President Trump holds a rally in Texas

EL PASO, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 11:  President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the  El Paso County Coliseum on February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. U.S. President Donald Trump continues his campaign for a wall to be built along the border as the Democrats in Congress are asking for other border security measures. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Trump slams Beto O'Rourke's march against border wall
01:14 - Source: CNN

What we're covering here

  • Earlier: President Trump held a campaign rally in the border town of El Paso, Texas.
  • The shutdown: The rally comes as lawmakers scramble to avoid another government shutdown. Border security talks have broken down, stalling Congress to a halt just days before the deadline.
  • Meanwhile: Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke will join a one-mile march in protest, giving a speech across the street from Trump’s rally.
14 Posts

Trump doubles down on El Paso's crime rate decrease as a case for a wall

President Donald Trump during his speech in El Paso doubled down on his argument that a border wall led to a decrease in crime in the border city.

“You know where it did make a big difference? Right here in El Paso. And I’ve been watching where they’re trying to say ‘Oh the wall didn’t make that much – ‘. Well, you take a look at what they did with their past crimes and how they made them from very serious to much lesser – you take a look at what the real system is,” Trump said.

“I’ve spoken to people who have been here a long time. They said when that wall went up it’s a whole different ball game. Is that a correct statement? Whole different ball game.” 

The President also appeared to zero-in on the Republican mayor of El Paso Dee Margo’s recent comments on CNN disputing Trump’s claim about El Paso’s safety record. 

“And I don’t care whether a mayor’s a Republican or a Democrat. They’re full of crap, what they say it hasn’t made a big difference,” Trump said. 

However, as CNN has repeatedly reported, an analysis of FBI crimes data and city law enforcement data analyzed by the El Paso Times, violent crime in El Paso peaked in 1993. Border fence construction didn’t begin until 2008, and was completed in 2009. But violent crime fell long before the wall was built in El Paso, with violent crime falling 34% between 1993 and 2006 in the city.

And according to the El Paso Times, from 2006 to 2011, violent crime in El Paso actually increased by 17 percent.

Other analyses of crime data suggest a decrease in violent crime in the immediate wake of Operation “Hold the Line,” in which hundreds of Border Patrol agents were deployed to the border surrounding El Paso to intercept potential illegal entries and new technologies were implemented.

Trump says having a dog at the White House would be "phony"

President Donald Trump went on a bit of a tangent about getting a dog Monday evening in El Paso.

Trump was talking about German Shepherds who work on the border to find drugs. 

“I wouldn’t mind having one,” the notoriously pet-averse Trump said. 

“How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn sort of not – I don’t know, I don’t feel good, feels a little phony to me,” Trump said. 

He added that people have asked and told him it’s “good politically” to have a dog, but “That’s not the relationship I have with my people.”

An audience member pointed out that Obama had a dog. Trump laughed. “Obama had a dog. Yeah you’re right.”

The Trumps have broke with tradition in not having a pet; the illustrious tradition of keeping pets in the White House dates back to Thomas Jefferson, who kept a mockingbird and a couple of bear cubs during his presidency. Throughout the years, presidential pets became celebrities of sorts.

Trump lived with a poodle, Chappy, with his first wife, Ivana, who wrote in her memoir, “Raising Trump,” that, “Donald was not a dog fan.”

“When I told him I was bringing Chappy with me to New York, he said, ‘No,’ ” she wrote. “‘It’s me and Chappy or no one!’ I insisted, and that was that.”

Chappy, she later said, “had an equal dislike of Donald.”

Ocasio-Cortez responds to President Trump’s Green New Deal comments 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just reacted to President Trump’s criticism of her Green New Deal.

Trump tells crowd he took stage instead of hearing about deal to avert shutdown

President Donald Trump reacted to news that progress has been made with Congressional negotiators on stage in El Paso. 

Before he came on stage, he said he was told that progress had been made on the Hill. 

“They say that progress is being made. Just so you know. Just now just now,” he said. “I said wait a minute, I gotta take care of my people from Texas, I got to go, I don’t even want to hear about it, I don’t want to hear about it.”

Trump said he had a choice between staying backstage to hear more about the deal or coming out to speak. 

“I chose you,” Trump told the crowd. He added, “So we probably have some good news, but who knows?”

Crowd chants, "Lock her up." Trump responds, "That's starting to make a lot more sense"

It’s been over two years since President Donald Trump took office, but the “lock her up” chants are back in 2019. 

Trump touted the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr’s assertion that his committee “found no collusion between Donald Trump and Russia,” prompting a USA chant from the El Paso crowd. 

Then he countered: “The fact is that the real collusion was between Hillary and the Democrats and the other side with Russia.”

The crowd erupted in “lock her up.” Trump’s reaction? “That’s starting to make a lot more sense, but that’s where the collusion is.”

Clinton, for her part, has responded to this accusation in the past:

Trump slams O'Rourke: "You're supposed to win in order to run"

President Trump, without naming him, slammed hometown politician Beto O’Rourke, who is holding a rally nearby.  

