Michael D. Shear

But never one to let a good crowd go to waste, Trump treated the giant gathering at NRG Stadium in Houston as his own, declaring that “you have never had a better friend as president than President Donald Trump, that I can tell you.”

Tens of thousands of Indian Americans gathered to celebrate the recent reelection of India’s fiery populist leader at an event cheekily called “Howdy, Modi!” Big screens throughout the stadium displayed the face of the prime minister, who arrived to thunderous cheers on a red carpet.

There were no Trump signs in the crowd, as there would be at one of his “Make America Great Again” rallies. And the president mostly stuck to his prepared remarks as the crowd of mostly Indian Americans responded largely with polite applause.

Trump praised Modi, marveling that some 600 million people voted in India’s recent elections. “That’s a lot of people,” the president said, adding that Indian Americans enrich the culture of the United States and that the two nations are “grounded in our common values.”

But he mostly seized on his own rally themes, bragging about slashing regulations, lowering unemployment, implementing a tax cut and hardening the nation’s borders against “those who would threaten our security.”

“There are those in Washington who would raid your health care to fund free benefits to those who enter our country illegally,” he said, previewing his attacks on Democrats during the presidential campaign. “I will never allow politicians to take away your health care or give it to illegal immigrants.”

The rally brought together two leaders with similar styles. Both rose to power by embracing right-wing populism, portraying themselves as champions of the masses fighting against an entrenched establishment. Both presented voters with a vision to make their respective countries “great again,” and both have fanned tensions along religious, economic and social fault lines.

Modi, who is in the United States for a week largely to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, won a landslide reelection in May. But Trump and Modi are also both polarizing figures among the people they lead. While many Indians see Modi as a strong, decisive leader, a small but vocal minority say he is becoming an autocrat, rapidly consolidating power, going after political enemies inside his country and sowing division between Hindus and Muslims.

In the United States, Trump is preparing to run for reelection in a bitterly divided country with polls regularly showing him receiving well short of 50% support. His participation in Sunday’s rally with Modi offered a chance to woo a constituency — the 4 million U.S. residents of Indian descent — whose support could prove helpful.

Modi delivered in English an over-the-top introduction of Trump, declaring that the president’s name is “familiar to every person on the planet” and “comes up in almost every conversation in the world on global politics.”

Standing next to Modi, the president beamed with pleasure as the prime minister delivered a twist on his own election slogan: “Abki baar Trump sarkar” or “This time, a Trump government.”

But earning votes from Indian Americans will not be easy for Trump, even with Modi by his side.

Indian Americans have supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past, though they have gravitated away from Trump’s party more recently. Although the president’s tax and economic policies appeal to many Indians, his tough stance on immigration, including legal immigrants from India, has caused great angst, especially in Silicon Valley, which relies heavily on Indian workers who come on H-1B visas.

An overwhelming majority of Indian American voters are registered as Democrats and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

M.R. Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, a group that tries to organize Indian Americans, said events like Sunday’s rally help the community become more relevant in the United States. He said Trump’s appearance here was an opportunity to increase his 14% showing among Indian Americans in 2016.

“He could hope he could change some minds,” Rangaswami said. “It could happen.”

Trump crowed last week that his decision to join Modi at the event Sunday enlarged the crowd at the stadium, which can hold up to about 70,000 people.

“I have a very good relationship with Prime Minister Modi. By the way, great relationship with Pakistan and with India,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One several days before the Modi event. “But he’s got a big crowd coming, and I guess the crowd just got a lot bigger because they just announced — he asked would I go, and I will go.”

Trump’s appearance at the event, which was followed by a stop with the Australian prime minister at an Ohio recycled packaging plant owned by an Australian company, comes as his administration is finalizing plans for a modest trade deal with India, a step that would help resolve earlier tensions between Trump and Modi over India’s trade balance with the United States and other trade issues.

The trade agreement, which could be finalized by the two leaders as soon as this week, is expected to help U.S. farmers and manufacturers by eliminating Indian restrictions on electronics, medical devices and a few agricultural goods. In return, Trump would restore a special trade status for developing countries, something the president stripped from India this year.

Resolving a nettlesome trade dispute with India presents Trump with an opportunity for a public relations victory amid increasing frustration over his global trade wars with China and other countries.

