A week later, a bullet almost took his life President Donald Trump delivered a speech full of divisive rhetoric that largely echoed his point ordinary tone.
Despite the presence of Trump told reporters The former president, who has said he will focus on a message of unity, used his Saturday speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan to name-call President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, calling Biden’s allies “thugs” and arguing without proof that Democrats are cheating. 2020 election and characterize migrants as coming from prisons, jails and mental institutions.
The bombastic, expressive intonation that defined his political career has returned, as has his penchant for calling Biden “Crooked Joe,” “weak old man,” “low IQ” and “stupid” and referring to Harris. “Laughing Kamala”, “crazy” and “nut”.
He called Democrats “enemies of democracy” and lamented the “gross incompetent people running our country.”
Trump has made harsh speeches against migrants, claiming that the United States is a “dumping ground” for the world and that it is “laughing at us”. He called for a “massive deportation” to “get them out of hell”.
The former president has long claimed without evidence that Democrats rigged 2020, a false message he repeated Saturday.
“That’s the only thing they’re good at,” he said, then added, “They have no shame.”
The name-calling and divisive rhetoric came days after Trump said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that “the division and division in our society needs to be healed.”
Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa condemned Trump’s rally in a statement.
“We were promised a new Donald Trump who would unite the country — instead what we saw tonight was the same Donald Americans have rejected time and time again: He peddles the same lies, runs the same campaign of vengeance and revenge, promotes the same failed policies. , and – as always – focused only on himself,” said Moussa.
The Trump campaign has said it doesn’t care who is at the top of the Democratic ticket, but Trump’s top adviser said he prefers Biden to run because the campaign planned that matchup.
During his speech on Saturday, Trump criticized Democrats who called for Biden to drop out of the race.
“This guy goes and gets the votes and now they want to take him away,” Trump said. “This is democracy. They talk about democracy. ‘Let’s take it from him.’
Trump also thanked Americans for their “extraordinary support” after last Saturday’s shooting.
“I shouldn’t be here,” Trump said.
Saturday’s rally is Trump’s first since the rally attempted assassination A week ago, one participant was killed and two were hospitalized in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The former president said the media “fairly covered” him, which is different from how he usually talks about journalists. But a few minutes later, he continued to criticize the journalists.
During the rally, Trump also announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote him a note after the shooting.
“I got along very well with President Xi. He’s a great guy,” Trump said. “He wrote me a nice note the other day when he heard what happened.”
Trump did not disclose the contents of the note.
The atmosphere in the arena seemed upbeat and patriotic as many supporters expressed confidence in Trump’s election prospects.
“If he can fight that much and have all the money and do everything he wants to do and come out here and fight for us, that’s pretty powerful,” said Ben Beccon of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took the stage before the former president and almost immediately turned against his opponent, Harris.
“What has he done besides collect checks from his political offices?” he said, adding that he was managing the border “during the greatest disaster we’ve ever had in this country, an open border.”
He then tried to dismiss the suggestion that his ticket was extremist.
“There is nothing radical about stopping poison, gangs and criminals from taking care of our country,” Vance said. “We need to close this border, close fentanyl and make America safe again for American citizens.”
The Biden campaign slammed Saturday’s rally in advance, calling the Trump-Vance ticket “the most extreme, anti-worker presidential ticket in American history.”
“Today, an Ivy League billionaire who is taking on workers will partner with an Ivy League millionaire who is leaving workers behind to get on the campaign trail,” the campaign said in an email before the rally.
Yvonne Beadle of Algonac, Michigan, told NBC News that one supporter at a Trump rally summed up the former president’s decision about his running mate: “If Trump trusts him, I trust him.”
“I don’t know much about him,” said Mandie Kirkpatrick of Ludington, Michigan. “Of course there’s a lot going on about him. I trust Trump’s decision, so if he says it’s good, I believe it.”
The Grand Rapids rally comes on the heels of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president.
His acceptance speech was the longest convention dateIt surpassed the previous record set in 2016. In a speech marking his first public appearance since the shooting, he offered his most detailed account of the assassination attempt to date.
“The amazing thing is that if I hadn’t moved my head at the last moment before the shot, the assassin’s bullet would have been full and I wouldn’t be with you tonight.” Trump said during his acceptance speech on Thursday.
The rest of his convention the speech turned to familiar themes and rhetoric that he used on the campaign trail. He vowed to “launch the largest deportation operation in our country’s history,” accused opponents of election fraud without evidence and criticized the United Auto Workers union.
Michigan remains a crucial state on the road to the White House. Biden won the state in 2020, and Trump in 2016.
Polls show Biden and Trump remain in a tight race in battleground states. July one CBS News/YouGov poll In the battleground states, Biden won 48% to Trump’s 51%, though the results were within the margin of error.