O’Rourke, Trump said, “challenged us” in El Paso with the competing rallies. Trump noted the former Congressman “lost an election to Ted Cruz” — which is true, though it was incredibly close.

“W we were all challenged by a young man who lost an election to Ted Cruz. And then they said, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to win in order to run.’ By the way we – I – I’m one for one. We had one election, now we’re going to be 2 for 0 and everything’s going to be perfect. But a young man who has got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name, he is, he challenged us. So we have, lets say, 35,000 people tonight and he has 200 people, 300 people – not too good. In fact, what I would do is say that may be the end of his presidential bid. But he did challenge it.”

Trump claims "we started a big beautiful wall right on the Rio Grande"

President Donald Trump began his Monday night speech in El Paso, Texas, by telling the crowd about a new segment of a wall on the US-Mexico border.

It’s wasn’t immediately clear which segment of a wall he was referring to. However, CNN’s Phil Mattingly reports that an initial border security deal from Congress would cover $1.375B in barrier funding will cover roughly 55 miles of new barrier - including in the Rio Grande Valley.

Trump previews his 2020 message, "a mainstream, common-sense agenda"

President Donald Trump is beginning his first rally of 2019 with a bipartisan message

“Our agenda is not a partisan agenda,” he said, adding the caveat that “every once in a while, it does become that way.”

Here is how he is defining his agenda as he seeks a second term: “It’s a mainstream, common sense agenda of the American people.”

He pointed to the economy and touted success in North Korea before pivoting to his crowd sizes: “tens of thousands of people.” 

Trump takes stage at Texas rally

President Donald Trump kicked off his first campaign rally of 2019 in El Paso a little after 7 p.m local time.

The President arrived on site 40 minutes earlier but participated in a $15,000 photo line fundraiser at the Coliseum. His son, Don Jr., spoke to the crowd, as well as Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. 

Expect this rally to be much like his 2018 rallies, but tonight’s remarks are expected to focus largely on border security and immigration – we’re a stone’s throw from the El Paso border fence.

Trump to take stage under giant "Finish the Wall" banner

President Trump is about to take the stage at his rally in El Paso, Texas, under a massive “Finish the Wall” banner. It gives a clue as to what message he might hope to hammer home tonight during his rally in this border town.

Stay tuned – we’ll bring you the rally live in the video player alive.

Trump releases campaign video urging El Paso to "Finish the wall"

Hours before President Trump is set to speak in El Paso, Texas, he released a campaign video titled: “El Paso Residents: Finish The Wall, It Kept Us Safe.”

The video addresses the construction of a border fence that was built in 2009. Residents are filmed supporting the wall – one man says, “They put the fence up and ever since then, the crime rate has gone down dramatically.”

The campaign video echoes an inaccurate claim Trump had made last week during the State of the Union address, that the border fence had reduced crime. In reality, crime rates had been dropping in El Paso for at least a decade before the fence was built.

Trump's Texas rally marks the 2020 campaign kickoff — but don't expect to hear anything new

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One before departing Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, for El Paso, Texas.

President Donald Trump’s trip to El Paso will be his first political rally of 2019.

While he held campaign rallies after taking office in 2017 and midterm rallies in 2018, Texas marks the kickoff of the 2020 season.

But don’t expect a new speech – Trump is expected to stick to a similar structure and themes of previous rally speeches with an emphasis on border security and immigration during his Texas remarks, per a source familiar, who adds that plenty of off-prompter remarks are expected as always. 

There was a pause on campaign travel during the 35-day government shutdown, and if the government shuts down for a second time, it will cease again. This is the only campaign-related travel planned before the February 15 deadline.

The President is not likely to declare a national emergency at this rally and there has been no planning toward those ends. But as always, he could change his mind.

Asked about the widely-debunked statistics on violent crime in El Paso that Trump keeps referencing as an argument to build the wall as recently as last week’s State of the Union address, the source sarcastically responded, “LOL.”

Trump is campaigning in El Paso tonight

President Trump is holding a campaign rally tonight in El Paso, Texas, where the subject of border security is expected to take center stage.

The rally comes days before the deadline for Congress to strike a deal and avoid another government shutdown.

Here’s what to expect tonight:

  • The wall: The issue is at the heart of the looming shutdown. Trump tweeted over the weekend, “The Democrats just don’t seem to want Border Security… The Wall will get built one way or the other!”
  • Crime in El Paso: The President claimed last week (in an inaccurate connection) that El Paso’s crime rate had dropped after the construction of a border wall. However, it began decreasing many years earlier. Still, Trump could return to this theme again tonight.
  • 2020 campaign: Though the rally will center around border security, this is Trump’s first campaign rally of the 2020 presidential election cycle — a chance for him to drum up reelection support.

GO DEEPER

Another government shutdown looms – Monday is a crucial day for talks
Beto O’Rourke to join march against wall countering Trump’s El Paso visit
Dispute dashes hopes on deal to avert shutdown

GO DEEPER

Another government shutdown looms – Monday is a crucial day for talks
Beto O’Rourke to join march against wall countering Trump’s El Paso visit
Dispute dashes hopes on deal to avert shutdown