Modi, 69, is at his best outside India. He has prioritized, more than any other Indian leader in recent decades, India’s brand around the world and projecting an image of a muscular India, an emerging superpower. He travels all across Asia, he was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, he has journeyed across Africa and during a visit to New York in 2014 he packed Madison Square Garden with ecstatic crowds cheering: “Modi! Modi! Modi!”

He has come a long way. Years ago, he was banned by U.S. authorities from even entering the United States because of allegations that as chief minister in Gujarat in the early 2000s he was responsible for an explosion of religiously driven violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives, most of them Muslim.

The goal of this trip is to attract investment to India, and there is a little extra urgency: India’s economy is suffering its biggest downturn in years. Modi is also eager to shore up diplomatic support. But a controversy threatens to cast a shadow over his visit.

Human rights groups and three Nobel Peace Prize winners have criticized the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation for a prestigious award they plan to bestow upon Modi this week. Peace activists said that under Modi’s leadership, “India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that has consistently undermined human rights.”

A group of protesters gathered in Houston on Sunday to denounce Modi.

But Modi has typically drawn strong support from the Indian diaspora, even those who disagree with some of his domestic policies, because he has been so successful at burnishing India’s image on the world stage.

This article originally appeared in

At Rally for India's Modi, Trump Plays Second Fiddle but a Familiar Tune

HOUSTON — President Donald Trump played second fiddle Sunday to Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, at a boisterous cultural rally in which the U.S. president was technically just an invited guest.

“Whether you like me or not, it doesn’t matter,” Trump told an audience of Republican House lawmakers at a conference in Baltimore. “You have to elect me; you have no choice.” He said that a Democratic president would “take your money and very much hurt your families.”

Intended as counterprogramming to the 10 Democratic candidates debating in Houston, the president’s speech hit virtually every one of his usual political lines as he careened between prepared remarks, ad-libbed attacks and boasts about his record.

At times, Trump would read lines clearly written by a speechwriter: “Working with Republicans in Congress, we slashed 30,000 pages of regulations from the Federal Register.” But moments later, he departed from the staid lines on his teleprompter.

“The bulb that we’re being forced to use — the light doesn’t look good,” Trump lamented during an extended aside about his dislike for energy-efficient light bulbs. “I always look orange, and so do you.”

In more than an hour, there was little that he skipped. He mentioned military spending, socialism, the North Carolina elections, Veterans Choice, opioids and the search for nonaddictive painkillers, tax cuts, China trade, the individual mandate, food stamps, African American unemployment, Venezuela, “Crazy Bernie,” the Paris climate accords, straws, collusion and judges.

He made fun of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying he would call her “Cortez” because he did not have “time to go through the whole damn name.” He pronounced Pete Buttigieg “Boot-edge-edge” because “nobody can pronounce this guy’s name.”

In the second half of the speech, the president touched on the Green New Deal; open borders; Hillary Clinton’s aversion to stairs; his 2016 victories in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania; guns; ethanol; NAFTA; the deaths of birds because of wind turbines; paid family leave; “sanctuary cities”; his love of cowboy hats; and homelessness in San Francisco.

In his extended riff about wind turbines, Trump complained that “they make noise, they kill all the birds, the energy is intermittent.” Then, in a nod to the Democratic presidential primary debate, he suggested what might happen if a family were watching the Democrats on TV in a house supplied by energy from a wind farm.

“You happen to be watching the Democratic debate and the wind isn’t blowing,” he said. “You’re not going to see the debate. ‘Charlie, what the hell happened to this debate?’ He says, ‘Darling, the wind isn’t blowing.’ The goddamned windmill stopped.”

Trump delivered his remarks in Baltimore, his first visit as president to the city he once called a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

There were no rats evident on the streets from inside the president’s motorcade as he made his way from a landing zone about 10 minutes from the Republican event at the swanky Marriott hotel in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

There was, however, a large, inflated rodent made to look like Trump. Protesters flew the balloon near the hotel as other critics of the president waved signs, made obscene gestures and yelled at the motorcade.

Trump’s feud with the city escalated in July when he took offense to criticism about crowded and filthy border facilities from Rep. Elijah Cummings, the longtime Democratic lawmaker from Baltimore.

On Twitter, the president insisted that Cummings’ “Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than the Border Patrol facilities.

“If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place,” Trump tweeted, directing his anger not just toward Cummings but also toward the heavily Democratic, largely African American city.

