Harris and Trump head west

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are heading to the western United States on Thursday, where the Republican candidate is expected to hammer home his aggressive message on immigration while that her Democratic rival is counting on Jennifer Lopez, among other stars, to mobilize the Hispanic electorate.

Five days before the election, the former president and the vice-president are engaged in a chase through the seven pivotal states, or “swing states “.

The Democrat, who is trying to distinguish herself from Joe Biden without completely disowning him, finds herself embroiled in a controversy initiated by the octogenarian president, who on Tuesday called his Republican predecessor's supporters “scum”, before correcting himself.

Kamala Harris assured that she “strongly disagrees with any criticism of people based on who they vote for”, while Donald Trump told his supporters: “Kamala and Joe call you scum, I see you as the soul of America”.

Donald Trump, aboard a garbage truck, in Wisconsin, October 30, 2024 © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA – CHIP SOMODEVILLA

The former reality TV host, with his very particular sense of spectacle, went so far as to campaign aboard a garbage truck on Wednesday.

Donald Trump has scheduled an interview with radical right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson in Arizona on Thursday and a rally in neighboring Nevada.

He will also go to New Mexico, a more surprising choice since this state seems to be won over by Kamala Harris.

– Schizophrenic America –

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The latter will, as it has already done on several occasions, mobilize celebrities: in this case “J. Lo”, for a meeting in Las Vegas (Nevada), and the “Tigres del Norte”, a group very popular with the Mexican diaspora, for a rally in Phoenix (Arizona).

In the West, and in particular in Arizona, a state bordering Mexico, Donald Trump is expected to promise again to put an end to what he calls an “invasion” of migrants, having according to him transformed the United States into a “garbage can”.

Singer Jennifer Lopez in Los Angeles on October 26, 2024 © AFP – ETIENNE LAURENT

The Republican candidate was narrowly defeated by Joe Biden in the Grand Canyon State.

Kamala Harris did not call on Jennifer Lopez, born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, by chance.

During a recent Donald Trump rally in New York, a comedian likened the American territory of Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage.”

The remarks have provoked strong indignation within the large Puerto Rican diaspora.

With less than a week to go before the election, the two candidates continue to accuse each other of dividing the country, which is politically schizophrenic according to the polls that are unable to separate them.

The closer the November 5 election gets, the more concern grows around a possible protest, or even an outbreak of violence, if victory were to escape Donald Trump.

Illustrations of this tension are omnipresent: the electoral centers of the most disputed counties, targets of intense tensions four years ago, have turned into fortresses, protected by iron fences. forged and metal detectors.

The former Republican president, who never acknowledged his defeat in 2020, has already started talking about “cheating” in Pennsylvania, one of the most coveted states in the northeast of the country.

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