Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald J. Trump holds his first public campaign rally with his running mate, Vice Presidential nominee U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) (not pictured), at the Van Andel Arena on July 20, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held his first campaign rally since the attempt on his life one week ago, delivering a nearly two-hour speech in which he repeatedly hurled personal insults at his Democratic opponents.
The Saturday event in Grand Rapids, Mich., was also Mr. Trump’s first rally with his new running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. It signalled an end to the cooling of political rhetoric that U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had called for after the attempted assassination in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Trump himself had joined those calls for unity. At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, he initially cut a subdued figure, with a large white bandage on his ear to cover his injury from the attack. In his speech on the convention’s final night, he began on a conciliatory note, saying he wished to be “president for all of America, not half of America,” before launching into a grievance-laden tirade.
At Saturday’s event in Michigan, the unmissable white bandage had been replaced with a less noticeable, flesh-coloured one, and there was virtually no hint of conciliation in Mr. Trump’s words. In a packed arena filled with some 12,000 adoring supporters, the former president returned to his characteristic brashness, calling President Joe Biden “stupid,” Vice-President Kamala Harris “crazy” and likening former House speaker Nancy Pelosi to a dog.
Outside of briefly paying respects to the family of firefighter Corey Comperatore, the Pennsylvania rally attendee who died in the shooting, and acknowledging James Copenhaver and David Dutch, the two attendees who were injured, Mr. Trump made little reference to the solemnity and historic nature of the attack.
The speech, which appeared largely unscripted, touched on Mr. Trump’s usual themes: illegal immigration, trade and crime. He again repeated the claim that other countries are sending people from prisons and “insane asylums” to the U.S., of which there is no evidence, and pledged to begin “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country” as soon as he takes the oath of office. As he has done frequently in the past, he cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election, in which he was defeated by Mr. Biden, and darkly implied that his opponents would try to rig this year’s vote.
He waved away critics’ characterizations of him as a threat to democracy. “Last week I took a bullet for democracy,” he said.
Mr. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a massive proposed overhaul of the federal government drafted by his long-time allies, as well as former officials in his administration. Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign has highlighted the 922-page playbook, which includes plans to curb abortion rights federally and bend the civil service to the White House’s will.
Mr. Trump has said that he is against a federal abortion ban, though he did appoint three of the Supreme Court justices that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of federal abortion protections.
“The other side’s going around trying to make me sound extreme, like I’m an extremist. I’m not. I’m a person with great common sense,” he said at the rally. “Some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project [2025] and I don’t even know. I mean, some of them I know who they are, but they are very, very conservative. They’re sort of the opposite of the radical left. They come up with this project. I don’t know what the hell it is.”
Michigan, a battleground state, will play an important role in the coming presidential election. Mr. Biden won the state over Mr. Trump in 2020, after Mr. Trump eked out a victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 0.3 percentage points.
There are indications that this year’s race in Michigan will again be close. The latest FiveThirtyEight polling average puts Mr. Trump about two percentage points ahead of Mr. Biden in the state.
But much could change between now and election day. Mr. Biden has come under increasing pressure from within his own Democratic Party to abandon his bid for another term, over concerns about his age and mental fitness. In his speech, Mr. Trump referenced media reports that Ms. Pelosi has been telling Mr. Biden that the Democrats could lose control of the House if he remains on.
“Did you see Nancy Pelosi is selling out Biden now?” he asked the crowd. “She turned on him like a dog.”
Mr. Trump, whose guilty verdict in his hush-money case made him the first president to be convicted of a felony, again repeated the unsupported claim that the U.S. justice system had been “weaponized” against him. After calling Mr. Biden “a stupid person,” Mr. Trump said the insult was justified because “he weaponized justice against me.”
Mr. Vance, who introduced Mr. Trump, used part of his time on the microphone to attack Ms. Harris.
“What a cool thing it was to be asked by president Trump to serve as his running mate and to get out there on the campaign trail, but there’s some bad news, actually,” he said.
“The Vice-President, Kamala Harris, she doesn’t like me. Kamala Harris said something to the effect that I have no loyalty to this country.”
“Well I don’t know, Kamala, I did serve in the U.S. Marine Corps and build a business. What the hell have you done, other than collect a cheque?”
Mr. Trump’s most loyal supporters began lining up for the event early the previous morning. By Saturday afternoon, thousands of people snaked through city blocks, and many observed from an overflow area when the arena reached capacity. Vendors sold t-shirts and pins that read “I’m voting for the convicted felon,” “Never surrender,” and “Take America back.”
Rally attendee Sue DeYoung, who wore a red hat with Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and four Trump pins, said Saturday’s rally might have been the best out of the seven she had been to.
“He’s got so much energy after all he’s gone through, and he’s so positive,” she said.
Sarah Campisi, who wore a red t-shirt bearing the image of a bloodied Mr. Trump raising his first in the air after the assassination attempt, said she could see a difference in the former president.
“I think he’s funnier and just more articulate and overall happier,” she said. “I think he’s definitely more humble and less combative.”