Donald Trump leans into divisive rhetoric in first rally since assassination attempt
Former President Donald Trump gave a speech replete with divisive words a week after a gunshot almost killed him. The address was generally in keeping with his normal tone.
Trump used his Saturday speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to disparage President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, characterize Biden’s allies as “thugs,” claim without proof that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election, and characterize migrants as coming from jails, prisons, and mental institutions, despite having told reporters that he would shift to a message of unity.
Along with his proclivity for name-calling, he reverted to his bombastic, emotive tone that has characterized his political career, labeling Biden “Crooked Joe,” “feeble old guy,” “low IQ,” and “stupid,” and Harris “Laughin’ Kamala,” “crazy,” and “nuts.”
He decried the “grossly incompetent people running our country” and called Democrats “enemies of the democracy.”
Trump lashed out at immigrants, saying that the United States was a “dumping ground” for people from other countries who were “laughing at us.” He demanded that they be “get the hell out” by a “big deportation.”
The former president repeated his deceptive claims on Saturday. He has long maintained, without proof, that Democrats engaged in fraud in 2020.
They’re just skilled at that, he declared, later adding, “They have no shame whatsoever.”
Shortly after Trump said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that “the discord and division in our society must be healed,” there was a barrage of obscenities and divisive language.
Ammar Moussa, the spokesperson for the Biden campaign, criticized Trump’s event in a statement.
“We saw tonight the same Donald Trump that Americans keep rejecting: he’s peddling the same lies, running the same campaign of revenge and retribution, touting the same failed policies, and — as usual — focused only on himself. We were promised a new Donald Trump who would unite the country,” Moussa said.
The Trump campaign has argued that it does not care who is at the top of the Democratic ticket, but a senior adviser to Trump said that it prefers Biden to be the nominee because the campaign had been planning for that matchup.
During his Saturday speech, Trump criticized the Democrats who are urging Biden to exit the race.
“This guy goes and he gets the votes, and now they want to take it away,” Trump said. “That’s democracy. They talk about democracy. ‘Let’s take it away from him.
Trump also thanked Americans for their “extraordinary outpouring” of support after last Saturday’s shooting.
“I shouldn’t be here,” Trump said.
Saturday’s rally is Trump’s first since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, one week ago during which one attendee was killed and two were hospitalized.
The former president said that the media “covered it fairly,” a departure from how he usually talks about reporters. However, minutes later he pivoted back to criticizing journalists.
Trump also revealed during the rally that China’s President Xi Jinping wrote him a note after the shooting.
“I got along very well with President Xi. He’s a great guy,” Trump said. “Wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened.”
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