impromptu news conference before boarding the Marine One helicopter on the White House lawn to fly to Joint Base Andrews.
From Andrews, Trump is heading to Houston for a Monday evening Make America Great Again (MAGA) rally, which is likely to be the biggest such event ever. Organizers said Sunday more than 100,000 people registered to attend, but the Toyota Center in downtown Houston has 19,000 seats.
As a result, Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign announced that it is providing multiple big screens, live entertainment, and free food so those who aren’t able to get inside the arena can participate in the “Big Texas Tailgate.”
Related: Over 100,000 Texans RSVP for Trump Rally
Besides the president, speakers will include Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who Trump told reporters on the White House lawn “will give a great speech. Trump is mainly holding the rally to boost Cruz, who is in an unexpectedly tough race against Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) for a second Senate term.
“I think O’Rourke is greatly overrated,” Trump told reporters.
Also speaking will be Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R). Abbott is the most popular public official in the Lone Star State.
Trump’s challenge to reporters to expose the criminal elements mixed into the caravan came as estimates of the marchers’ numbers are in excess of 7,000 men, women and children, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
As happened with a similar march in April, organizers of the present one say participants hope to make it to Mexico’s border with the U.S., where they will request asylum. The marchers are presently stopped at Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where officials are slowly processing them.
Related: Trump Calls Swelling Migrant Caravan a ‘National Emergency’
But Trump made clear again Monday that he wants Mexico and the other countries to do more to prevent caravans from forming in the first place.
“We have to stop them at the border. But unfortunately, if you look at the countries, they have not done their job. Unfortunately, they have not done their job. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — they’re paid a lot of money.”
“Every year we give them foreign aid, and they did nothing for us. Nothing. So we give them tremendous amounts of money, you know what it is, you cover it all the time, hundreds of millions of dollars. They, like a lot of others, do nothing for our country.”
Related: Suspected Illegal Immigrant, Driving Drunk, Crashes Car, Injuring Four Kids
Regarding the November 6 election, Trump was extremely upbeat, saying, “I think we’re doing really well. I have never seen such spirit, expect maybe 2016 with that big election two years ago.
“I have never seen the spirit that we have right now. I think that the Republicans are going to do very well. I have never seen the spirit that we have right now, whether it’s Kavanaugh, whether it’s tax cuts that we gave, whether it’s common sense.”
Trump also said he believes a big factor in the Republican surge of voter enthusiasm in recent days is a result of “what’s happening on the border.”
The president, moreover, said the U.S. is pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Missiles Treaty with the Soviet Union because “Russia has not adhered to the agreement. This should have been done years ago.”
In a comment sure to spark new protests on the Left, Trump added, “Until people come to their senses, we have more money than anyone else by far. We’ll build it up until they come to their senses. When they do, then we’ll all be smart and we’ll stop. And by the way, not only stop — we’ll reduce.”
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