Former President Donald Trump visited Aurora, Colorado, for a campaign rally on Friday where he continued to spread misleading narratives about the city’s migrant population.
“My message today is very simple,” Trump told the crowd. “No person who inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become president of the United States. We are not going to allow that to happen.”
In the final weeks of his campaign, Trump continued to focus on the issue of immigration, intensifying his rhetoric on undocumented immigrants whom he often describes as violent criminals.
“I will save Aurora and every city that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said. “These cities have been conquered…And we will put these cruel, bloodthirsty criminals in prison or expel them from our country. And we will be very, very effective in doing that. It will happen very, very quickly.”
Specifically, the former president used Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, to emphasize his point, both examples coming from viral online stories that he rushed to promote, often without proper context.
His false narratives about Aurora began last month when a video of armed individuals roaming around an Aurora apartment complex went viral among right-wing social media influencers.
Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center October 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colorado.
Alex Brandon/AP
Trump, who shared this video himself, repeatedly claimed that members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had “taken over” apartment complexes and “invaded” the city, although the police department ‘Aurora refuted allegations that the apartment complex was run by a Venezuelan gang.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain directly refuted Trump’s claims, saying at a press conference late last month: “This is not an immigration issue. It’s a question of crime. »
“We are in no way overtaken by the Venezuelan gangs,” he added.
The city of Aurora also provided clarification on the situation in a post on its official X account, stating that while there were concerns about a “small” presence of Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, the city was taking the situation seriously. The city emphasized that Aurora is a “safe community” and that reports of gang members are “isolated to a handful of problem properties.”
Mike Coffman, Aurora’s Republican mayor, also pushed back against Trump’s “grossly exaggerated” claims.
“Former President Trump’s visit to Aurora is an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a significantly safe city – not one overrun by Venezuelan gangs,” Coffman said.
Yet Trump has continued to amplify these debunked stories to his supporters nationwide as a rallying cry as he attacks the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies.
At his second campaign stop Friday in Reno, Nevada, Trump continued to repeat baseless and debunked rhetoric about a Venezuelan gang taking over apartment complexes in Aurora, even after the city’s Republican mayor denounced his rhetoric, saying his comments “unfairly hurt the city’s identity and sense of security.”
In Reno, the former president again called the United States an “occupied country” and the situation in Aurora a “full-blown invasion.”
“This is a real invasion. Armed Venezuelan gang members stormed an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado,” Trump said.
In the press release announcing Friday’s event, the Trump campaign described Aurora as a “war zone,” arguing that people were crossing the border and descending on the city “bringing with them chaos and fear.”
Trump similarly repeatedly amplified debunked claims that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield.
Trump’s visit is one he has wanted to make for some time to draw more attention to the country’s immigration policy. At recent campaign rallies, Trump has been more vocal about his desire to visit Aurora and Springfield.
Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center October 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colorado.
David Zalubowski/AP
While Republican Springfield Mayor Rob Rue discouraged visits from candidates on both sides of the aisle, Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis framed the trip as a learning opportunity for the former president.
“The reality is that Donald Trump continues to tell economically damaging and hurtful lies about Aurora,” Polis said in a statement to ABC affiliate Denver7 amid ongoing discussions about a possible visit. “If former President Trump visits, he will discover that the City of Aurora is a strong, vibrant, diverse city of more than 400,000 hard-working Coloradans and a wonderful place to live, run a business, raise a family and retire.”
Trump has launched attacks on local and state officials on the campaign trail, often making baseless claims that Aurora Mayor Coffman and Governor Polis are “petrified,” saying Coffman “doesn’t know what he’s doing” – and even claiming they don’t want to raise the issue of immigration because they want to be “politically correct.”
Campaigning in Uniondale, New York, last month, Trump, while saying he planned to visit Aurora and Springfield soon, suggested he might not return after his visit to those places due to a unspecified crime.
“I’m going to go in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield and I’m going to Aurora,” Trump said in Uniondale. “You may never see me again, but that’s OK. I gotta do what I gotta do. What happened to Trump? ‘Well, he never got out of Springfield.’ “
Trump’s visit to Aurora also came as he pledged on the campaign trail to begin his promise of mass evictions in Springfield and Aurora.
“We are going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump said while answering questions from reporters in Los Angeles, California, last month. “And we’ll start with Springfield and Aurora, [Colorado]”.
“We’re going to take these violent people, and we’re going to send them back to their country, and if they come back, they’re going to pay a very high price,” Trump also said.
Springfield has many Haitian residents who are either legally authorized to live and work in the United States or protected from deportation by law.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is a Republican.
