Donald Trump plans major speech at Mexico border

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump plans to make a big speech at the Mexico-Texas border today.

Trump has spoken in incendiary terms about illegal immigrants, describing them as criminals and rapists in his announcement speech.

The billionaire businessman and reality TV star, who has been dominating news coverage of the Republican primary race since he announced his candidacy last month, will travel to Laredo, Texas, today.

His campaign has announced that Trump will hold a press conference at the border and meet border control agents’ union representatives.

He has been criticised by many in his own party for mocking senator John McCain’s status as a war hero because he was captured in Vietnam.

Trump has persisted in his attacks on fellow Republicans, calling senator Lindsey Graham an “idiot” and giving out the South Carolina politician’s phone number during a campaign rally.

Trump said in Graham’s home state that he had heard the Republican senator call him a “jackass” in a recent interview.

Trump claimed Graham, who is also seeking the presidency in the November 2016 election, had called him several years ago looking for connections at Fox News and for campaign contributions.

“You know, I’m saying to myself, what is this guy, a beggar?” Trump said of Graham during the rally in Bluffton, South Carolina.

“He gave me his number, and I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don’t know if it’s the right number. Let’s try it,” Trump told the crowd before reading out a phone number with a Washington area code.

“He won’t fix anything, but at least he’ll talk to you,” Trump said.

A phone call to the number by a Reuters reporter went to a voicemail message that said the number belonged to Graham. Graham’s presidential campaign confirmed the number was the senator’s.

“Donald Trump continues to show hourly that he is ill-prepared to be commander in chief,” Christian Ferry, Graham’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Trump has infuriated Republicans by criticising fellow members of the party and made many of them uncomfortable with harsh remarks about illegal immigration and other issues.

He also went after others who have criticised him in recent weeks, implying that former Texas governor Rick Perry was unintelligent and former Florida governor Jeb Bush weak.

McCain sparked Trump’s temper last week when the senator said the businessman’s inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants had brought out the “crazies”. McCain said on Tuesday he would no longer respond to Trump’s comments.

“I don’t care if he drops out. Stay in the race, just stop being a jackass,” Graham said of Trump.

Ben Carson, another of the 16 Republicans seeking the presidency, said there was too much focus on Trump.

“For us to get caught up in a controversy of well, ‘What did Donald Trump mean when he said that?’ It just seems so petty to me,” Carson said.