Trump declares himself a ‘nationalist’ while stumping for Ted Cruz

OCTOBER
22: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a
rally in support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on October 22, 2018 at
the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Cruz, the incumbent, is
seeking Senate re-election in a high-profile race against
Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
Loren Elliott/Getty Images

• President Donald Trump called himself a “nationalist” while
  addressing a campaign rally for Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas on Monday.
• The news comes as Trump has increasingly used the same type
  of “us-versus-them” rhetoric on immigration that he used during
  the 2016 presidential campaign in order to encourage his
  supporters to vote in the midterms November 6.
• Trump leaned into that over the weekend amid the news that a
  group of
  roughly 7,000 migrants were headed to the US from Central
  America.
• Cruz, the junior senator who took office in 2013, is in the
  middle of a closely watched Senate race in Texas against Democrat
  Beto O’Rourke.

President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself a “nationalist”
at a campaign rally in support of Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas.

“You know they have a word, it sort of became old-fashioned, it’s
called a nationalist,” Trump said.

“And I say ‘really, we’re not supposed to use that word?’ Do you
know what I am? I’m a nationalist.”

The crowd inside the Toyota Center in Houston cheered wildly.

Trump’s remarks on Monday night illustrate the type of rhetoric
he has used recently to encourage supporters to vote in the
upcoming midterm elections. That rhetoric has centered around
immigration and echoes the same type of “us-versus-them” ideology
he used during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump reaffirmed his tough stance on immigration amid
news that a group of roughly 7,000 migrants from Central
America is headed to the US seeking asylum. To that effect, Trump
has threatened to cut aid to Honduras if it didn’t stop the
migrants from heading to the US.

Cruz referred to the group of migrants on Monday as a “serious”
threat.

“When you see thousands of people pledging to come violate US
law, to cross into this country illegally, we have to treat that
seriously,” Cruz told
local reporters outside of a Texas Oil and Gas Association
forum in Houston.

Cruz is in the middle of a closely watched Senate race in Texas
against Democrat Beto O’Rourke, whose message has struck a chord
with the state’s liberal voters. Though Cruz is favored to win,
O’ Rourke has raised
more than $38 million in the third quarter from more than
800,000 donors.

The Houston Chronicle, which endorsed Cruz in his previous bid
for US Senate in 2012,
threw its support behind O’Rourke Friday. Its editorial board
said that Cruz didn’t address the needs of his fellow-Texans
during his six-years in office.

The midterm election will be held on November 6.