The comments generated days of outrage from city officials, residents and others who said the president had, for the first time, broadened his attacks from a single individual to an entire population of one of the most historic cities in the United States.

In his remarks Thursday, the president made only a glancing reference to that city, pledging that the Republican Party would “fight for the future of cities like Baltimore, which have been destroyed by decades of failed and corrupt rule.”

As Democrats Debate, Trump Offers Alternative: A Rambling Speech

BALTIMORE — Moments after Democrats took the debate stage Thursday night, President Donald Trump delivered a rambling and disjointed 68-minute speech accusing the news media and the “radical left” of wanting to destroy America.

Migrants who seek asylum in New Mexico and Texas can be subjected to the administration’s new rules, which effectively prohibit them from requesting protection if they traveled through another country on their way to the United States unless they already tried and failed to receive asylum in that other country or countries, the court said.

But the ruling by the three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco is only a partial victory for Trump, whose immigration agenda has repeatedly been delayed by judges.

In July, a lower court had blocked the president’s new asylum rules after finding that the administration had probably violated the procedures required to put those regulations in place. The judge suspended the asylum rules nationwide while the court challenge continued.

The appeals court agreed with the lower court but said that the judge had not provided enough evidence that the rules should be blocked across the country. The appeals panel narrowed the judge’s ruling, deciding that the tough asylum rules could not go into effect in the 9th Circuit, which covers California and Arizona.

The ruling means that the administration can begin blocking the Central American migrants in two border states: New Mexico, which is covered by the 10th Circuit, and Texas, which is covered by the 5th Circuit. Immigrants from Honduras, for example, who enter the United States through those states will be eligible for asylum protections only if they had been denied asylum in Guatemala or Mexico first.

Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in the legal challenge to the asylum rules, said his organization plans to provide the judge in the case with more information about why the president’s rules should be blocked nationwide.

“We will put in additional evidence about the need for a nationwide injunction,” Gelernt said. “We are hopeful and optimistic that the nationwide injunction will be reinstated.”

But Gelernt also expressed optimism that the court would eventually conclude that the president’s policy violates federal law and should be permanently blocked from going into effect. He said the court rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the policy should be allowed to go into effect nationwide.

“The overriding takeaway was that the court did not feel this was clearly legal,” Gelernt said.

It was not clear whether the Trump administration would immediately begin implementing the new rules in Texas and New Mexico. A spokesman for the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment about the ruling by the appeals court.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/us/politics/asylum-rules-migrants.html" id="8a62e209-eed1-3ffb-a334-8bc1801e2748">The New York Times</a>.

U.S. Can Block Migrants Seeking Asylum, but Only in Some States, Appeals Court Rules

A federal appeals court said Friday that President Donald Trump can begin blocking some Central American migrants from applying for asylum in the United States, but only along parts of the border with Mexico.

The president was greeted at the airport by the city’s mayor and other officials. His motorcade passed two recreational vehicles adorned with pro-Trump signs and flags as well as one man standing outside of a store advertising survival supplies with a sign that appeared to object to so-called red-flag laws that prevent people with mental illness from getting guns: “Red Flag is Dystopic Future.”

He planned to visit El Paso, Texas, later in the day.

Protesters gather in Dayton as Trump arrives.

Protesters gathered in Dayton to greet Trump, waving signs that said “Dump Trump” and “Do Something!” The protesters were met by demonstrators who waved competing signs supportive of Trump.

The main protest of about a hundred people materialized along a stretch of South Main Street, in a grassy field a few blocks from the hospital where Trump was visiting some of the shooting victims.

Michael Prince, 55 — burly, tattooed and bushy-bearded — stood next to Jim Madewell, 71 — burly, tattooed and bushy-bearded — and watched the scene.

“I want to give him the finger,” said Madewell, a retired printing press foreman who said he lives a 100 yards from the house where the Dayton shooter lived.

Madewell said he believed Trump’s language “throws gasoline on the fire,” and that leads to violence. “He feeds on negativity and hate and fear,” Madewell said.

In Dayton’s Oregon District, a politically mixed crowd had gathered by late morning. At one point, a chant of “Do something!” broke out, the same message that drowned out the state’s Republican governor during a Sunday night vigil.

Ken Williams, a Dayton area resident, said he had been planning to visit the Oregon District at the time of the shooting before a last-minute change of plans. Though he does not support Trump, Williams said he was hoping the president might stop to speak with him and others who had gathered.

