Detroit — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed to prevent “World War III,” to “restore world peace” and to expel “warmongers” from the U.S. government during a campaign stop in Detroit Monday, the same day the war between Russia and Ukraine further escalated.
Trump made the remarks while speaking to hundreds of National Guard officers from across the country who were attending a conference at Huntington Place. Trump noted that crowd in the convention hall was more “low key” than the raucous rallies he traditionally addresses.
“We’ve never been closer to World War III than we are right now,” Trump said at one point. “It’s a terrible thing.”
Trump told the National Guard personnel that he doesn’t want them “over there.” He said if he’s elected in November he would have the war between Russia and Ukraine settled “very fast.”
Trump’s remarks about Russia’s ongoing occupation of eastern Ukraine came amid a rapidly escalating war on both sides of the border of the two countries. Ukraine’s prime minister said Russia battered more than half the country Monday with attacks from drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles. That offensive came after Ukraine’s military, aided by the United States, recently gained ground in Russia’s Kursk region, the biggest attack on Russian soil since World War II.
The National Guard Association of the United States’ General Conference & Exhibition holds an annual event that includes speeches by Pentagon leaders and lawmakers, according to an announcement distributed last week that noted the association invites the Democratic and Republican nominees to speak during presidential election years.
Monday’s event marked Trump’s seventh visit to Michigan of the year — and the first day of a busy week for the presidential campaign in the battleground state. He’ll be back in the state on Thursday to deliver a speech on the economy in Potterville in Eaton County.
After his one-hour-long speech in Detroit, Trump helped deliver pizza to a GOP campaign office in Macomb County, said Eric Castiglia, a Macomb County Republican who got a photo Monday with Trump.
“He literally walked in and thanked everybody,” Castiglia said of Trump’s stop at the GOP campaign office.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is scheduled to be in the Big Rapids area on Tuesday for a campaign speech about the economy, inflation and manufacturing, according to the Trump campaign. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, is set to visit Grand Rapids on Thursday, the Harris campaign said Monday.
During his speech inside Detroit’s riverfront convention center, Trump said he wanted to impose a penalty that would require those who burn U.S. flags to serve a year in jail. But he acknowledged the nation’s highest court had ruled otherwise, and he would try to change it — though it’s unclear how he plans to alter the court’s stance.
In a landmark 1989 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that flag burning is a form of “symbolic speech” that is protected by the First Amendment. The majority wrote that society’s outrage about flagging burning alone is not a justification for suppressing free expression, while the minority argued that the flag’s unique status as a symbol of national unity outweighed “symbolic speech” concerns.
If reelected, Trump also said he would create a Space National Guard, after forming the Space Force in 2019, during his first term. The Space Force is an independent military branch that organizes, equips and trains its personnel to protect U.S. and allied interests in space.
The National Guard leadership “very badly” wants a presence in outer space, Trump said.
The National Guard Association works to “promote and support the national security of the United States” and “maintain a strong National Guard,” according to its 2022 tax filing
The former president vowed he would spend heavily on drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and hypersonics.
“Space Force is very important, very, very important,” Trump said. “We were getting just destroyed in space, and now we’re leading.”
A new endorsement
About 18 minutes into his remarks, Trump turned the stage over to former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Gabbard, who deployed to Iraq in 2005 with the Hawaii National Guard, endorsed Trump.
Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration has the country “facing multiple wars on multiple fronts” and is “closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before,” Gabbard said.
“I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war,” Gabbard said. “We cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace.”
Gabbard’s speech received applause from the crowd. Immediately afterward, Trump suggested that he “wasn’t sure” that Gabbard was going to fully endorse him.
“I heard that might happen,” Trump said.
Gabbard’s endorsement followed independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s backing of the Republican candidate on Friday and a vow to try to get off the November ballot in 10 battleground swing states, though Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office said minor party candidates like Kennedy can’t withdraw.
Ammar Moussa, rapid response director for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign, panned Trump’s foreign policy record on Monday.
“Trump cannot be trusted to keep us safe, but Vice President Harris is a proven leader on the world stage and will use her expertise to ensure America’s security, defeat our adversaries, and stand with our allies around the world,” Moussa said.
Focus on Afghanistan
The former president also used his speech in Detroit to criticize Biden’s administration for its handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago this week, ending a nearly 20-year-long American military occupation.
And Trump warned Russia’s war with Ukraine could escalate into a global conflict, saying he would settle the war before assuming office if voters return him to the White House in November.
“I will prevent World War III,” Trump said at one point.
Trump said when he returns to the White House, he will “expel “the warmongers and profiteers” from the federal government.
“We will restore world peace,” he said, drawing a large round of applause.
Floridian Sunny Davenport was a vendor at the National Guard Association conference and attended Trump’s address.
Biden’s administration had mishandled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, hadn’t sufficiently supported Israel and had implemented “open border” policies, Davenport said of the reasons for the applause Trump got on Monday.
“The current administration is really letting the ball drop and not being as strong as we have been in the past,” Davenport said. “America used to be one of the world powers, and we’re not anymore. And we need to get back there.”
Trump’s speech in Detroit, which came 71 days before he faces Harris in the Nov. 5 election, focused on foreign affairs and immigration but also touched on “fair elections” and even the proper pronunciation of Missouri.
“I do love Missourah,” Trump said. “I love that state. They do say it that way. Never quite understood that. But I say it that way because I won by 25 points. So I say it that way.”
Trump won Missouri in 2020 by 15 percentage points and by 19 percentage points in 2016.
More: Six 2020 false Trump electors nominated to represent Michigan Republicans in 2024 election
Trump is the only Republican presidential nominee since 1988 to carry Michigan. He won the state against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point, 47.5%-47.3%, or about 10,700 votes.
But four years later, in 2020, Trump lost to Biden by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 48%-51%, in Michigan.
Trump was last in Detroit on June 15 to speak at a convention organized by a conservative organization. After the 2020 election, Trump claimed, without providing evidence to back up his statements, that there was “rampant” voter fraud in Detroit, Michigan’s largest city and a Democratic stronghold.
“It would be nice if somebody votes and the vote actually counts,” Trump said Monday.
Associated Press contributed.
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Publish date : 2024-08-26 05:32:00
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