Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center. An indoor venue. At the high school. Capacity: 750 auditorium seats. Doors open: 11:30 a.m. Event: 2:30 p.m.
His focus: Venezuelan accused of local rape
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump has chosen to campaign Saturday in the quiet Mississippi River town of Prairie du Chien, population 5,500. Trump chose Prairie du Chien to reinforce his continuing claims – all grossly exaggerated and some outright lies – that dark-skin criminals are crossing the Mexico border by the thousands and threatening the American way of life. It was in Prairie du Chien on September 6 that a Venezuelan man was arrested and charged with rape. The man apparently was in the United States illegal – how, no one knows for sure, and it’s yet to be proven. Trump has been citing the arrest to support his pledge to deport thousands of aliens – millions, he sometimes says. Trump will speak at 11:30 a.m. at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center at the high school. Tickets.
Trump messaging
The former president’s visit to Praire du Chien is part of what critics all his Hate Tour. Other stops:
> Springfield, Ohio. An industrial city of 60,000 with a substantial influx of Haitians, almost all of black skin. They fled war and persecution in their Caribbean homeland and were invited to the United States as refugees. They work mostly factory jobs in a town with a workforce shortage. Based on a single report to police about a missing cat, Trump’s running mate JD Vance concocted a tale of Haitians catching, killing and eating cats. Under intense news media pressure to identify his source, Vance conceded he lied. Even so, Vance and Trump have persisted with the claim. The missing cat, by the way, eventually wandered home.
> Aurora, Colorado. Trump has claimed that a Venezuelan gang has invaded this major Denver suburb, population 380,000, with military force. Without citing a source, Trump said he had heard that a gang had “massive machine gun-type equipment beyond even military scope.” It was unclear what he meant by “byond military scope.” In one campaign stop he said: “They’re taking over apartment buildings. They’re taking over real estate.” Asked to respond, Aurora police reported no of such gang activity.
“Border blood bath”?
Trump’s claims have hammered at a theme that the President Biden’s administration has enabled illegal immigration. His focus has turned on Vice President Kamala Harris, who now is his rival as the Democratic nominee for the presidency: “Thanks to Border Czar Harris’ horrendous job, even non-border states are feeling the impacts of her unruly border blood bath.” What blood bath?
Why Prairie du Chien?
In announcing a campaign swing to Springfield and Aurora, and now Prairie du Chien, Trump cast himself in heroic if not martyrdom terms: “You may never see me again, but that’s OK. Gotta do what I gotta do. ‘Whatever happened to Trump? Well, he never got out of Springfield.”
View: Editor’s privilege
Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate may be a rotten yegg, as prosecutors contend. Or maybe not. He’s yet to be tried or found guilty. He’s in custody. The wheels of justice are turning, as they do in the American system of justice. It’s premature, indeed unfair, to proclaim his guilt. It’s also unfair, even more broadly, to generalize from the particulars of the allegations against Zarata to condemn a whole swath of people as criminals for immediate deportation, as Trump has done with increasing shrillness in his third campaign for the U.S. precedency. He has chosen inflammatory rhetoric, calling for the immediate deportation of them all, whether criminal or not, nor whether they’re in the country legally or not. The common element in Trump’s rhetoric is paranoic hatred of people of dark skin. It’s racism at an extreme and xenophobic. /jv
Zarata profile
What we know and don’t know about him:
> The Venezuelan Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, age 26, is a suspected member of the South American gang Tren de Aragua, although details of hIs affiliation are vague.
> The Prairie du Chien assault victims were not locals but his travel companions — a girlfriend and her daughter. The case has yet to be adjudicated.
> In Madison in December a woman told police that Zarate choked and punched her in a carjacking. He was charged but left town. The case has yet to go to court.
> In Minneapolis last November he was charged with receiving and concealing stolen property. He left town. The case has yet to go to court.