“Are you going to listen to what we have to say?” Williams asked. “Are you going to respond to what we have to say? Or are you going to blow us off?”

As noon approached, the crowd in the Oregon District began to thin. At one point, a few supporters of the president started chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump.” Across the street, another woman yelled, “Trump for impeachment.”

But mostly, people just stood on the sidewalk, waiting for a motorcade that did not seem likely to come. Maj. Wendy Stiver of the city Police Department eventually told demonstrators that the president was not going to stop by.

Trump attacks his critics on Twitter before visiting cities in mourning.

Trump began a day set aside for healing by delivering a series of political grievances against liberals and the media, once again using Twitter to exhibit the divisive language that has prompted some in El Paso and Dayton to protest his visits after horrific shootings in those cities.

The president’s press secretary said Trump planned to honor victims, comfort families and thank emergency workers “for their heroic actions.”

That wasn’t the message that Trump wanted to deliver Wednesday morning as he ignored calls from community leaders and residents to stay away. Around midnight, he attacked Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate, on Twitter, mocking him for having a “phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage” and boasting that he “trounced him” when Trump held a rally in El Paso in February.

In a tweet Wednesday morning, Trump quoted a conservative television news outlet’s reporting that “the Dayton, Ohio, shooter had a history of supporting political figures like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and ANTIFA.”

But the president’s Twitter outbursts underscored the complaints of O’Rourke and others who have said Trump was not welcome in their communities because his presence would inflame tensions rather than soothe them. If the president has heard those complaints, he declined to change the combative tone he has embraced since the earliest days of his presidency.

On Monday, Trump delivered a short speech from a teleprompter in which he condemned “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” and said that “hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.”

Before he departed Wednesday, he dismissed criticism about his use of divisive language. “I think my rhetoric brings people together,” he said. “Our country is doing really well.”

It is unclear which president will assert himself in Dayton and El Paso — a healer in chief who brings a disciplined embrace of consolation and a rejection of hate or a politically divisive chief executive who has spent years railing about the dangers from immigrants in the country illegally and stoking fear to rally his supporters.

Before leaving, he lashed out at the mayor of Dayton, calling her a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and of antifa, a radical leftist group. The president also rejected calls to abandon the way he talks about immigrants, saying that “illegal immigration is a terrible thing for this country” and insisting that “we have very many people coming in. They are pouring in to this country.”

Trump also used language that echoed his “both sides” comments after the neo-Nazi rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, saying Wednesday that “I’m concerned about the rise of any type of hate. I don’t like it. Any type of supremacy, whether it’s white supremacy or antifa.”

White House invites tech companies to discussion on ‘violent extremism.’

The White House will host an event with tech companies Friday aimed at discussing how to eradicate violent behavior online, but the president may not be in attendance.

“The White House has invited internet and technology companies for a discussion on violent extremism online,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said in a statement, adding that senior administration officials and “representatives of a range of companies” would participate.

He did not say which companies or officials would attend but said that it was a “staff-led” meeting. Facebook, Google and Twitter declined to comment about the meeting.

A person familiar with the event said that administration officials would be focused on violent behavior and not hate speech. In recent days, Trump has defended himself against widespread scrutiny over the effect his divisive rhetoric has on white supremacists and other extremists online.

The meeting highlights a growing discontent in Washington with technology companies. The White House and other Republicans have accused technology platforms — namely Google, Facebook and Twitter — of tilting the playing field against conservatives. The companies have repeatedly denied that is the case.

The giant technology platforms have also come under greater scrutiny for not doing enough to stamp out extremist and hateful content on their sites, while also failing to prevent the spread of misinformation during the 2016 presidential election.

Biden accuses Trump of ‘hate, racism and division.’

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday prepared to ratchet up his criticism of Trump after the El Paso massacre carried out by a suspect who authorities say wrote a white supremacist screed.

“In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation,” Biden will say, according to excerpts from remarks he planned to make in Burlington, Iowa.

“We have a president who has aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation,” Biden will say. He will also say that Trump “offers no moral leadership,” has “no interest in unifying the nation” and that there is “no evidence the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least.”

“Instead,” Biden will say, “we have a president with a toxic tongue who has publicly and unapologetically embraced a political strategy of hate, racism and division.”

