Brandon Livesay
Live page editor

Donald Trump spoke for about an hour today, standing in front of the ocean views of one of his golf courses in California.

Much of that time was the former president delivering a speech on his regular talking points, immigration, crime and various attacks against his political opponent Kamala Harris.

While no major news lines emerged, the event does indicate the continued ramping up of campaigning as we head towards the 5 November election.

The polls are incredible close, and with no more presidential debates on the horizon, we can expect more of these kind of events in the next 52 days.

We're finishing up with our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along with us.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

In the 54 days since Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place in the presidential race - Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have held a series of campaign events. But neither has held a news conference.

Harris has also not held a solo TV interview, though she has spoken with radio programmes and participated last month in a joint CNN interview alongside Walz.

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have sought to draw a contrast in their accessibility to the press, participating in multiple news conferences and solo interviews over the same period of time.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been giving an update, and was just asked about the situation in Springfield, Ohio.

On Thursday, Springfield officials evacuated city hall following reports of a bomb threat. It is not yet known whether the incident was connected to the immigration controversy - which was fuelled by comments made by Donald Trump during the presidential debate.

Trump had repeated a baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield have been eating residents' pets as food.

Jean-Pierre says it is a conspiracy theory that had been debunked by multiple authorities in Springfield.

She said spreading "conspiracy theories is indeed very dangerous" and added it was "extremely sad and concerning that a community is facing this".

"There is absolutely no place, absolutely no place in this country and certainly in our political discourse, for this type of vitriol," she said.

Have 21m people crossed the US border?published at 19:55 British Summer Time 13 September

19:55 BST 13 September

As you’d expect, during Donald Trump's press conference earlier he spoke about the numbers of people crossing the US border.

He claimed: "I believe the real number is 21m”.

Counting the precise number of people crossing the border is challenging as some may evade law enforcement and Trump didn’t provide a source for his figure.

Official figures, from the US Customs and Border Protection agency say there have been more than 10m encounters of people crossing US borders by enforcement officers.

They say 8m of these had crossed the southern border. , external

The numbers under President Biden have reached record levels.

It’s important to note that these figures don’t mean this many people actually stayed in the US – some may have been sent back – and the same person may have been “encountered” trying to cross multiple times.

Image source, Getty Images

Pope Francis has called both major US presidential candidates "against life", criticising Donald Trump on immigration and Kamala Harris on abortion.

"Both are against life, whether it is the one who is chasing away migrants or the one that kills children," he said at a Friday news conference as he wrapped up a 12-day tour through southeast Asia and Oceania.

The pontiff told reporters that Trump's plans to deport rather than welcome migrants to the US constituted a "grave" sin, and he said that Harris's stance on abortion amounts to "assassination".

It is up to US Catholics to "choose the lesser evil", he went on, but they must vote.

"Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote," he said.

"I cannot say. I am not an American, and I will not be voting there.

"Who is the lesser evil? That lady or that gentleman? I don't know. Everyone, in conscience, think and do this."

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Trump has again promised mass deportations, saying he will begin by sending migrants "back to Venezuela", beginning with the towns of Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio.

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have previously vowed to deport one million migrants if elected to the White House.

Experts, however, say there are significant legal and practical challenges to expelling so many people.

Immigration advocates have warned that the human cost of deportations would also be significant, with the potential for families to be torn apart and raids taking place in communities and workplaces across the US.

From a legal perspective, immigrants who are in the country without legal status have the right to due process, including a court hearing before their removal.

A drastic increase in deportations would likely entail a large expansion in the immigration court system, which has been beset by backlogs.

Authorities would also have to contend with enormous logistical challenges to detain, house and deport people from communities across the US.

Read more about the Trump's promise of mass deportations and how they might work here.

Is Donald Trump correct about US crime statistics?published at 19:40 British Summer Time 13 September

19:40 BST 13 September

Donald Trump talked earlier about crime, claiming he was right when he said in Tuesday’s debate that crime was “through the roof” and that the ABC News moderator who challenged him over this was wrong.

In today's remarks, Trump said “violent crime nationwide is up 40%” and listed other felonies which he says have increased since 2020.

These figures are right, according to new crime statistics released by the Department of Justice, external on Thursday - so after the debate.

These are based on a nationwide survey of crime victims and include crimes not reported to police.

They show that the rate of violent crime per 1,000 population did increase in 2023 compared with 2020.

The other main source of crime figures in the US is published by the FBI, which only includes crimes reported to law enforcement (this is what the ABC moderator referred to).

The latest figures published in 2022, external show a fall in the rate of violent crime compared to 2020. However, only 83% of law enforcement agencies submitted data to the FBI.

After an hour of speaking, Donald Trump has finished his press conference.

But stick with us as we bring you more updates from the world of US politics.

Image source, Getty Images

President Joe Biden has, for the first time, criticised Donald Trump for spreading baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Ohio.

