While Trump focused on the border and crime, Harris was scheduled to speak Friday night in Houston, emphasizing his support for reproductive rights — a key issue for Democrats — in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

“We are here today in the great state of Texas … which, under Kamala Harris, has been turned into ground zero for the largest border invasion in the history of the world,” Trump said during a campaign stop at an airplane hangar.

Trump baselessly claimed that “for the past four years, this state has become Kamala’s staging ground to import his gang army of illegal alien migrants and criminals into every state in America.”

The former president also slammed Harris’ actions around border security, calling her approach “cruel,” “villainous” and “absolutely heartless.”

He also incorrectly called Harris the “frontier czar.” President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, but never gave him the title of “border czar.” The US Department of Homeland Security leads border security.

Trump too he resumed his recent rhetoricsaying that the US is “like a dustbin for the rest of the world to dump the people they don’t want”.

Speaking to reporters in Houston on Friday, Harris said the rhetoric was “just another example of how it really shrinks our country.”

“The president of the United States should be someone who raises the bar and talks about the best of who we are and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump who constantly demeans and degrades who the people are American.” Harris said.

Trump also reiterated his commitment, if re-elected, to launch “the largest deportation program in American history” immediately after taking the oath of office.

“We’ve got to get all these criminals out, these criminals and drug dealers and everything else – we’re getting them out and we’re going to put these vicious, bloodthirsty criminals in jail or we’re going to get the hell out of our country and us” I’m going to get them out,” he said.

Vance in Michigan

During a NewsNation town hall in Michigan on Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance, fielded a series of questions on topics including immigration, housing and abortion.

One of those questions came from Trump himself.

“How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?” the former president asked Vance over the phone.

Laughing, Vance replied, “Well, first of all, sir, these are supposed to be undecided voters—I wish I had your vote, of all people, but…sir, of course, you’re very brilliant.”

The Ohio Republican went on to talk about his wife, Usha, and Trump talking to each other.

Trump, who said he watched the CNN town hall with Harris the night before, then asked Vance, “How bright is Kamala?”

“It’s very difficult, sir,” said Vance. “I should say something,” he added, hesitating.

Vance also defended the baseless claims he has amplified in recent weeks about legal Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.

“Well, what I said then and I’ll say now is that you hear a lot from your constituents. They tell you things, and I think it’s important for me to listen to people who come to me with their problems,” Vance said.

“Now, I think the media has definitely gotten distracted by the housing crisis and the health care crisis and the public school crisis by focusing on the ‘dog and cat eat’ stuff? Yes, yes, and I wish it had been better at that time? Maybe,” he said.

“But also the people in my community, the people I represent, come to me and say this is happening. What should I do? Hang up the phone and tell them they’re liars because the media doesn’t want me to talk about it?”

Claims debunked surrounding legal Haitian migrants caused a series of bomb threats and shutdowns in Springfield.