At the White House, Trump was asked to respond to another comment by Biden in which he said the president has more in common with George Wallace than George Washington.

“Well, Joe is a pretty incompetent guy,” Trump said. “I’ve watched his interviews. I’ve watched what he said and how he said it. And I wouldn’t have rated him very high in the first place. But Joe Biden has truly lost his fastball, that I could tell you.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., another candidate vying for the 2020 nomination, spoke Wednesday morning at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015.

Booker urged Americans to embrace “courageous love” and appeared to choke up as he read the names of those who had died in the shooting four years ago.

“It’s with faith in God, in one another, and in who we can be that we come here together today,” he said, “not because of hate, but because of love.”

Democrats say ‘red flag’ laws will not be enough.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, said Wednesday that Democrats would insist that legislation to encourage states to adopt so-called “red flag laws” as a response to gun violence be accompanied by a House bill requiring background checks on all gun purchasers.

Red flag laws allow authorities to obtain a special type of protective order — known as an extreme risk protection order, or ERPO — to remove guns from people deemed dangerous. Republicans, including Trump, are embracing the concept, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is drafting a bill to develop a federal grant program to help states pass and implement such laws.

“We Democrats are not going to settle for half-measures so Republicans can feel better and try to push the issue of gun violence off to the side,” Schumer said. “Democrats in the Senate will seek to require that any ERPO bill that comes to the floor is accompanied by a vote on the House-passed universal background checks legislation.”

Trump told reporters he was open to expanding background checks for gun purchases. But Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has blocked consideration of the House bills.

The gunman’s motive in Dayton may not be tied to politics, authorities say.

Although the FBI is investigating “violent ideologies” that the Dayton gunman was exploring, authorities have said there was no evidence that his rampage had anything to do with his political views, which his friends have described as far-left.

The gunman, Connor Betts, who was killed by police, espoused leftist views online and in conversations with friends, promoting socialism and the idea that liberals should own guns. And a Twitter account that is believed to be his but has not been confirmed by authorities showed support for antifa, the loose group of people who call themselves “anti-fascists” and often believe that violence against people they view as “fascists” is justified.

In the wake of the mass shooting that killed nine and wounded more than two dozen others, conservatives have pointed out that the Twitter account that may be associated with the gunman also expressed support for Sanders and Warren, sharing one post that said they were the only two acceptable candidates in the race for president.

Earlier this week, a federal law enforcement official said the FBI was looking at whether the gunman was associated with incel, or involuntary celibate, groups, which are generally made up of misogynists who disparage women online, in part for refusing to have sex with them.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/politics/trump-el-paso-dayton-visits.html" id="82aed9d5-be04-33f8-af85-8d7b5cd5eb14">The New York Times</a>.

As Trump Visits Dayton, Protesters Gather

President Donald Trump on Wednesday visited the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where White House officials said he planned to thank emergency and hospital workers and visit with families and victims of the city’s tragic shooting.

Around midnight, he attacked Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate, on Twitter, mocking him for having a “phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage” and boasting that he “trounced him” when Trump held a rally in El Paso in February.

In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the president attacked the “Failing New York Times” and the “Radical Left Democrats” over a headline in The Times. A few minutes later, Trump quoted a conservative television news outlet’s reporting that “the Dayton, Ohio, shooter had a history of supporting political figures like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and ANTIFA.”

But the president’s Twitter outbursts underscored the complaints of O’Rourke and others who have said Trump was not welcome in their communities because his presence would inflame tensions rather than soothe them.

Before he departed Wednesday, he lashed out at the mayor of Dayton, calling her a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and of antifa, a radical leftist group. The president also rejected calls to abandon the way he talks about immigrants, saying that “illegal immigration is a terrible thing for this country” and insisting that “we have very many people coming in. They are pouring in to this country.”

President Donald Trump arrived Wednesday morning at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where White House officials said he planned to thank emergency and hospital workers and visit with families and victims of the city’s tragic shooting.

Trump Visits Dayton and El Paso

Trump planned to visit El Paso, Texas, later in the day.

“I hope other news outlets will report this as opposed to Fake News,” Trump wrote. “Thank you!”

On Monday, Trump delivered a short speech from a teleprompter in which he condemned “racism, bigotry, and white supremacy” and said that “hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.”

