LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump heads to Texas on Friday for his first public campaign event in the state since capturing the Republican nomination, sitting down with the most listened-to podcaster in the country and creating another opportunity for him to highlight the issue. It’s the hyper-masculine tone that defines much of the 2024 White House bid.

The GOP presidential candidate will hold a news conference in Austin and meet with podcaster Joe Rogan at his studio there. This is his second time campaigning in the state, following a visit to Dallas in May where he addressed members of the National Rifle Association. On Friday, Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris will also visit Texas for a rally on abortion rights with superstar Beyoncé.

Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts aimed at young male voters and listening to surrogates who sometimes use vulgar language.

At a Trump rally on Wednesday, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz a “weak man” and likened Trump’s return to the White House to a father coming home and “being angry.” and is ready to punish his misbehaving children.

“Do you know what my father says when he comes home?” Carlson asked. “You are a bad little girl. You have been a bad little girl and now you are receiving a severe spanking.

Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan previously said he refused to host Trump on his podcast, but he didn’t want to do so because he didn’t want to help him.

Earlier this year, Trump said the podcaster said the only candidate who made sense to him was then-candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. He criticized Rogan after he said that he was. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.

“It will be interesting to see how loudly BOOED Joe Rogan gets the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024,” Trump wrote on the social media site in August.

The podcaster is known for his hour-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States according to Spotify charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed when a comedian friend described repeatedly forcing young female comics to have sex.

Trump ramps up immigration rhetoric

Trump will also hold a press conference on border security. In the final stretch of the race, he ramps up his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration.

During a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Trump railed against Harris for the Biden administration’s record at the border, saying it had “unleashed” an “army of immigrant gangs” who are “waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.”

Adding a new insult to the words he used to describe the situation of the country under the Biden administration, Trump said, “We are like a garbage bin for the world.”

At a Turning Point event in Las Vegas later in the day, Trump claimed towns were being “invaded and conquered” by violent immigrants, adding: “We have a lot of towns that haven’t been infected yet.” Trump has long echoed immigration tropes by portraying immigrants as disease spreaders, dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump sees immigration as the issue that won him the White House in 2016. He accuses Harris of committing a “wicked betrayal of America” ​​and “orchestrating the most egregious betrayal of our people by any leader in American history.” although crime has decreased.

While immigrants have been accused of some high-profile crimes that Trump has repeatedly highlighted, studies have shown that immigrants, including those who entered the country illegally, are accused of fewer violent crimes than American citizens.

He also spread false theories that Democrats were registering immigrants without legal status to vote.

While Harris visited Houston for her rally with Beyoncé, Trump and his allies made Friday morning the centerpiece of their pushback on illegal immigration. They drew attention to the murder of a 12-year-old Texas girl named Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found in June. Prosecutors have charged two Venezuelan men in the United States with unlawful capital murder.