Trump at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska: the city where the alleged leader of an MS-13 hit squad was captured

President Donald Trump appears today, Monday, October 5, before supporters at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island, where Senator Pete Ricketts and Governor Jim Pillen will join him on stage, as Fox News reports. The rally is the latest stop on his multi-state midterm campaign tour.

The choice of city does not appear accidental: Grand Island is the city where federal authorities last year captured the alleged leader of an MS-13 hit squad, Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, known by the alias “Fantasma”, accused of leading the “El Combo” squad and wanted for four murders in Honduras. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis presented the arrest as an example of the criminals the Trump administration has removed from Nebraska communities, criticising Democrats for their stance on immigration.

According to officials, Cuadra Soto had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 through the southern border and had later obtained a driver’s licence in California. Honduran authorities suspect him of an armed ambush in July 2022 near a nightclub in Tegucigalpa, where four men were killed, among them Said Lobo Bonilla, the son of former Honduran president Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

The administration says federal authorities have arrested more than 10,000 suspected gang members. In Nebraska, the Senate race pits Ricketts against independent candidate Dan Osborn, while Pillen faces Democrat Lynne Walz; a new Wedgewood poll puts Ricketts four points ahead.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m., the programme starts at 4:30 and Trump is expected to speak at 6 p.m. local time. The Grand Island stop follows Trump’s visits to Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Ohio.