Before he departed Wednesday, he said that “we’re going to take the opportunity to really congratulate the first responders.” And he dismissed criticism about his use of divisive language. “I think my rhetoric brings people together,” he said. “Our country is doing really well.”

It is unclear which president will assert himself in Dayton and El Paso — a healer in chief who brings a disciplined embrace of consolation and a rejection of hate, or a politically divisive chief executive who has spent years railing about the dangers from immigrants in the country illegally and stoking fear to rally his supporters.

Biden accuses Trump of “hate, racism and division.”

“Instead,” Biden will say, “we have a president with a toxic tongue who has publicly and unapologetically embraced a political strategy of hate, racism, and division.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., another candidate vying for the 2020 nomination, also spoke Wednesday morning at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015.

Trump’s plans in Dayton are not clear.

Ninety minutes before his plane was scheduled to land, there were few obvious signs in downtown Dayton of a presidential visit on the horizon.

At the Courthouse Square, where some protesters had discussed gathering, only a handful of reporters were milling around at 9 a.m. South of Dayton, in suburban Miami Township, a video sign on the side of the road said “Welcome President Trump” and “#DaytonStrong.”

Many details of the president’s visit remained unclear even as his arrival grew imminent. There had been no announcement from city officials on where he would go, and whether he would speak publicly, during his time in the city.

A day earlier, Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, a Democrat, said she planned to greet Trump, but also confront him about “how unhelpful he’s been on this.”

“His comments weren’t very helpful to the issue around guns,” Whaley told reporters Tuesday. “His rhetoric has been painful for many in our community.”

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, said Tuesday that he supported the president’s decision to visit.

“I think it’s always appropriate for a governor, a president to go where there’s sorrow, go where people are hurting,” DeWine said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, said Wednesday that Democrats would insist that legislation to encourage states to adopt so-called “red flag laws” as a response gun violence be accompanied by a House bill requiring background checks on all gun purchasers.

In the wake of the mass shooting that killed nine and wounded more than two dozen others, conservatives have pointed out that the Twitter account that may be associated with the gunman also expressed support for Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sharing one post that said they were the only two acceptable candidates in the race for president.

Trump is going to Dayton in the morning and will visit El Paso later in the day. The White House has not released a full schedule of his activities in the two cities, but Tuesday evening, the president’s press secretary declared that the day would “be about honoring victims, comforting communities and thanking first responders and medical professionals for their heroic actions.”

As he left the White House to travel to the two cities, Trump dismissed his critics as nothing more than “political people that are trying to make points” and mocked them for being “very low in the polls.”

The president’s Twitter outbursts underscored the complaints of O’Rourke and others who have said Trump was not welcome in their communities because his presence would inflame tensions rather than soothe them.

President Donald Trump began a day set aside for healing by delivering a series of political grievances against liberals and the media, once again using Twitter on Wednesday to exhibit the divisive language that has prompted some in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, to protest his visits after horrific shootings in those cities.

Trump Heads to Dayton and El Paso

Ignoring the tweets he had sent out just hours before, Trump claimed that “as much as possible I try to stay out of that,” adding that “I don’t think it works. I would like to stay out of the political fray.”

It is unclear which president will show up in Dayton and El Paso — a healer in chief who brings a disciplined embrace of consolation and a rejection of hate, or a politically divisive chief executive who has spent years railing about the dangers from immigrants in the country illegally and stoking fear to rally his supporters.

Just a day after retreating from his threat to shut down the entire border with Mexico, Trump accepted a plaque from border agents and sheriffs in front of a 30-foot-tall section of border wall — the physical embodiment of his immigration agenda — and met with border officials, lawmakers and administration officials at the Border Patrol station.

“We’re really making progress at letting people know this is an emergency,” the president said. “It’s a colossal surge and it’s overwhelming our immigration system and we can’t let that happen.”

Critics argue that the wall is not a solution to the surge of families that have arrived in recent months, since most of the families are not trying to sneak into the country undetected. On the contrary, most are seeking Border Patrol agents to turn themselves in, either at the ports of entry or between them.

Asked Thursday night why the president was not using the national emergency he recently declared to seek funds to provide humanitarian relief to the families who have been apprehended recently, Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, conceded that the focus on the wall is, partly, a stunt.

“Well, I think part of that is just a — it’s an optic,” she told Chris Cuomo, the host of “Cuomo Prime Time” on CNN. “To have the president stand in front of the wall indicates immediately to any viewer that he’s at the border. But I think his message will be about the dual crisis and how we need Congress to act, to give us the authorities to address.”

