5 takeaways from Trump rally in Grand Rapids

The near-assassination of a former U.S. president one week ago briefly halted the rancorous rhetoric gripping the nation.

While Donald Trump characterized the shooting in Pennsylvania as proof of his love of country, he spent most of his nearly two-hour-long speech Saturday in Grand Rapids rehashing misleading claims about Michigan issues while touting his surging campaign.

Here's a recap of Trump's Michigan campaign event, his fifth so far this year in a key battleground state.

Trump jokes about assassination attempt

The former president thanked doctors who treated him in Pennsylvania after suffering a wound to his right ear following last Saturday's shooting. He also offered prayers and condolences to the families of the one person killed and two others injured at the rally.

But he spent substantially more time reliving his memory of the event, from his own perusing of images of the shooting to the moment during his speech when the bullets started to fly.

He said he was pointing to a chart about immigration, turning his head to look at it on stage. As he turned, he said the bullet hit his ear. Had he not turned, he suggested the bullet may have caused substantially more damage.

"That sign was very good," he said, adding that it probably saved his life. "I think I'm going to sleep with it tonight."

The crowd laughed, but cheered most raucously when Trump said the event proved his patriotism.

"I took a bullet for democracy," Trump said, while bashing his critics.

The capacity crowd of roughly 12,000 at Van Andel Arena erupted.

Grand Rapids 'safest place in Michigan' police chief says

Even if Trump was laughing, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom knew the pressure he and his team faced heading into the first public rally following the assassination attempt.

Patrolling outside the arena before the event, he told the Free Press the 150 officers working the rally constituted the largest use of police for a single outing since he took the job as chief in 2021.

“(Big events are) something we do a lot. But I tell you, coming from the incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, it definitely puts everybody in a heightened level of awareness of how important this is,” Winstrom said.

“I’d say this is probably the safest place in Michigan, if not the United States right now.”

More: 'We love Hitler. We love Trump.' As Trump rallied in GR, white supremacists chanted in Howell

More: Trump calls US 'a failing nation' in Michigan at first rally after assassination attempt

Trump rallies can be akin to football tailgates. And while some of that frivolity remained Saturday − flags and marijuana clouds hung over the crowds who awaited entering the venue − signs of additional security were obvious. Large dump trucks purposely clogged streets and obstructed traffic blocks from the venue, police roamed on foot and in cars and federal agents used metal detectors and wands to screen attendees.

The merchandise hawkers who attend these events had plenty of garb acknowledging the shooting too. Most showed the now iconic image of a bloodied Trump thrusting his fist in the air at the Pennsylvania rally. Others suggested god intervened in the shooting, another theme involved throughout the event.

Apart from shooting, same Trump

Aside from the intermittent references to the shooting, Trump adopted his frequent tone on the campaign trail: defiant, aggressive and confident.

At moments he both thanked news reporters − for what he characterized as fair coverage of the shooting and his unifying tone at the Republican National Convention, which ended Thursday in Milwaukee − and bashed the media as "fake news."

He touted electric vehicles made by Tesla founder and now-Trump-backer Elon Musk before critiquing efforts to help make them cheaper and using an odd parable involving an electric-powered boat and a shark. He also touted the benefits of early voting in videos played before the rally − and himself urged voters to cast their ballots any way they can this fall − while also railing against early voting, saying ballots should be cast and counted on the same day.

But he appeared perhaps most comfortable making fun of President Joe Biden and predicting his own success in Michigan.

While arguing that attempts by some Democrats to get Biden, beset by concerns that he's too old and frail to win, to step aside as nominee violated the spirit of democracy, given that Biden won the most Democratic votes in the primary, Trump also seemed to revel in the president's predicament.

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," he said.

He added that, if Democrats do replace Biden as the nominee, he'd like to run against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling her "terrible."

Trump repeats Michigan falsehoods, leaves out context

Any time he comes to Michigan, especially in the current campaign season, Trump hits a few favorite lines and the rally Saturday night was no exception. Often, these claims are false, or misleading at best. Again, Saturday night was no exception.

Here are a few:

∎ Trump, despite his new support from Tesla founder Elon Musk, continues to rail against electric vehicles, saying they're too expensive, buyers don't want them and they don't go far enough to be worthwhile for many people to own. The Free Press debunked or otherwise dealt with these claims in the past. Suffice it to say, EV sales have been up in recent years and there are vehicles that can go farther than 300 miles without needing a charge.

∎ The former president continues to argue speciously that large numbers of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border have driven up violent crimes in the U.S. Violent crime is down. Several past studies have also shown that immigrants are less likely to be involved in crime than native-born Americans. As the Free Press has reported before, there is no evidence to Trump's claim that foreign leaders are emptying prisons to send inmates to the U.S. Also, neither Trump nor his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, dealt in their speeches with the fact that a bipartisan deal to crack down on immigration was torpedoed by Trump and his allies who saw it as a win for Biden.

∎ Trump said he would win "95%" of the UAW vote, despite union leadership repeatedly coming out in favor of Biden. While it is clear that the former president does enjoy support among some current and former autoworkers, there is no evidence that the Free Press has seen that would suggest more than nine out of 10 members back him, especially as it was Biden who walked a picket line when the union struck the Detroit Three automakers last year.

∎ Trump also repeatedly claimed that he won the 2020 election, which is a lie, despite his attempting to overturn the result of his loss to Biden. No evidence has been produced or found to suggest any kind of widespread fraudulent activity in that election.

∎ The former president, whenever he comes to Michigan, likes to bring up the time, years ago, when he was honored as Michigan Man of the Year. Only, it never happened as far as anyone knows. He was honored a few years before he ran for president by the Oakland County Republican Party, but it brought no "Man of the Year" award with it.

Pensler out, Rogers snags endorsement

In a surprise move, Grosse Pointe businessman Sandy Pensler took the stage to announce he was ending his bid for the Republican nomination for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat and endorsing opponent (and former U.S. Rep.) Mike Rogers.

Rogers was already seen as the Republican frontrunner for the nomination, since he already had Trump's endorsement. But Pensler has spent recent months spending millions of his own considerable wealth attacking Rogers. Those attacks particularly centered on Rogers' role as the author of a report that largely cleared the intelligence community of any responsibility for the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans during former President Barack Obama's tenure.

But Trump has been preaching unity and he got it from Pensler.

"My campaign was always about making America better. The best way to do that is to enact President Trump's policies," Pensler said. "To do that, we need control of the Senate. A divisive continued primary effort hurts the chances of that, and that's not OK. So tonight I’m doing the right thing and ceasing my Senate candidacy.... President Trump endorsed Mike Rogers. Tonight, so am I."

"That was beautiful to watch," Trump said.

Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com and on X, previously called Twitter, @Dave_Boucher1.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 5 takeaways from Donald Trump's rally in Grand Rapids