Trump holds rally in Detroit after Kamala Harris questions fitness for office – US politics live
Trump takes stage in Detroit, days after criticizing the city
Diana Ramirez-Simon
Trump takes the stage in Michigan with his usual self-confidence, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd who are waving “Make Detroit Great Again” signs. “We win Michigan, we win the whole ballgame,” he said, as he’s promised every other city he’s visited lately.
However on his previous visit to the city, he bashed it as a “mess” and a “developing nation”. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said, referring to Kamala Harris.
Key events
Trump surrogates who have spoken before Donald Trump takes the stage have all hit on talking points we’ve heard repeatedly throughout his campaign. In addition to getting back jobs for American workers, including auto workers, and rising costs of living, nearly everyone who has taken the stage has decried what they describe as mass illegal immigration. They also made promises to Detroit residents specifically.
“Detroit once was the city that powered the entire world, every car worth driving in the entire world was manufactured here,” said former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “Not in Mexico, not in China, not in Japan. Donald Trump has a plan to make Detroit and to make Michigan the economic center of the world.”
However, just last week, Trump criticized the city during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
“The whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”
At the time, Detroit’s Democratic mayor Mike Duggan responded and cited the city’s recent drop in crime.
“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” Duggan said.
Donald Trump is slated to speak at a rally in Detroit in a few minutes. Follow along here.
While Donald Trump spent the last few minutes of his round table in Michigan talking about returning jobs to American auto workers, Kamala Harris is reminding auto workers what he’s previously said about their work.
According to Politico, at a campaign event at the United Auto Workers Local 652 in Lansing, Harris played the room full of auto workers remarks Trump made earlier this week at the Economic Club of Chicago. In addition to saying a child could do their jobs, Trump said car manufacturers “don’t build cars” and just “take them out of a box, and they assemble them”.
Both candidates are fighting to win over auto workers as well as working class voters in Michigan.
The round table has concluded. He ended the event by talking about tariffs in response to a United Auto Workers member. He said he plans to use tariffs to discourage people from building plants in other countries and taking jobs from American workers.
Donald Trump will be speaking at a rally in Detroit at 7pm. Stay tuned for more updates.
Donald Trump is hearing from audience members in Michigan. Among them have been a Teamster representative as well as a holistic wellness practitioner and the president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan.
Jim Tignanelli, the group’s president, described what he says is the loss of honor for police. He said three officers were shot in Michigan over the last 90 days.
In response, Trump said he wants to call for the death penalty for anyone killing a police officer. Trump also called for qualified immunity for police. “One thing we’re going to be doing is … immunity for some of these police,” Trump said.
“If police officers are doing their job … if they make a mistake, and that happens … we have to help people out now. We’re going to do the immunity thing. We have to stop being politically correct. You’re always going to have some bad apples but very few of them,” Trump said.
Donald Trump is speaking at a roundtable in Auburn Hills, Michigan
Donald Trump started the conversation by again criticizing Kamala Harris’ decision not to attend the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, which raises funds for Catholic charities.
You can follow along here.
Upon landing in Michigan, Donald Trump touted the support he’s received from the Arab-American community after many have expressed disappointment in how the Biden administration has responded to Israel’s assault on Gaza. Just last month, Trump was endorsed by Amer Ghalib, the Democratic mayor of Michigan suburb, Hamtramck. Forty percent of Hamtramck’s residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent.
But minutes later, Trump said that he planned to speak with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him that “he’s doing a good job”.
“[Biden] is trying to hold him back,” Trump said to reporters. “They probably should be doing the opposite. I’m glad that Bibi decided to do what he had to do.”
Trump says he’s about to speak to Netanyahu and says, “Biden is trying to hold him back … he probably should be doing the opposite, actually.” pic.twitter.com/i12koY0z1s
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
A new investigation by 404 Media found that an Elon Musk-funded PAC called Future Coalition is targeting Muslim and Jewish populations in Michigan and Pennsylvania with extremely contradictory ads.
The ads are being delivered to Snapchat users and targeting them by zip code. Those who live in an area with a large Muslim population in Michigan are being served ads that paint Kamala Harris as pro-Israel while those who live in parts of Pennsylvania that have a high percentage of Jewish residents are seeing ads that says Harris stands with Palestine.
