donald trump
© Brandon Bell/Pool via ReutersFormer president Donald Trump addresses a member of the news media after attending a border security briefing with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in Weslaco, Texas, June 30, 2021.
At a joint press conference with Texas governor Greg Abbott at the U.S. border with Mexico, former president Donald Trump suggested that the border crisis could have been averted if Biden simply did "nothing."

"All Biden had to do was go to the beach," he commented. "If he would have just done nothing, we would have had the strongest border we ever had."

After Vice President Kamala Harris failed to make an appearance at the border site for weeks, despite being appointed to manage the migrant crisis, Abbott invited Trump to accompany him on a tour of the border to witness the deteriorating situation there, marked by overcrowded detention facilities, overwhelmed border-patrol personnel, and high rates of immigrant apprehensions. Harris eventually did take a trip last week to El Paso, Texas, a town technically in proximity to the border but many miles away from the location where the real fiasco is unfolding.

In his address to reporters and some supporters, Trump referenced the worsening human trafficking problem along the border, claiming that the majority of victims have been women. He also lamented the unfinished border wall which "would have been completed" in short time, sealed and painted, had he been elected again.

Abbott applauded the National Guard members he deployed from Texas to assist with the spiraling border crisis, stating that Texas and other states are making up for the shortfalls in border-security officers caused by the Biden administration. The Texas Department of Health and Safety has apprehended 1,000 criminals who have crossed border, some drug traffickers, the governor confirmed.

Abbott alleged again that Biden administration's policies and negligence surrounding the border are responsible for the massive influx of illegal narcotics, including enormous quantities of the highly additive drug fentanyl, into the Texas mainland.

"The Biden administration has done nothing," Abbott said, to stop fentanyl from pouring across the border into Texas communities.

To resume Trump's border wall construction, Abbott shared his plans to continue building the wall within Texas territory "just like Trump did, just like President Biden should be doing."

Caroline Downey is a news writer for National Review Online. @carolinedowney_