During a Dane County rally, former President Donald Trump today promised to crack down on illegal immigration, cut energy prices in half during his first 12 months in office and to cut taxes.
In between, he insulted Dem rival Kamala Harris as grossly incompetent and a “bad human being” while labeling her the “tax queen.”
As he did during a stop in Prairie du Chien on Saturday, Trump distorted data Immigration and Customs Enforcement released to Congress last week on the number of migrants with criminal convictions living outside the agency’s detention. Trump charged more than 425,000 criminals, including more than 13,000 with homicide convictions, are now free to roam the country due to Harris and President Joe Biden.
ICE says that data stretches back four decades, and the vast majority on the list were from before Biden took office.
Trump cited the numbers during his speech at a factory in Waunakee as he expressed outrage at examples of those in the U.S. illegally who have committed violent crimes. That includes the rape and murder of Maryland mother Rachel Morin and Georgia college student Laken Riley. In both cases, authorities have arrested men from El Salvador and Venezuela, respectively, they say were in the country illegally.
Trump said he believes “Kamala murdered them just like she had a gun in her hand.”
“We’re crime fighters,” Trump said. “We’ll restore light and hope, and I’ll make America safe again. On day one of my administration, the invasion ends and the deportation begins.”
Ahead of Trump’s remarks, Harris’ campaign released a statement from Dem Gov. Tony Evers, who called the former president “a disaster for Wisconsin” while in the White House. Evers said “Trump’s extreme Project 2025” would hurt working families, cut Social Security and Medicare, and gut education.
“I know Wisconsin families, and they’re going to reject him again in November,” Evers said. “Vice President Harris is the only candidate in this race fighting to lower costs, cut taxes, and invest in Wisconsin’s future.”
Trump, who was scheduled to speak in Milwaukee later this afternoon, jumped from one topic to the next during his nearly 75-minute speech, often going off on tangents. At one point, Trump recounted for the crowd an oft-told story about a 2018 meeting with Air Force Lt. Gen. John D. Caine about eradicating ISIS in Iraq.
Saying Caine was “better looking than any guy you could put in a movie,” Trump then went on a riff about Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 movie “Full Metal Jacket.” He recounted how former Marine R. Lee Emery, who Trump didn’t identify by name, was eventually cast as the drill sergeant after originally being brought in as a technical adviser to train those who were up for the role. After marveling at the casting process, Trump went right back to recounting his conversation with Caine.
Among other things, Trump repeated his vow to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security and to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% from the current 21% that he signed into law while in office.
He also vowed to impose tariffs, including on cars he said China plans to build at plants in Mexico to then come into the U.S. without facing taxes. Economists have said Trump’s plans to impose tariffs would be passed onto American consumers. But he likened his plan to Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson building a plant in India to produce motorcycles because it was cheaper than paying the tariff to ship them from U.S. factories.
“If they play that game, we have to play the game, too,” Trump said.
