Trump describes US as an occupied country in dark closing message focused on immigration

By Eric Bradner and Kate Sullivan, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump described the United States as an “occupied country,” pointing to both undocumented and legal migrants as he pledged Monday to “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”

The former president’s comments, at his election eve rally in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, underscore the dark and dystopian image he is portraying as he and Vice President Kamala Harris make their final arguments to voters ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Trump made little distinction between undocumented immigrants he said had overrun an apartment complex in Colorado and thousands of Haitian migrants who entered the United States legally and live in Springfield, Ohio.

“These are military invasions without the uniforms. That’s all it is,” Trump said, as he vowed to launch a massive deportation effort.

Trump was closing his third presidential campaign Monday with the same anti-immigration rhetoric that he used to launch his first White House bid. He described a nation in decline, overrun by migrant crime, much as he did in his first inaugural address, when he vowed to stop the “American carnage.”

The former president said he would target migrant gangs, ban sanctuary cities and seek the death penalty for any migrant that kills a US citizen. He invited conservative commentator Megyn Kelly on stage. Kelly listed several people killed by undocumented immigrants. Her appearance was particularly notable after Trump ripped Kelly for the way she asked him tough questions while moderating a Republican presidential primary debate in 2015, starting off months of sparring over social media and in subsequent interviews.

Trump also said he would rejuvenate US manufacturing by imposing steep tariffs on automotive products manufactured in Mexico, steel made in China and more – a proposal that economists have said would increase inflation, because the businesses charged those tariffs for importing foreign-made goods would pass the additional costs on to American consumers.

“Four years of Kamala have delivered nothing but economic hell for the American workers,” Trump said.

And Trump railed against the length of time it takes for votes to be counted and the usage of electronic voting machines, calling for single-day voting that would all be done on paper. It was a long discussion that is contrary to previous messaging from Trump and his campaign, which has encouraged people to vote early.

“I do believe it is too big to rig. I think it’s too big to rig. They’ll try. And they are trying, you know, but it’s too big to rig. This is a big movement. This is, you know, we did great in 2016, we did much better in 2020 but a lot of bad things happened,” Trump said. “This is that big, powerful, vicious party, though. No, it’s a vicious machine. I mean, they can take all these bad ideas and win elections. It’s like, there’s only a way you can do that. One way, there’s only one way.”

He added, “We have to win the old fashioned way and then fix it. But we have to fix it. We can’t allow this to happen. And remember, the states are essentially an agent, if I can use that term, but they’re an agent of the federal government. The states are doing the collecting, so to speak, and they have to take their orders from the federal government. And how can they do this when they say it’s going to take days long.”

The former president’s closing message of the 2024 race was a familiar one, as he delivered a lengthy speech in Pittsburgh – his third of four rallies scheduled for Monday after visits to North Carolina and eastern Pennsylvania with one more stop in Michigan. In a nod to the city’s sporting history, Trump discussed Pittsburgh Pirates’ star Roberto Clemente for an extended period near the end of his speech and brought the late Puerto Rican star’s son on stage for a few words.

Harris also ended her campaign with a blitz across Pennsylvania. The two candidates’ time spent in the Keystone State underscores the importance of its 19 electoral college votes — without which both candidates’ paths to the 270 necessary to win the presidency would be much more daunting.

Both campaigns have largely focused on seven battlegrounds: the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which Trump won in 2016 but President Joe Biden reclaimed in 2020, and four Sun Belt states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

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