GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Former president Donald Trump reveled in Democrats’ turmoil at his first rally since his attempted assassination at another campaign event, joined by his newly announced running mate, J.D. Vance.
Trump and Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, appeared in Grand Rapids exactly one week after a gunman opened fire at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. with an AR-style rifle. The attack killed one audience member, injured others and left Trump with a bloody ear, instantly creating a shocking election-year scene in which Trump pumped his fist and shouted “Fight!” as Secret Service officers rushed him offstage.
Now, Trump is coming off his formal nomination at the Republican National Convention in perhaps his strongest political position this campaign cycle, with some Democrats pushing to remove President Biden last-minute from their ticket and Republicans full of optimism. Trump spoke gleefully about Democrats’ disarray Saturday, at one point polling the audience on who they most wanted him to run against.
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The crowd booed for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Vice President Harris, whose name Trump butchered. But the audience roared loudest when Trump named Biden — reflecting Republicans’ growing confidence that they can beat the incumbent.
As Democrats warn that Trump is a threat to democracy, Trump tried to cast his opponents’ wrangling over Biden’s future as undemocratic. The man who tried to overthrow his 2020 loss said that Democratic “bosses” are trying to “overthrow the results of their own party’s primaries” and declared, “last week I took a bullet for democracy.”
He returned to his false claims of a stolen election again and again, saying “we’re never going to let it happen again” and touting a Republican Party “election integrity” effort. He also said of the criminal cases pending against him: “The only way I can lose is crooked judges. But we’ll get it overturned, anything that happens.” Trump and Republicans lost more than 60 legal challenges to the 2020 contest.
The Grand Rapids event was Trump’s and Vance’s first rally as running mates and underscored the Trump team’s hopes that Vance’s Ohio upbringing and populist message will help them win the neighboring swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Speaking for just over 10 minutes Saturday afternoon ahead of Trump’s remarks, Vance highlighted his roots in a “working class family” that struggled with addiction and said he viewed both political parties as “broken” for a long time.
He laid out the isolationist “America First” ideas he has championed in a changing GOP. He rebuked leaders across the political spectrum he said had allowed American jobs to be outsourced and suggested the United States should pick its foreign entanglements more carefully.
“There’s nothing radical about having a strong national security that when we go to the war, we punch and we punch hard, but being cautious, and not trying to get America involved in every far-flung corner and conflict of the world,” Vance said. “Sometimes, my friends, it just is none of our business and we oughta stay out of it.” The crowd cheered.
Trump took the stage with a small tan bandage on his ear instead of the conspicuous white one he wore at the Republican convention after the assassination attempt left him wounded. On Saturday, he also shared a letter from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), a close ally and former White House physician, that said Trump’s wound required no sutures but still bled intermittently, requiring a dressing.
At the rally, Trump made some efforts to pivot to a general election audience. He ramped up his attacks on a conservative policy effort called Project 2025, even as its architects include staunch Trump allies and members of his first administration. Trump has tried to distance himself as Democrats increasingly attack Project 2025, and on Saturday, Trump called the effort “seriously extreme” and a product of the “severe right.” But the package also includes many proposals that Trump has endorsed.
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At the same time, Trump returned to the red-meat issues that amp up his base. He got some of his biggest cheers promising to carry out mass deportations and “shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement.” He called for “one-day voting,” before later saying it is okay for supporters to vote early, too. He called former House speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy as a bedbug,” ridiculed Harris’s laugh, called Biden’s allies “fascists and communists” and lobbed attacks at the prosecutors who indicted him on criminal charges.
“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor,” Trump said.
He criticized government rules meant to increase electric car production — but also tempered it with praise for Elon Musk, the CEO of electric-car maker Tesla, who recently endorsed Trump and is said to be planning large donations to Trump’s reelection. “I’ve had them, I’ve driven them, they’re incredible but they’re not for everybody,” Trump said of EVs.
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Trump also doubled down on his praise for leaders that President Biden and other U.S. officials have condemned as dictators. He recounted saying of Chinese President Xi Jinping: “He’s a brilliant man, he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist,” and riffed on the idea, saying Xi makes people like Biden look like “babies.”
“They’re all smart, tough, they love their country,” Trump said of Xi as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Orban was right,” Trump continued, referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “We have to have somebody that can protect us.”
Despite the violence last week, Trump supporters queued up in long lines early Saturday to hear from their official ticket. Many rally attendees wore shirts with Trump’s words after the assassination attempt — “fight, fight, fight” — or with photos of Trump raising his fist, and a few sported ear bandages meant to mimic the one Trump had at the GOP convention.
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Saturday’s rally took place with extra safety precautions. The event was moved indoors after the shooting at an open-air event because an arena is easier to secure, The Washington Post previously reported, and Trump’s campaign does not expect to hold any more outdoor rallies soon. Secret Service sought additional help from local law enforcement as well.
Supporters at the rally said they believed that God saved Trump’s life last week and expressed little fear for their own security.
“I feel safe and I don’t feel worried. Security is beefed up as much as it could be,” said Angelic Johnson, 54. “We just have to look to God to protect us like he did that night that Trump got shot.” She said she came to learn more about Vance after only knowing his basic biography.
Biden’s campaign held a news conference Saturday ahead of the Grand Rapids rally to assail Trump’s agenda, saying it would hurt workers while giving breaks to the wealthy. Whitmer (D) shared a video with her “welcome” message for Trump and Vance, saying that “here, we protect reproductive freedom” and making other digs at Trump’s policies.
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But Democrats’ own turmoil has been a growing distraction. A dozen more Democratic lawmakers called on Biden to pull out of the presidential race on Friday alone, indicating a party still deeply unsettled by Biden’s struggle to hold his train of thought at a June 27 debate and other stumbles.
A bout of covid-19 has also taken Biden off the campaign trail while Trump and Vance plan a bundle of events coming out of the Republican convention.
On Monday afternoon, Vance will hold a rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. Then he will head to a Monday evening rally in Radford, Va. — a signal of the Trump campaign’s continued efforts to expand the map of competitive states to places where Democrats usually prevail in the presidential race. Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020.
Trump plans to speak at a rally in Charlotte on Wednesday evening.
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Trump often goes on tangents, and in Grand Rapids, there were plenty. At one point Trump paused to request that cameras be turned off because he did not like the look of his comb-over on the screen. “That’s a severe sucker! … That is very severe, I apologize!” he said, drawing laughs.
At another point, he said that Franklin Graham, an evangelical leader who spoke at the Republican convention this past week, once wrote him a letter that encouraged him not to use foul language. “I’ve really been good … but you know, you lose a little something,” Trump said after using a swear word. Then he turned back to trade policy. “Reciprocal trade, it basically means you screw us and we’ll screw you.” The crowd erupted in delight.
Knowles reported from Washington.
