Donald Trump, campaigning in the border swing state of Arizona on Thursday, called the country a “garbage can” because of immigration policies under the Biden administration.

“We’re like a garbage can, you know, it’s the first time I’ve ever said that,” Trump said in Tempe, Arizona, the home of Arizona State University. “And every time I come up and talk about what they’ve done to our country, I get angry. First time I’ve ever said garbage can, but you know what, it’s a very accurate description.”

Candidates and their surrogates for both presidential campaigns are blitzing swing states like Arizona in the final two weeks before election day. The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, held two campaign rallies in Arizona earlier this week. Joe Biden and the former president Barack Obama are set to visit this week, as is Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential pick.

A banner behind the stage said, “Vote early!” – a change in strategy for Republicans and Trump, who have cast doubt on early and mail-in voting by falsely claiming it is an avenue for widespread fraud. He said of Arizona voting: “They got a problem. Gotta make it too big to rig.” An image of Trump, with a raised fist and bloodied ear after his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, showed before he came out. Early on, he displayed on screens behind him the chart of immigration that he has attributed with saving his life.

“We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop a radical left agenda with a landslide that is simply too big to rig,” he said. “And we’re doing that. We’re doing that, we’re doing that. If these numbers hold up, and they probably will, why wouldn’t they? Who the hell wants these people in office?”

His speech started on a menacing message about immigration, a key theme for the Trump re-election bid, in what campaign officials have cast as his final pitch to voters: that Harris “broke” the country and Trump will “fix” it, according to Fox News.

He called increased immigration under the Biden administration “the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people”, by allowing in an “army of migrant gangs”.

He laid out a host of policies aimed at migrants: invoking the death penalty for any immigrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer, ending migrant flights, outlawing sanctuary cities and hiring 10,000 more border agents and increasing their pay.

He sought to tie Medicare and Social Security to immigration, saying the presence of migrants will “obliterate” the two programs, and claimed that Latino and Black people are losing jobs to migrants, an appeal to two of the groups Republicans are trying to win more votes from.

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Trump called Biden a “stupid fool” and Nancy Pelosi “crazy as a bed bug”. He said Harris is a “low IQ individual”. He implored women watching to tell their husbands to vote: “Get your fat ass off the couch, you’re going to vote Jimmy, you’re going to vote, we’re going to save our country, Jimmy.”

He boosted Elon Musk, the ultra-rich owner of X, who has become one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and financial backers, and praised Musk’s businesses, including Starlink and SpaceX. Among his list of campaign promises was that he would “land an American astronaut on Mars”.

“Thank you, Elon, thank you,” he said. “How good was his endorsement? I mean, his endorsement just kept coming. He said that we will not have a country if we don’t win this election. And he is a smart cookie.”

Trump again asked the former Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for harsh immigration policies that cost county taxpayers hundreds of millions for the resulting legal issues that followed, to stand and receive applause, though he did not kiss him on the cheek as he did at an earlier Arizona rally.