Trump, however, hailed what he called the “tremendous impact” of the wall in Calexico and said that his administration expected to build 400 miles’ worth of wall in the next two years.

In fact, the small section of wall that Trump stood in front of is not evidence that the president is building the wall he repeatedly called for during his 2016 presidential campaign but merely an upgrade to an existing section of fencing. The 2-mile section was completed in October.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/us/politics/trump-border-wall.html" id="bfac9188-6209-3228-a67b-995ad81c6a2b">The New York Times</a>.

Trump Presses His Argument of a Border Crisis in California Visit

CALEXICO, Calif. — President Donald Trump traveled to this small border town two hours east of San Diego on Friday to highlight what he and his aides say is an out-of-control crisis caused by a surge of Central American families who have overwhelmed law enforcement facilities at the border.

But Trump insisted Friday that his efforts to seal off the border from unauthorized immigrants and asylum-seekers was necessary because “we don’t have room. That means you can’t take ‘em.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever expressed it like that, but I am expressing it like that,” Trump added. “When it’s full, it’s full.”

In fact, the small section of wall that Trump stood in front of — next to a field of solar panels — is not evidence that the president is building the wall he repeatedly called for during his 2016 presidential campaign but merely an upgrade to an existing section of fencing. The 2-mile section was completed in October.

Weeks after declaring a national emergency at the border because Congress refused to fund construction of his border wall, Trump recently threatened to close the legal ports of entry between Mexico and the United States — potentially disrupting billions of dollars’ worth of trade and halting the travel of a half-million people each day.

But on the eve of his trip here, Trump backed down in the face of hard criticism from the business community and top officials in his own party. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, predicted that a complete border shutdown would have a “potentially catastrophic economic impact” on the country.

Trump responded Thursday by initially saying he would give Mexico a year to stop Central American migrants from traversing Mexico on their way to the United States. He added that if Mexico did not do its part, he would first impose tariffs on Mexican cars before shutting down the border.

Later in the day, Trump denied that he had put off a border shutdown for a year, saying that it could still happen if he decided that Mexico was not doing enough to keep migrants from traveling to the United States.

“We’ll start with the tariffs and see what happens,” he said.

In his visit here, Trump thanked Mexico for deporting migrants at its southern border, which he said “they have never done before” in three decades, and suggested he had delayed closing the border because of their heightened efforts.

But it is false that Mexico only recently began enforcing its southern border at Trump’s urging, according to data, experts and the Mexican government. Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister, told reporters Tuesday that Mexico had been consistent in its immigration policies.

It deported 40,000 to 190,000 migrants every year from 2011 to 2016, data from Segob, Mexico’s internal affairs agency, shows. In 2016, Mexico deported nearly 150,000 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala compared with 107,000 deportations of migrants from those three countries in 2018. In the first two months of 2019, Mexico deported more than 13,000 migrants from the countries.

Contrary to Trump’s repeated claims this week, Mexico’s immigration laws are not harsher or “stronger” than the United States; illegal crossing are decriminalized in Mexico and considered a minor offense. Experts said they were not aware of any changes in the laws or enforcement practices.

“On the contrary, the discourse of President López Obrador has been more humanitarian than that of the former president, granting work permits and making efforts to find last-minute shelters,” said Karla A. Valenzuela, a professor at Ibero-American University in Mexico City who specializes in migration.

Valenzuela said an uptick in detentions and removals in recent weeks was not necessarily indicative of intensified enforcement, but rather more linked to increased flows from Central America.

Meanwhile, the president’s re-election campaign released a video Friday blasting Democrats for their position on the border, a clear indication that Trump intends to use the issue of border security for his political benefit, no matter the facts on the ground.

The video shows leading Democratic presidential candidates, including Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, mocking the idea of a wall at the border.

“We do not need any walls,” O’Rourke is shown saying. The headline in the video says, bluntly: “Democrats do not want to keep Americans safe” and adds: “It’s time for Democrats to stop playing political games with national security.”

A response from the Democratic National Committee assailed the president’s visit as nothing more than a photo opportunity, “to try and build nonexistent support for his unnecessary and ineffective border wall.”

“Instead of doing anything to address the issues that matter most to the people of Calexico, Trump is actually making things worse,” the committee said.