You can read the investigation here.
Trump rejects claim he is exhausted and has canceled events
Meanwhile in Michigan, Donald Trump answered questions from the press and denied reports that he’s exhausted and canceling events.
“What event did I cancel,” Trump said. “I haven’t canceled. She doesn’t go to any events. She’s a loser. She didn’t even show up for the Catholics last night at the hotel. It was insulting. All they are is soundbites.”
Trump said he has gone 48 days without a rest. “Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest.”
According to a new House oversight committee report that accuses Donald Trump of fleecing tax payers and exploiting the presidency, former president Trump charged secret service agents who were staying at his hotel while protecting him far more than the hotel charged private patrons.
The report says Trump “turned the U.S. Secret Service into an ATM for his personal enrichment” by charging the agency, in at least one case, more than 5 times the rate approved by the government. “Amazingly, that same night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 200 rooms to private parties at just $125 or $170 each.”
The report goes onto say that at least five people who received pardons from Trump as well as four federal judges who Trump nominated and were later given lifetime appointments also stayed at the hotel.
“Our report also details startling instances in which state and federal officials, as well as individuals actively seeking federal jobs and presidential pardons, used the D.C. hotel as a channel to put money into the Commander-in-Chief’s pocket,” Representative Jamie Raskin said in a statement.
Hey all, Johana Bhuiyan taking over from my colleague, Chris.
I’ll be tuning into Donald Trump’s speech in Michigan which starts at 5pm ET but in the meantime I’m going through a new report from the House committee on oversight and accountability.
Citing hotel guest logs, the report claims Trump used his DC hotel to take “ethically questionable payments” from the US Secret Service, federal and state officials, federal job seekers as well as people seeking a federal pardon during his presidency.
“These payments demonstrate how Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause as he used the Secret Service as his personal ATM and repeatedly took payments that raise the specter of pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and, in many cases obtained, favors from the Commander-in-Chief,” the press release read.
Harris announces events with Barack, Michelle Obama as early voting begins in key states
Kamala Harris will campaign alongside Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in two separate events next week aimed at encouraging voting in swing states, the vice-president’s campaign said.
On Thursday, Harris and Barack Obama will campaign in Atlanta, with the goal of encouraging supporters to take advantage of the early voting period. The vice-president will then head to Michigan on Saturday, the first day of early voting in that state, for an event with Michelle Obama.
Donald Trump has meanwhile arrived in Michigan, ahead of his 5pm campaign event in Detroit.
His campaign is sharing photos and video of him taking questions from reporters upon his arrival, saying it’s not the sort of thing Kamala Harris would do:
Reporters traveling with the vice-president to Grand Rapids said she spoke to them before going onstage.
A key message of Kamala Harris to voters in Michigan today was encouraging them to cast ballots when early voting begins next Saturday.
“Election Day is in 18 short days, okay? And here in Michigan, early voting starts on Saturday, October 26, which is one week from tomorrow,” the vice-president said as she concluded her speech.
“Now is the time to make your plan to vote. Make a plan.”
Unions have long played an outsized role in Michigan, particularly when it comes to its automotive industry.
Kamala Harris has focused much of her speech on how she would be more friendly to organized labor than Donald Trump.
“Make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor,” the vice-president said. She continued:
He encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so he could pay they could pay their workers less. Understand what that was about, so they could pay their workers less. And when the [United Auto Workers (UAW)] went on strike to demand the higher wages they deserved, Donald Trump went to a non-union shop and attacked the UAW, and he said, he said, striking and collective bargaining don’t make ‘a damn bit of sense’.
“Strong unions mean higher wages, better healthcare and greater dignity for union members and for everyone, whether or not you are part of a union: get that straight,” she said.
Harris whacks Trump over reports he canceled interviews due to ‘exhaustion’
Kamala Harris seized on reports that Donald Trump had backed out of interviews because he was “exhausted”, saying that they were proof he is not up to the job of being president.
“He has no plan for how he would address the needs of the American people, and he is, as we have seen, only focused on himself, and now he is ducking debates and canceling interviews,” Harris told the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“And check this out. His own campaign team recently said it is because of exhaustion. Well, if you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world.”
