AUSTIN, Texas — Donald Trump headed to Texas on Friday to talk about border security, a trip that comes as the former president escalates his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration in the race’s final stretch.

While in Austin, Trump also will sit down with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most listened-to podcaster, creating another opportunity for the Republican nominee to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid.

But the Trump also faced a potentially brewing scandal, as a former model, Stacey Williams, alleged this week that he groped her at Trump Tower in early 1993 as disgraced hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein watched. Williams made the allegation during a video chat of sexual violence survivors supporting democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign.

Williams said on the video call that she met and began seeing Epstein in 1992. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York for a series of sex trafficking charges, sparking rampant conspiracy theories.

The former model said the two were walking down Fifth Avenue in “late winter, early spring” of 1993 when Epstein suggested they “stop by and see Trump.”

“So we went into Trump Tower and went up the elevator. And moments later, Trump was greeting us and he pulled me into him and started groping me,” Williams recalled. “He put his hands all over my breasts, my waist, my butt. And I froze. And I froze because I was so deeply confused about what was happening because the hands were moving all over me.”

Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokeswoman, called the allegations “unequivocally false” and argued they were politically motivated.

Williams said Epstein and Trump “were, like, smiling at one another and continuing on in their conversation.” At the time of the alleged incident, Trump was in his mid-40s, while Williams was in her mid-20s.

As she “absorbed what happened,” however, Williams said she felt like there was some “sort of sick bet or game” between Trump and Epstein and that she was “rolled in there like a piece of meat for some kind of challenge or twisted game.”

Williams added that “not long after” that meeting in Trump Tower she received a postcard from Trump. Williams said her agent received the postcard, via courier, from Trump.

Williams’ team provided The Associated Press with images of the postcard. One side is a photo of Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s resort in Florida, and the other side is writing allegedly from Trump. “Stacey, your home away from home. Love, Donald,” reads the postcard.

The organizer of the Survivors for Kamala video call said this week’s meeting was not affiliated with the Harris campaign and was an outside gathering of sexual violence survivors and advocate organizations. The Harris campaign declined Friday to comment on the allegations. A member of Williams’ team said she has had no contact with the Harris campaign.

Trump is speaking in Texas, a border state, for the second time in two days, underscoring his focus on immigration with early voting in many states already under way. During a rally in Arizona Thursday, Trump railed against Harris for the Biden administration’s record on the border, which he said had “unleashed” an “army of migrant gangs” that are “waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.”

“We’re like a garbage can for the world,” Trump said, adding a new insult to a litany he’s used to describe the state of the nation under the Biden administration.

Trump views immigration as the issue that won him the White House in 2016. He accuses Harris of perpetrating “a wicked betrayal of America” and having “orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people,” even though crime is down.

Trump has also made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and tapping surrogates who sometimes use crude language.

At a Trump rally Wednesday, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, a “weak man” and compared Trump’s return to the White House to a dad who comes home ready to punish his misbehaved children.

“When Dad gets home, you know what he says?” Carlson asked. “You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you are getting a vigorous spanking right now.”

Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he declined to host Trump on his podcast before because he did not want to help him.

Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that then-candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. was the only candidate running who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.

“It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring???” Trump wrote on his social media site in August, referring to Rogan’s experience as a commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“The Joe Rogan Experience” is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts.