The Note: Donald Trump Makes A Run For The Border

— -- NOTABLES

--TRUMP TAKES TEXAS: Unlike Des Moines, Iowa and Manchester, New Hampshire, Laredo, Texas isn't a typical stop on the presidential campaign trail. Unless you are Donald Trump. The town on the U.S.-Mexico border will become the center of attention today when the Republican presidential candidate stops by for a visit. The billionaire business mogul whose controversial comments about Mexican immigrants have been the talk of the campaign in recent weeks will receive a briefing from Hector Garza, president of the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, according to Trump's campaign. Trump's visit to the town, 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, ABC's CONOR KELLY reports. Trump also plans to hold a news conference. http://abcn.ws/1OxHirE ABC's TOM LLAMAS previewed Trump's visit on "Good Morning America" today: http://abcn.ws/1MpNpQm

--WHAT'S IN TRUMP'S PERSONAL FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE? It's the form that makes Donald Trump put his money where his mouth is. After much speculation, election officials released Trump's 92-page personal financial disclosure report. Although the FEC documents neither confirm nor disprove Trump's claim that he has a net worth of $10 billion, they do provide a number of interesting tidbits on his assets, income and even how many job titles he has, ABC's ALANA ABRAMSON, RYAN STRUYK and CHRIS GOOD note. Here's what we learned: http://abcn.ws/1GDSuwg

--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: We can only speculate about what kinds of props or insults Donald Trump is bringing with him to the Texas-Mexico border today. But the new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Thursday suggests the extent to which he may not need them. Roughly half of Republicans in the poll oppose a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants - and Trump gets support from a third of those voters. Think about that: In a 16-person field, the idea that any candidate could get 34 percent of that large a slice of potential voters suggests an extraordinarily powerful issue. That's a much tougher sell in the general election, of course. But it's a useful reminder that Trump isn't operating in a political vacuum, or that his support is manufactured or meaningless. It also suggests that if Trump could go a news cycle or three without being, well, Donald Trump-ish, he could settle into a campaign trajectory that could last.

ALL TRUMP, ALL THE TIME:

--RICK PERRY CALLS TRUMP A 'CANCER ON CONSERVATISM.' In the harshest criticism yet leveled by a fellow presidential candidate, Rick Perry launched a sharply-worded broadside against Donald Trump on Wednesday, ABC's JILL ORNITZ and ALI DUKAKIS report. "Let no one be mistaken Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised, and discarded," Perry said during a speech in Washington, DC. "It cannot be pacified or ignored for it will destroy a set of principles that has lifted more people out of poverty than any force in the history of the civilized world and that is the cause of conservatism." Perry stated Trump was "born into privilege," and "couldn't have endured for five minutes what John McCain endured for five-and-a-half years," causing the audience of roughly 50 to burst into applause. At an event hosted by the Opportunity and Freedom PAC, one of the super PACs backing his campaign, Perry, the former Texas governor, added Trump: "offers a barking carnival act that can best be described as Trumpism: a toxic mix demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued." http://abcn.ws/1GDTcty

--LINDSEY GRAHAM DESTROYS HIS CELLPHONE TO SPITE DONALD TRUMP. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham may have found the perfect way to get back at Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Trump, speaking in front of hundreds of supporters at an event in South Carolina, reacted to recent criticism levied at him by Graham, a rival Republican presidential candidate, by giving out Graham's personal cell number. A new video out on Wednesday, produced by the conservative website, IJReview, titled "How to Destroy Your Cell Phone With Sen. Lindsey Graham," shows the senator using a variety of creative devices to destroy an old flip phone, including a golf club, lighter fluid, a meat cleaver and a blender, ABC's CONOR KELLY notes. http://abcn.ws/1DvCUmo

WHAT WE'RE READING

MEDICARE FUNDS TOTALING $60 BILLION IMPROPERLY PAID, REPORT FINDS. They are supposed to be doctor's offices, clinics or hospitals, not hamburger stands, vacant lots and mailbox shops, but that's what some of the 23,400 potentially fake or bad addresses on Medicare's list of health care providers are, according to a report released to Congress from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), ABC's JIM AVILA, SERENA MARSHALL and GITIKA KAUL report. The report says that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare, estimates that last year some $60 billion of American taxpayer money, or more than 10 percent of Medicare's total budget, was lost to fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments. "This is money that costs the Medicare trust fund real money," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, who requested GAO look into the issue, told ABC News. "We pay into the Medicare trust fund, those of us who are working, our employers pay into the Medicare trust fund." The GAO investigation, obtained by ABC News, follows three previous reports by the agency revealing "a persistent weakness ... that increased the risk of enrolling entities intent on defrauding the Medicare program." http://abcn.ws/1IjvHeE

TODAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Hillary Clinton is in South Carolina today. At 10amET, she will hold a discussion with mayors and local officials in West Columbia. At 2:15pm she will hold an economic forum in Greenville. Rick Perry is also in South Carolina today. At 11:30AM he will be at Fat Jacks Grillin' and Chillin'. At 2:00pm, Perry will speak at the Americans for Peace and Prosperity national security forum in Hilton Head. At 4:00pm, he will host a meet and greet with local veterans in Beaufort and at 6:00pm he attends the Beaufort Water Festival. Jeb Bush is spending another day in the first primary state of New Hampshire, holding a town hall in Gorham at 1:45pmET. It's part of his "Taking on Mt. Washington" series. Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee are in California to speak at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). John Kasich spends another day in New Hampshire, holding town halls in Wolfeboro at 11:30AM and North Conway at 5:00pm. Carly Fiorina has a packed day in Iowa, beginning a five day tour of the first caucus state. Martin O'Malley is in DC holding a discussion on Wall Street reform at the Truman Center for National Policy 11AM.

WHO'S TWEETING?

@ABCLiz: Yo! I'm taking over @ABCPolitics' @Snapchat again today. (First snap got photobombed so clearly off to good start )

@greenfield64: Trump, immigration, "birtherism"--a toxic connection. My POLITICO column. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/donald-trumps-birther-strategy-120504.html?hp=t3_r#.VbDnVov45UQ ...

@brianjameswalsh: So let's get this Cruz proposal straight - the Supreme Court will be LESS political if we now hold elections? Wow. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cruz-inject-political-process-into-supreme-court-decision-making/2015/07/22/4a928600-308a-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html ...

@tripgabriel: In DSM paper, @JebBush praises Iowans for lowest credit card debt in US. Unmentioned (implied?): personal finance struggles of @marcorubio

@DanH_TIME: New @TIME cover: Game of Thrones http://time.com/3968132/bill-clinton-george-bush-interview/ ...