Trump, running mate JD Vance, and some of his top campaign allies have claimed that immigrants are abducting local residents' pets in the city of Springfield, as well as grabbing ducks and geese from its local parks, and are eating them as food.

"It’s simply wrong," Biden said today during remarks at a White House brunch celebrating black excellence.

“There's no place in America for this. It has to stop. What he's doing has to stop."

The president noted that his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is a “proud Haitian American”.

"The Haitian American community is under attack right now,” he added.

Trump is still speaking at his golf course in California, but let's take a moment to check in on the polls.

With 52 days to go until Americans cast their ballots for president, the 2024 race remains neck-and-neck.

Kamala Harris has opened up a narrow edge over Donald Trump in national polls.

In the months leading up to Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, polls consistently showed him trailing former president Trump and several suggested Harris would not fare much better.

The latest national polling averages are shown below:

Read more from the BBC's Visual Journalism and Data teams on what current polling - including in key battleground states that will decide the race - can tell us.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, Reuters

We're seeing more Republicans publicly criticise Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist that has been alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days.

Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" carried out by the US government.

Her proximity to Trump has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, tweeted on Friday that Loomer "is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters garbage intended to divide Republicans".

"A DNC [Democratic National Committee] plant couldn't do a better job that she is doing to hurt President Trump's chances of winning re-election," Tillis added. "Enough."

Another Republican Senator, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told HuffPost that Loomer is "very toxic".

"I don't know how this all happened, but I don't think it's helpful," he added. "I don't think it's helpful at all."

Asked about Loomer at this news conference, Trump said only that she is a "supporter" and that he was unaware of recent comments she made about Harris, or her comments about 9/11.

“I don’t control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She’s a free spirit," he added

Read more about Laura Loomer here.

Trump is taking his first questions after he spoke for more than 40 minutes.

The former president maintains that he did well in the debate when asked about the general perception that his performance was poor.

This event was billed as a news conference - but so far, no reporters at the event have had a chance to ask questions.

It is unclear if Trump will take questions when he finishes speaking.

If he does, he's likely to face questions about the various claims he's made about crime, as well as about ABC News and the debate which took place earlier this week.

While Trump holds this news conference, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz remain on the campaign trail.

Harris is scheduled to hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania today, while her husband Doug Emhoff and Tim Walz's wife Gwen are holding events in Mississippi and Florida.

Walz, for his part, held a campaign rally in Michigan on Thursday and was planning to head to Wisconsin.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump is moving from topic to topic quickly. But it's not with the same energy we've seen from him at campaign events throughout the election cycle. There's no crowd of supporters at this event, it's only with media.

About 10 minutes into his remarks, Trump talked about the debate from earlier this week.

He says he was fighting three "crazy left radical lunatics" - referencing Harris and the two debate moderators. He has frequently spoken out against the ABC News moderators since the debate, claiming they were unfair to him.

He has continued to insist that he "won" the debate.

Trump has not yet addressed his decision to forego additional debates.

He's now talking about crime, with a focus on gangs.

So far in the press conference, Donald Trump has spent a significant portion of time focused on his rival Kamala Harris.

He has been attacking her record as a prosecutor in the state of California.

Harris began her career as the district attorney in Alameda County and then the city of San Francisco, before spending six years as California attorney general.

Trump has named individual criminal cases, mentioning gruesome details of each one, and claiming Harris let off the offenders with lenient punishments.

Speaking at his golf course in California, Trump has now turned his sights on California Governor Gavin Newsom, blaming him for what Trump is describing as the decline of the state.

Referring to the governor as "Newscum", Trump said that Newsom and Kamala Harris have "hurt [California] so badly".

He's explicitly blaming Harris for, allegedly, being soft on crimes.

Trump is addressing landslides in the local area and land loss that is costing him part of his golf course.

Hundreds of residents in Rancho Palos Verdes have had their gas and electricity switched off indefinitely because of how quickly the land is moving and sinking.

Trump was joined at the top of his remarks by Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank.

Image source, US Pool

Things are about to get underway at Donald Trump's press conference.

He has just walked up to the microphone.

Stay with us, we will bring you updates throughout.

Phil McCausland
Live page editor

Trump announced he would hold a press conference at his golf course outside Los Angeles at 09:00 local time (17:00 BST).

That start time was pushed to 09:45, but we're still waiting about 20 minutes later.

It is still unclear what the former president will say at this press conference.

But it follows Trump's announcement that he will not participate in any further debates, frequent attacks of the network that held the debate on Tuesday, and the former president doubling down on a baseless claim that Haitian migrants are eating pets.

Image source, Get

We're still waiting for Trump to arrive at his press conference, which was originally scheduled to start nearly an hour ago. So in the meantime, let's take a look at what US President Joe Biden has planned for today.

Earlier this morning, he was scheduled to receive his daily intelligence briefing, before delivering remarks at a "celebration of black excellence" on the South Lawn of the White House.

Later today, he will host a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer before heading to a nearby military installation, Fort Lesley J McNair.

From there, he will head to Wilmington, Delaware.