Presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump, who has enraged Latinos and lost a string of business contracts for insulting Mexicans, will tour the Mexican border on Thursday.
"I am going to the BORDER tomorrow. Will be seeing some really brave people. Look forward to a big day!" he tweeted to his more than 3.3 million followers on Wednesday.
His campaign team said he would tour Laredo, a county town on the Texas-Mexico border, visit the border itself, address local law enforcement and deliver a press conference.
The former reality TV star, who has made a fortune in real estate, leads polls among Republican and Republican-leaning independents in his bid to become president.
On Tuesday, he called rival candidate Senator Lindsey Graham "a total lightweight" and in a stunning breach of etiquette, read out Graham's cell phone number and urged people to call him.
On Saturday, he provoked a huge backlash among Republican faithful by trash-talking Vietnam war hero Senator John McCain, one of America's most respected politicians who was held prisoner five years and tortured after being shot down.
"He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK?"
He is a fervent critic of illegal immigration and launched his campaign in New York in mid-June by calling Mexican immigrants a source of crime and rape in the United States.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he thundered in June when he threw his hat into the ring.
"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Mexico dropped out of the Miss Universe pageant, which is owned by Trump, over his "racist" remarks. His remarks outraged Latin Americans and the Hispanic community in the United States.
Companies such as Macy's, Univision and NBC cut ties with Trump, but the mogul has stuck to his guns, refusing to back down.
The latest opinion poll put him far into the lead in the race for the 2016 Republican nomination, the favorite at 24 percent.
He outpaced his rivals Scott Walker (13 percent) and Jeb Bush (12 percent), according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The Post said most of the participants were interviewed before Trump laid into McCain, after which his popularity dropped significantly among those questioned.
But enthusiasm among Republicans for Trump even tops that for McCain despite the POW comments.
In a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted July 20 and 21 of 1,000 likely voters, Trump and McCain were statistically tied in the percentage of Republicans who view them favorably, but a higher percentage had a very favorable opinion of the billionaire developer.
Specifically, 52 percent of likely Republican voters view Trump at least somewhat favorably while 51 percent feel that way about McCain. But 26 percent of those surveyed said they had a very favorable view of Trump while just 14 percent have a very favorable view of McCain.
CNN, meanwhile, reports that Hector Garza, the president of a local union chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, invited Trump to give him a "boots on the ground perspective."
Breitbart Texas reported that the organization’s Managing Director Brandon Darby worked with Garza to plan for Trump’s tour.
"Mr. Trump will learn firsthand of the many holes and vulnerabilities that the Los Zetas cartel exploits to enter Texas and oppress their victims. We will keep the details of Mr. Trump’s intended visit private at this time," Darby said, according to the report.
Trump’s visit to Laredo, where the population is over 90 percent Hispanic, will begin with a town hall meeting in which law enforcement officers will give The Donald their own views on the situation at the border. Trump also plans to hold a news conference.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also received an invitation to the border last month, according to a statement from his campaign to IJReview.
"The senator is unable to visit the border on this trip because he has to be in Washington for votes pending, including the highway bill, defunding Planned Parenthood, and stopping the Ex-Im (Bank) from being attached to the highway bill. Senator Cruz would have loved to have joined Trump on the border," his campaign said in a statement.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, another contender, told Fox News on Wednesday that the country needs a president who "restores dignity and class to the White House" and that Trump is not worthy of the office.
Other rivals commented on the furor, too.
Campaigning in Nashville, Tennessee, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he's not concerned by Trump's prominence in the race.
"I used to run track and I ran the half mile," he said. "I realized there were some folks sprinting out ahead. I made sure I was ahead at the end of the race when it really mattered."
Jeb Bush, in South Carolina, was asked about the coming primary debates, for which Trump is expected to qualify based on his performance in polls.
"This will be a first for me," Bush said, "so I'm not certain how all this plays out."
‘Divisive… mean-spirited’
A day earlier Bush said Trump's rhetoric is "divisive, it's ugly, it's mean-spirited," but people who support him have "legitimate concerns about the country."
At the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Graham was chatting on his flip phone as he rode an elevator. Asked if he would be getting a new one, he laughed and said yes. He said later he'd be changing his number.
At one point, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island came up behind Graham, clapped a hand on his back and said, "I've been trying to call you, but I haven't been able to get through!"
In a speech Tuesday to hundreds of supporters in Bluffton, South Carolina, Trump kept on McCain, accusing him of being soft on illegal immigration.
"He's totally about open borders and all this stuff," Trump said.
The real estate developer also went after others who have criticized 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 Tuesday he would no longer respond to Trump's comments.
‘Don't be a jackass’
Graham, a McCain friend and one of the 16 notable Republicans running for the presidential nomination, betrayed the growing exasperation and anger of many in the party when he appeared Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."
"Don't be a jackass," Graham said. "Run for president. But don't be the world's biggest jackass."
He said Trump had "crossed the line with the American people" and predicted this would be "the beginning of the end with Donald Trump."
Trump responded during his speech by calling Graham an "idiot" and a "total lightweight," then held up a piece of paper and read out the senator's cellphone number to the capacity crowd of 540 people and the TV audience. He said Graham had given him the number several years ago.
"Give it a shot," Trump encouraged. "He won't fix anything, but at least he'll talk to you."
Trump also ordered the American flags on his U.S. properties to be lowered, an act he said was to honor the five service members killed in last week's shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The symbolism served, too, to underscore his claim that he has been a stronger supporter of veterans than McCain, despite the senator's central work in passing laws that overhauled the Department of Veterans Affairs and strengthened programs against suicide by service members.
The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.