Former President Donald Trump discusses climate change, the American Dream at Chesapeake rally that drew thousands

CHESAPEAKE — Former President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of thousands during a campaign rally in Chesapeake, taking swipes at President Joe Biden and touching on issues regarding immigration, crime and the economy.

The nearly 90-minute speech came a day after Trump sparred with Biden in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season.

“As every American saw firsthand last night, this election is a choice between strength and weakness, competence and incompetence, peace and prosperity or war,” Trump told the crowd.

Many supporters at Historic Greenbrier Farms located just off the Chesapeake Expressway started lining up for hours beforehand. Gates opened at 11 a.m. and speakers took to the stage around 2 p.m., among them former Gov. Bob McDonnell, U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans and Senate GOP candidate Hung Cao.

In a bid to help flip Virginia red, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared on stage with Trump for the first time. The governor said the United States needs a new leader, citing the southern border and the economy as top-tier issues under the Biden administration.

“I had a friend who once told me that all roads lead through Hampton Roads,” Youngkin said. “(Virginians and North Carolinians) are here and (they’re) about to help elect Donald J. Trump into the White House. Yes, all roads do lead through Hampton Roads, and Joe Biden’s road to retirement is going right through Hampton Roads.”

Early Friday afternoon, traffic snarled along the Chesapeake Expressway as supporters made their way onto the 500-acre farm. Inside the event space, several attendees said the security line took about two hours to clear.

Vendors sold all manner of Trump merchandise, from T-shirts with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, to candles, baseball caps and even Trump’s newly released gold sneakers. Other items reflected more recent events. Several T-shirts on sale were emblazoned with the slogan, “I’m voting for the felon.”

Trump was convicted of 34 felony crimes last month related to a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn star who said they had sex.

Trump lost Virginia in 2016 and 2020, but a poll last month from Roanoke College indicated Trump and Biden are tied in a head-to-head matchup in the commonwealth, with Biden holding a narrow two-point lead when other candidates are included.

“Our case to Virginia is very simple,” Trump said. “We will seal the border. We will make the American Dream affordable again. We will bring back the American Dream, something you don’t hear about anymore. You’re going to have the American Dream back working with your great Gov. Glenn Youngkin. We will make Virginia greater than it has ever been before.”

Until recently, Youngkin and Trump had a tepid relationship. While Youngkin didn’t criticize the former president, he avoided appearing with him in public and waited until Trump clinched the Republican nomination to endorse his campaign. Amid speculations in 2022 that Youngkin might be launching his own bid for the presidency, Trump lashed out over social media, asserting Youngkin never would have been elected without his support and mocking the governor’s last name.

During the speech, Trump heavily criticized the U.S. economy under Biden’s administration, pointing to higher interest rates and increased inflation.

The former president also took a jab at Biden’s concerns over climate change and said nuclear weapons in other countries posed a much greater risk to the United States. Trump used an incorrect figure to describe rates of sea-level rise, saying sea levels “may rise 1/8 of an inch in the next 497 years” and joked it would create more waterfront properties.

According to the most recent report card from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary, Norfolk has a rise rate of 5.38 millimeters (.212 inches) per year, making it the highest rate on the East Coast for a fifth year in a row. The forecast measures changes in relative sea level — the height of water relative to the land surface on which people live. More broadly, NASA reported sea levels globally rose by about 0.3 inches, or 0.76 centimeters, from 2022 to 2023, a “relatively large jump,” according to the report.

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Before Thursday’s debate in Atlanta, Trump and Biden had not been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss to Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.

During the campaign rally, Trump called for the release of jailed Jan. 6 rioters, earning a loud cheer from the crowd.

“These people have been treated so badly,” he said.

During Trump’s speech, the former president also accused Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department, and using law enforcement to try to hurt his political opponent.

The charges Trump was convicted of were brought by state rather than federal prosecutors. He is facing a litany of other criminal charges, including conspiring to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss. There is no evidence Biden directed the Justice Department or local prosecutors to pursue prosecutions of Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump has called for retribution in the wake of his convictions. Asked during the debate what Trump meant when he said he would have “every right to go after” his political opponents if he’s elected, Trump responded saying that “my retribution is going to be success.”

Biden spoke at his own Friday afternoon campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The last time Trump held a rally in Hampton Roads was September 2020, when the then-president addressed thousands on the tarmac at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.

One attendee at Friday’s event, Theresa Evans of Chesapeake, said it was her first time at a Trump rally. Evans said she was most concerned about the state of the American economy and believes Trump can “get us back on track.”

“Our country is very divided and that is not a good thing either,” Evans said.

Another attendee, Olivia Ashworth, drove overnight from South Point, Ohio to attend the rally and arrived in Chesapeake at 2 a.m. Friday.

“Any chance to get to support him, I’m going to do it,” Ashworth said. “I absolutely love Trump and he is going to get back in office.”

The 22-year-old said the economy is her biggest concern.

“Everybody is struggling,” she said of the cost of living.