Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday campaigned against what he termed President Joe Biden's "border bloodbath," making an apparently deliberate reference to prior media reports that he promised a "bloodbath" if he was not reelected.

Trump last month warned of a "bloodbath" for the auto industry in the event that Biden retained control of the government and promising to impose tariffs on foreign automobiles if he himself won. Many media outlets ran headlines quoting only the word "bloodbath" in ways that could have been read to imply a promise of political violence.

"I stand before you today to declare that Joe Biden’s border bloodbath — and that's what it is, it’s a bloodbath," Trump said Tuesday, according to The Hill. "They tried to use that term incorrectly on me two weeks ago. You know, it's all about misinformation... But it's a border bloodbath, and it's destroying our country and it's a very bad thing happening. It's going to end on the day that I take office."

During the event, Trump highlighted violent crimes allegedly committed by illegal aliens and insisted that he would bring an end to such occurrences, in part by prioritizing immigration enforcement and working to end sanctuary policies.

Immigration has been a critical fixture of Trump's political branding ever since his 2016 campaign for president in which he vowed to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico. His renewed rhetoric is almost certainly an effort to capitalize on Biden's low approval ratings on the issue. Biden currently boasts a 31.5% approval rating in the RealClearPolitics polling average on immigration. By contrast, 64.0% disapprove.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.