LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is traveling to Texas on Friday — his first public campaign event in the state since receiving the Republican nomination — to sit down with the nation’s most-listened to podcaster. country, creating another opportunity for him to emphasize the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid.

The Republican presidential candidate will hold a news conference in Austin and meet with podcaster Joe Rogan at his studio. It’s only the second time he’s campaigned in the state following a visit to Dallas where he spoke to members of the National Rifle Association in May. On Friday, her Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, will also travel to Texas for an abortion rights rally with superstar Beyoncé.

Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and using surrogates who sometimes use foul language.

At a Trump rally on Wednesday, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz a “weak man” and compared Trump’s return to the White House to a father who comes home and “he’s pissed!” and ready to punish his badly behaved children.

“When Dad comes home, do you know what he says?” » asked Carlson. “You’ve been a bad girl.” You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.

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

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

“It will be interesting to see how much Joe Rogan gets booed the next time he steps into the UFC ring??? MAGA2024,” Trump wrote on his social media site in August.

The podcaster is known for his hour-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” ranked 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 further escalates his rhetoric on immigration

Trump will also hold a news conference to talk about border security. He is escalating his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration in the final stretch of the race.

At a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Trump criticized Harris for the Biden administration’s record at the border, which he said had “unleashed” an “army of migrant gangs” that are “waging a campaign of violence and of terror against our citizens.”

“We are like trash to the world,” Trump said, adding a new insult to a litany he has used to describe the state of the nation under the Biden administration.

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

Trump calls immigration the issue that won him the White House in 2016. He accuses Harris of perpetrating “a wicked betrayal of America” ​​and of having “orchestrated the most egregious betrayal of any leader in American history has ever inflicted on our people,” even though crime is down.

While migrants have been charged for some high-profile crimes that Trump repeatedly highlights, research has shown that immigrants — including those who entered the country illegally — are charged with fewer violent crimes than U.S. citizens.

He also spread false theories that Democrats would register immigrants without legal status to vote.

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