GRAND RAPIDS, MI – In his first public rally since he was nearly killed in a failed assassination attempt, Donald Trump made a boisterous return to Michigan on Saturday, July 20, as massive crowds flocked to see the former president speak.
Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids – Michigan’s second largest city – was highly anticipated as the first campaign appearance with JD Vance, Trump’s newly announced running mate on the 2024 Republican presidential ticket.
Together, the two hit on several key policy issues including immigration, the border, the economy and the auto industry, while criticizing Democratic leaders, including President Joe Biden and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for the current state of the country.
Trump spoke for nearly two hours to a thousands of attendees. The event marked seven days since the bullet from a would-be assassin injured the former president’s ear July 13 at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania.
RELATED: ‘I took a bullet for democracy,’ Trump tells Michigan crowd week after deadly rally
Here are five key takeaways from Trump’s visit to Grand Rapids:
Trump can sell out a Michigan arena
Michigan showed love to Trump in Grand Rapids, his first campaign appearance since he formally earned the Republican nomination.
Donned in themed clothes, flags and pins, rally attendees filled Van Andel Arena to the brim. Nearly every seat was filled in the arena, which has a capacity of over 12,000, and Trump said there were more people lined up outside who couldn’t enter.
“They’ve got so many people, I wish we could include them, I’d love to get them in. Would anybody like to leave now and let them in?” Trump joked with the crowd.
RELATED: ‘I’ll stand out here for 8 hours for him’: See massive line ahead of Trump’s Michigan rally
By 11 a.m. Saturday – two hours before doors opened – thousands of people were waiting outside in a 1.5-mile line that wrapped around the arena and traveled several blocks down Ionia Avenue.
Some Trump supporters even camped outside Van Andel Arena the day before to get a good spot at the rally, bringing chairs, snacks and blankets to spend the night.
Trump likes to insult Whitmer
Trump took a jab at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling her a “terrible governor who did a terrible job” during Saturday’s rally.
But, he said, he wouldn’t mind running against her in the 2024 presidential election if President Joe Biden were to pull out of the race, as some Democrats have called for him to do.
While Whitmer’s name has come up on a list of potential replacements, the governor has insisted she is in full support of Biden as the party’s nominee.
“I’d be very happy with her,” Trump said, of Whitmer running in place of Biden on the Democratic ticket.
RELATED: Trump says at Michigan rally he would welcome run against Whitmer if Biden drops out
Trump also mentioned Whitmer’s husband, referencing a controversial incident from 2020 when her husband reportedly wanted to launch his boat during the peak of the COVID pandemic while stay-at-home orders were in place.
“Everybody else had to be locked up, right?” Trump said, as the crowd booed.
Auto manufacturing is a Michigan campaign pillar
Trump devoted a large portion of his115-minute speech to Michigan’s automotive industry, promising to rescue it from “obliteration” if elected president again.
He said he planned to enact policy that would support creating more jobs in auto manufacturing. He pledged to prohibit plants built in foreign countries like Mexico and China and vowed to impose tariffs on cars assembled outside the U.S.
“We can’t let these companies come in and steal our wealth, steal our jobs, destroy our companies, and then they’re building 10 miles across the border, and think we’re going to allow them to get away with it,” he said. “We’re not. They have to build it over here. They have to use our people.”
“Michigan will benefit more than any state in the union, because they stole your auto industry. And we’re going to bring it back. And it’s going to be at a level that it was at its height.”
He expressed opposition to Biden policies that incentivize companies to increase manufacturing of electric vehicles.
“Under the radical Democrat policies, the U.S. auto industry has been decimated,” Trump said.
“To further protect Michigan auto workers, I will end the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate on day one. I will immediately terminate the green new scam, and we’re gonna use that money to build roads and highways and bridges.”
An Ohio politician receives a Michigan applause
JD Vance may be a Buckeye, but he won’t be taking any digs at the Wolverines as he works to win the key battleground state of Michigan this fall.
“I heard some O-Hs, but I’m going to respect Michigan and not respond here,” the 39-year-old Ohio Senator joked with the crowd. “To my Ohio brethren, we’ve gotta win Michigan, that’s the important thing this election cycle.”
Trump won Michigan in 2016, but lost it in 2020, and Kent County, home to Grand Rapids, flipped in 2020, going blue for Biden.
RELATED: JD Vance slams Kamala Harris over border handling at Michigan Trump rally
The crowd of Michiganders put aside their hostility toward Ohio for the day and cheered Vance.
Vance, selected last week as Trump’s vice presidential pick at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, was met with thunderous applause when he walked out to greet the crowd in Grand Rapids. As he headed to the stage to “America First” by Merle Haggard, thousands of supporters chanted “USA” before he even started speaking.
“We love you!” attendees called out from the audience several times during Vance’s speech, to which he replied, “I love you too.”
Vance called the rally attendees a “hell of a crowd” and thanked everyone for a warm welcome.
“What do they put in the water in Grand Rapids? You guys are a lot of fun,” he said.
The arena was full of energy and enthusiasm. When Trump walked on stage and stood alongside Vance, the audience cheered and applauded for several minutes as “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood blasted in the background.
“By the way, I made the right pick,” Trump later said, of his selection of Vance. “He’s really stepped up.”
Vice President nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio introduces former President Donald J. Trump to thousands of supporters at Van Andel Arena during campaign rally in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. on Saturday, July 20, 2024.
Trump still insists the 2020 election was rigged
Trump continued to repeat debunked claims that the 2020 election he lost – by more than 154,000 votes in Michigan – was rigged.
“We’re not going to let them rig the election of 2024,” he said.
He promised to “secure our election” and urged voters to “protect” their votes, directing attendees to protectthevote.com, which urges people to “stand up for election integrity.”
“Our goal will be one-day voting with paper ballots, proof of citizenship and voter ID,” Trump said. But until then, Republicans must win. We have to win, win, win, win, win. We want a landslide that’s too big to rig.”
He also took aim at the Democrats. “At this very moment, Democrat party bosses are frantically trying to overthrow the results of their own party’s primaries to dump crooked Joe Biden from the ballot. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” he said sarcastically. “And as you’re seeing, the Democratic Party is not the party of democracy. They’re really the enemies of democracy.”
Biden won almost all his parties’ delegates in the Democratic primaries, but he has not yet been made the party’s nominee.
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Publish date : 2024-07-21 08:30:00
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