Donald Trump calls US a 'failing nation' during first rally after assassination attempt

Headlining his first public rally since a failed assassination attempt against him a week ago and two days after formally accepting the GOP's nomination, former President Donald Trump told a raucous, enthusiastic crowd at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on Saturday evening that Republicans will win Michigan this year having reestablished themselves as "the party of the people."

"We're a failing nation," Trump said early in his speech. "We cannot let it slip by. We cannot let people cheat. ... Or we're not going to have a country."

During the address, Trump attacked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling her "terrible" and saying, "I'd like to run against her, actually," with President Joe Biden facing pressure from his own party to step down as nominee and Whitmer being mentioned by some as a possible replacement. Trump also rejected Democrats' contention that he is a threat to democracy, arguing it is the Democrats who want to overturn the results of the primary season by talking about getting Biden to step aside.

"Last week, I took a bullet for democracy," said Trump, who wore a small flesh-colored bandage over his right ear. He was injured in last week's shooting. "What did I do against democracy?"

Speaking amid heightened security to a packed audience of supporters that waved signs with Trump's picture and the words, "Never Surrender," and others reading "Joe Biden, you're fired," Trump repeated several false assertions about creating auto jobs in Michigan when he was president and that he was given a "Man of the Year" award in Michigan several years ago, which did not happen. He also blamed immigration for an increase in crime; violent crime has been down across the U.S.

He also excoriated efforts to push automakers to produce and sell electric vehicles while praising Tesla's Elon Musk, who has committed to giving a pro-Trump Super PAC $45 million a month toward reelection. He said he would get rid of federal emission rules that have been characterized as a mandate by Republicans to force the sale of electric cars and trucks.

Trump also falsely suggested an impending invasion of Chinese-run automotive plants operating in Mexico in an effort to flood the U.S. market. The Biden administration has pushed substantial tariffs to prevent Chinese-made EVs from entering the U.S.

Trump was introduced by his running mate, 39-year-old U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who Trump said he picked because Vance is "for the worker." Trump and Vance have spoken at length about using tariffs to protect American workers and products, even though economists argue tariffs cost consumers more, and Vance, specifically, has talked at length about the U.S. staying out of foreign conflicts.

Van Andel Arena, with a capacity to hold some 12,000 people, appeared full.

Trump talks about shooting, jokes about sign

The rally took place at a time when the presidential campaign has been upended by events, including the tragic shooting last Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In that incident, Trump's ear was wounded, a spectator was killed and two others were critically wounded. Law enforcement shot and killed the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The FBI has uncovered no specific motive for the attempt.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who was Trump's White House physician, issued a letter Saturday saying he has been seeing Trump regularly since the incident and that, while healing normally, Trump still needs to wear a dressing over the wound.

Trump addressed the shooting again in his speech, crediting the news media for covering it fairly and saying, somewhat pensively. "It was exactly one week ago today, almost to the hour, almost to the minute. ... What a day it was."

"I shouldn't be here," he said. "Something very special happened, let's face it."

He also joked that but for his turning toward a large sign with immigration statistics on it at the instant before the shot passed him, he would have been killed. "That sign was very good," he said. "I think I'm going to sleep with it tonight."

For someone who had undergone such an incident, Trump's demeanor was easygoing throughout the speech, though he also expressed his sympathies for the family of the man who died and his concern for the other two people who were injured.

Trump says he's not extreme, has 'great common sense'

Meanwhile, Trump's rival, Biden, who is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, remained isolated with COVID-19 in Delaware, as a growing number of members of his own party called on him to step aside as the nominee ahead of the August convention in Chicago amid worries he is too old and frail at age 81 to beat the 78-year-old Trump. So far, Biden has resisted calls for him to step down as the nominee.

Worries about Biden's ability to beat Trump have grown since he gave a poor performance in a June 27 debate in Atlanta, where he often seemed confused and unable to give coherent responses. As he has battled to retain his spot at the top of the Democratic Party, Biden and his allies — including Whitmer, a co-chair of his national campaign — have urged the media to focus on the threat posed by Trump, arguing that he lies to the American people and constitutes a serious threat to democracy given his efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden.

Ahead of the rally, Democrats issued warnings about the Republican ticket's agenda. State Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes accused Trump and Vance of "championing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda," a reference to an effort by former aides and advisers to Trump to enact sweeping changes to the federal government, eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving the president more control over Justice Department decisions and hiring and firing civil servants.

Trump and his campaign have said repeatedly they do not endorse Project 2025 and have not said they intend to enact it but Democrats have continued to use it as a warning to voters. On Saturday, Trump specifically said of the project, "I don't know what the hell it is" but called some of the recommendations he has heard about "seriously extreme," suggesting he could not support them.

"The other side is going around trying to make me sound extreme," he said. "I’m a person with great common sense, I’m not extreme at all."

The fact that Trump selected Grand Rapids as the site for his first rally after the shooting and his successful nominating convention isn't surprising, given that he has concluded his campaigning in the city in both of the last two elections and west Michigan is home to a significant bloc of Republican voters.

Fans filled the lower bowl of Van Andel arena, sporting an array of Trump gear. Many included references to the shooting Trump survived in Pennsylvania, a theme throughout the evening.

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, said Trump's survival is evidence of God's presence, while Vance marveled at how the shooting was only days earlier.

But the crowd roared appreciatively at a few lighthearted jokes — aimed mainly at Vance's status as an Ohio native. During a brief speech before Trump took the stage, Vance said he heard some in the crowd chant "O-H", the first half of a well-known Ohio State University cheer.

He laughed and said he'd have to avoid responding in Grand Rapids, instead noting Republicans from both states need Michigan to win the White House.

Vance spoke briefly earlier in the rally

After giving a brief summary of his biography, Vance, in a speech that lasted about 10 minutes earlier in the event, criticized Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and blamed both parties for allowing manufacturing jobs to leave the Midwest for overseas. Though there are more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. now than at any time during Trump's presidency, total manufacturing employment in Michigan is below its top mark during Trump's time in office, though it had fallen during the former president's tenure even before COVID-19 shutdowns, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Vance also suggested he and Trump will help get the U.S. out of foreign conflicts that “are none of our business,” presumably referring to American support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.

The rally was Trump's fifth visit to the state this year, having had rallies in Waterford and outside Saginaw, as well as a roundtable discussion in Grand Rapids on immigration and an event at a Detroit church.

A Democrat who represents Grand Rapids, U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, is the only member so far of Michigan's congressional delegation to join more than 30 others calling for Biden to step aside as nominee.

Biden was most recently in Detroit for a rally last Friday.

Michigan is a key battleground state

Michigan, as it has in recent elections, remains a key swing state and one that appears to have swung more toward Trump in recent polls. Trump narrowly beat Hillary Clinton by two-tenths of a percentage point on his way to winning the White House in 2016; four years later, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden won the state by about 3 points.

Whitmer released a video in which she welcomed Trump and Vance to Michigan, then excoriated them on their records on abortion rights, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and, in Trump's case, breaking his promises to bring more auto jobs back to Michigan while he was president.

"Have a good trip!” she concluded.

But Trump has put himself in a strong position heading into the final four months of the campaign, barring a dramatic change in the Democratic ticket's trajectory. At last week's convention in Milwaukee, Vance — well-known for writing "Hillbilly Elegy," a memoir in which he spoke about addiction and abuse in his family in Ohio — made clear the Republican Party's intention to try to win in the so-called Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Donald Trump holds first rally after assassination attempt