Donald Trump likened America to a “garbage can for the world” while ranting about illegal immigration in a doom-laden rally speech in Arizona on Thursday.

With the 2024 presidential election race going down to the wire, the former president appears to have settled on immigration scare tactics as his prime path back to the White House. Speaking at another event in Nevada Thursday, he spoke about towns across the country being “invaded and conquered.”

At both rallies, Trump zeroed in on the Biden administration’s immigration policies and fears over illegal border crossings.

In many ways, Trump’s message was the antithesis of the Harris campaign’s echoing of Barack Obama’s focus on hope for the future.

Trump sees a nation of “conquered” communities “infected” with “out of control” immigrants, as he said Thursday. In his eyes, the United States is a “dumping ground” for immigrants from 181 countries around the world.

According to the former president, the only hope is his return to the White House.

“I will rescue every town in America that has been invaded and conquered,” he told a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Think of the words. Towns that have been invaded and conquered. They’ve been conquered, they’ve been conquered.”

Raising the specter of Aurora, the Colorado city he described earlier this month as a “war zone” beset with Venezuelan gangs, he claimed: “We have many towns that are in the same position and worse but they don’t want to talk about it, it’s out of control.”

“And we have a lot of towns that haven’t yet been infected, but they’re petrified that they will be,” Trump added. “And they will be. And we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick ‘em the hell out of the country so fast.”

Talking earlier Thursday at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, another potentially crucial swing state, Trump doubled down, saying: “A lot of people coming out of the Congo. Not just South America, they’re coming from 181 countries as of yesterday. We’re a dumping ground.”

“We’re like a garbage can for the world,” he continued. “That’s what’s happened ... It’s the first time I have ever said that and every time I get up and talk about what they’ve done to our country I get angrier and angrier.”

“First time I’ve ever said garbage can but, you know what, it’s a very accurate description,” Trump added.

He also blasted Kamala Harris, his Democratic Party rival, for her “gross incompetence” at combating illegal immigration and launched attacks on a series of Democratic stalwarts, branding President Joe Biden a “stupid fool”, calling California Governor Gavin Newsom “the worst” and claiming Colorado Governor Jared Polis was too “petrified” to deal with immigrant gangs.

The races in Nevada and Arizona are extremely close. The latest polls show Trump ahead by a small margin in Arizona and Harris holding a slim lead in Nevada.

While Harris says she will fix America’s “broken” immigration system, she has pointed to a recent decrease in the number of illegal immigrants. She has also promised that “solutions are at hand.”