Donald Trump appeared on stage with a local imam and an Arab-American mayor at his rally in suburban Detroit, and said the influential group of voters they represent could swing the election in his favor.
“I am delighted to accept the endorsement of these highly respected leaders,” Trump said, as he brought Imam Belal Alzuhairi on stage. Also speaking was Bill Bazzi, the mayor of Dearborn Heights, who was born in Lebanon.
“We, as Muslims, support President Trump because he promises peace, not war,” Alzuhairi told the crowd of a few thousand, who cheered loudly. ‘The bloodshed has to stop around the world. And I believe this man can make that happen. “Personally, I believe that God saved his life twice for a reason,” he said to applause.
Trump also spoke of the political influence of Muslim and Arab Americans, who number an estimated 200,000 in the state of Michigan.
“They could swing the election one way or another,” Trump said.
It was just a dramatic moment at a campaign rally where Trump also attempted to clean up his insulting comments about the Motor City.
Trump appeared with Arab American and Muslim leaders after winning some key endorsements. He said the groups of voters they represent could “turn the election around.”
On Saturday he said he meant the city “needs help” when he ran through Detroit during a speech in the Motor City.
‘He needs help. So I said I needed help,” Trump said in Novi, referring to his speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
“I can’t be sure,” he explained. ‘I will be positive; In two years I will be a positive person, what do you think?’
He had previously called the city a “disaster” and compared it to a developing country. “Detroit is more of a developing area than most places in China,” he said. That was before he called the country a “garbage can,” a comment he repeated Saturday, pointing to illegal immigration.
Trump spoke to several thousand supporters at the Suburban Collection Showplace. He hopes to reduce traditional Democratic support not only among Arab-Americans but also with the help of union members and others working in the auto industry, which he claims he would revive.
After criticizing former Rep. Liz Cheney, who backs Kamala Harris, as a “warmonger,” Trump said of Arab and Muslim voters: “They’re not interested in transgender operations.” They don’t like men who play women’s sports.
Trump claimed that Harris would lead the country to war and threatened: “Your sons and daughters will end up being drafted.”
“The bloodshed has to stop around the world, and I believe this man can make that happen,” said Imam Belal Alzuhairi, who spoke at the Trump rally.
Attendees applauded as Trump criticized Kamala Harris and said she would return the auto industry to greatness.
He also mocked Harris for relying on celebrities to fill her campaign rallies and called for a return to voting on the same day, even as she claimed she was winning in Michigan early voting that began Saturday.
“They have to use people to get people to come,” Trump said, without mentioning the names of Beyoncé and Willie Nelson, who appeared with Harris on Friday night, or Bruce Springsteen, who performed at his rally on Thursday. .
“They booed everyone so much. “They thought she was going to act,” Trump said.
He also accused Harris of bringing in celebrities to boost attendance after she surpassed 20,000 people at the largest rally of the entire campaign in Houston.
“We don’t send buses, everyone comes,” Trump said, although a line of coaches and school buses took people to and from his rally in Traverse City on Friday.
Once again, Trump did not skimp on insulting his rival. He said she “can’t talk,” “destroyed” everything she touched and is a “stupid person.”
The comments delighted the crowd at the rally, but have the potential to hurt Trump among independents and other influential suburban women.
“I love it because we’re already ahead in early voting, something no Republican has done in Michigan since they adopted this ridiculous system,” Trump boasted.
He then criticized the extension of the vote. “Just have one-day voting, voter ID, paper ballots,” Trump said, “and you know what you won’t have any problems.”
He said it would cost only 8 percent and you would get a result at nine or nine-thirty and that “nothing happens in heaven.”
That comment seemed to suggest high-tech vote switching, which was at the center of fraud complaints from Trump allies in 2020 that resulted in a massive settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
It follows reports that Trump will again declare victory on election night, even as votes are still being counted.
Both Trump and Harris were fully engaged in the battle for Michigan Saturday, with the candidates campaigning miles apart with the presidency on the line, and a popular former first lady joining the race.
The long lines at early voting centers in Kalamazoo were so numerous that voters turned around in wait times of an hour and a half.
Trump made the rare decision to give up his own bed and spend the night in Detroit after his Friday night rally in Traverse City, northern Michigan, started nearly three hours late following the extensive interview in Trump podcast with Joe Rogan.
He gathered thousands of supporters at an indoor venue in Novi, suburban Detroit, and polls showed a close race in Michigan and the seven battleground states.
‘This campaign is on fire, you can feel it!’ said Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, energizing the crowd at Trump’s rally in Novi, a Detroit suburb.
Harris will hold a campaign rally with Michelle Obama at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo later Saturday, the first day of early voting in the state.
She is considered a beloved campaign “closer” who had Democrats on their feet at the party’s convention in Chicago in August.
Trump will hold another rally in State College, Pennsylvania, later Saturday.
It is the debut of the 2024 campaign for the former first lady, one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party and a dream candidate to replace Joe Biden, 81.
Harris supporters began lining up early on the cool fall day for a chance to participate in the Democratic presidential candidate’s rally.
The event puts Harris about 100 miles away from Trump. There were already lines around the block.
She will return to the state on Monday, her campaign just announced, with a rally also billed as a concert with singer Maggie Rogers in Ann Arbor.
That event is a clear measure to try to increase the score among young voters, who had been moving away from the Democrats with Biden in the lead.
Now, Harris is relying on young voters and women to overcome Trump’s gains among minority men and a wild card of the state’s roughly 200,000 Arab American voters.
California Rep. Darrell Issa referenced the Arab-Israeli conflict “like an Arab American” in his remarks to the Novi crowd.
He said the peace process “is in ruins today (and) can only be restored by a return to the kind of compromise we saw during the four years of Trump.” Issa’s father was the son of Lebanese immigrants.
Steven Miller, a longtime Trump adviser, pointed to the electoral support Trump was gaining from Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan.
“It’s going to break all kinds of records,” Miller told the crowd in Novi. “That’s one more reason why Michigan is going to win.”
More than 1.4 million people have already voted in Michigan even before in-person early voting began Saturday, according to tracking by the University of Florida Election Laboratory.
A long line of Harris supporters waiting to enter her rally with Michelle Obama in Kalamazoo, MI, on Saturday.
Even President Joe Biden is getting in on the act, flying to Pittsburgh even after making a rhetorical stumble at his last event, in the surprisingly nearby state of New Hampshire. It was there that he said “lock him up” when talking about Trump, and then backed away from the comment to say “politically.”
Biden was asked before boarding Air Force One about Trump’s comments comparing the United States to a “garbage can.”
“Trump has no class,” Biden responded, keeping his response clean.
The race in Michigan couldn’t be much closer. Polls show a virtual tie, with Trump leading by just a few tenths of a percent in the RealClearPolitics average.
After accusing Harris of taking things slow and spending time preparing for television appearances, Trump plans to immediately travel to State College, Pennsylvania, where he will hold a huge rally in another battleground state that is a pure disaster.
Taking a page from John McCain’s playbook in his race against Barack Obama, Trump is trying to use Harris’ string of celebrity appearances against him.
On Friday night, he accused his rival of “partying” as Israel attacked Iran amid continuing fears of an expanding conflict in the Middle East.
He had been accepting high-profile endorsements from singer Beyoncé Knowles, who talked but didn’t act.
The vice president focused her speech on reproductive rights and a series of speakers shared deeply personal stories of women facing Texas’ abortion ban.