The president’s arrival in this small border town two hours east of San Diego is intended to highlight what the president and his aides say is an out-of-control crisis caused by a surge of Central American families who have overwhelmed law enforcement facilities.

The answer, he argues, is construction of a border wall and legal changes to allow the authorities to treat illegal border-crossers and asylum-seekers more strictly.

“The president himself has made it clear that this is a humanitarian crisis,” Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, said Thursday night on CNN. “He recognizes that humanitarian crisis, and he’s trying to take it to the people who can fix it.”

As he flew from Washington aboard Air Force One, Trump tweeted his excitement at the prospect of seeing a section of his border wall in person.

“Will soon be landing in Calexico, California to look at a portion of the new WALL being built on our Southern Border,” Trump wrote. “Within two years we will have close to 400 miles built or under construction &amp; keeping our Country SAFE – not easy when the Dems are always fighting to stop you!”

Weeks after declaring a national emergency at the border because Congress refused to fund construction of his border wall, Trump had threatened to close the legal ports of entry between Mexico and the United States — potentially disrupting billions of dollars’ worth of trade and halting the travel of a half-million people each day.

But on the eve of his trip to the border, Trump backed down in the face of hard criticism from the business community and top officials in his own party. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, predicted that a complete border shutdown would have a “potentially catastrophic economic impact” on the country.

Trump responded on Thursday by initially saying he would give Mexico a year to stop Central American migrants from traversing Mexico on their way to the United States. And the president said that if Mexico did not do its part, he would first impose tariffs on Mexican cars before shutting down the border.

“The only thing frankly better, but less drastic than closing the border, is to tariff the cars coming in,” Trump said in the White House. “We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’ll put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars.”

Later Thursday, Trump denied that he had put off a border shutdown for a year, saying that it could still happen if he decided that Mexico was not doing enough to keep migrants from traveling to the United States.

On Friday morning, Trump said on Twitter that Mexico had already changed its behavior.

“Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S.,” he wrote. “This is great and the way it should be.”

As he departed the White House for his trip, he again praised Mexico, suggesting to reporters that in the past four days, the country had been “very, very good.”

In Calexico, Trump will stand in front of a section of wall made out of tall steel slats that allow border agents to see through to the other side — a far cry from the concrete slab that the president once called for. He will be presented with a plaque that commemorates “the completion of the first section of President Trump’s border wall.”

In fact, the small section of wall that Trump will stand in front of is not evidence that the president is building the wall he repeatedly called for during his 2016 presidential campaign. The Calexico wall was merely an upgrade to an existing section of fencing. The 2-mile section of wall was completed in October.

Critics argue that the wall is not a solution to the surge of families that have arrived in recent months. Most of the families are not trying to sneak into the country undetected. On the contrary, most are seeking out border patrol agents to turn themselves in, either at the ports of entry or between them.

Asked on Thursday night why the president is not using his national emergency to seek funds to provide humanitarian relief to the families who have been apprehended recently, Nielsen conceded that the focus on the wall is, partly, a stunt.

In addition to seeing the wall, Trump is expected to receive a briefing from border patrol officials at the agency’s Calexico station. He will also participate in a round-table discussion about the border with local politicians and others.

Meanwhile, the president’s re-election campaign Friday released a video blasting Democrats for their position on the border, a clear indication that Trump intends to use the issue of border security for his political benefit no matter what the facts on the ground.

The video shows leading Democratic presidential candidates, including Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, mocking the idea of a wall at the border.

A response from the Democratic National Committee assailed the president’s visit to Calexico as nothing more than a photo opportunity, “to try and build nonexistent support for his unnecessary and ineffective border wall. Instead of doing anything to address the issues that matter most to the people of Calexico, Trump is actually making things worse.”

Trump Heads to the Border After Backing Off His Threat to Close It

CALEXICO, Calif. — President Donald Trump on Friday will stand in front of a 30-foot-tall section of border wall — the physical embodiment of his immigration agenda — just a day after retreating from his threat to shut down the entire border with Mexico.

Weeks after declaring a national emergency at the border because Congress refused to fund construction of his border wall, Trump had threatened to close the legal ports of entry between Mexico and the United States. But on the eve of his trip to the border, Trump backed down in the face of hard criticism from the business community and top officials in his own party.

Michael D. Shear

Articles written by the author

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