Former President Donald Trump, speaking at the National Guard Association’s annual conference in Detroit on Monday, told National Guard officers that the world faces unprecedented dangers and positioned himself as uniquely capable of thwarting the threats facing the United States.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to World War III than we are right now,” Trump said. He told the audience that serving as commander in chief had been the honor of his lifetime and called Harris an advocate of “endless wars” on the same day that her Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, supported President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.
If elected, Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine that erupted after Russian aggression, declaring himself the only person in the campaign who could make that promise. He also vowed to secure higher payments from NATO countries, saying the US was missing out on huge amounts of money on European defence and that current payments from NATO countries were “the bill of the century”.
Trump also spoke about domestic threats facing the United States, repeating his past claims that political opponents are using the government as a weapon to imprison their enemies, an apparent reference to Trump’s 34 felony convictions and pending criminal cases. Trump reiterated his promise to close the southern US border and described illegal immigration into the US as an “invasion.”
Responding to the speech, Amar Moosa, Harris’s director of emergency preparedness, said, “While President Trump cannot keep us safe, Vice President Harris is a proven leader on the world stage and will use her expertise to keep America safe, defeat our enemies, and stand with our allies around the world.”
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Trump’s visit to the Motor City will be his seventh this year in Michigan, where he is locked in a close race with Democratic presidential candidate Harris in the battleground state, with Ms Harris leading Mr Trump by nearly 3 percentage points as of Monday, according to an average of 538 polls on the Internet.
Trump’s last campaign rally in Michigan was in Grand Rapids late last month, his first since the assassination attempt on him. Since then, Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, have held smaller rallies in Michigan with police present.
Musician Kid Rock, one of Trump’s biggest supporters, introduced the president wearing a red “Keep America Great” hat, and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who became a Trump ally, also took to the stage on Monday to endorse Trump.
Trump’s speech venue, Huntington Place, is the same venue where four years ago his supporters banged on a window outside a room where Detroit election officials were counting absentee ballots from the city’s voters, demanding that the vote count be halted. Trump supporters are again rallying here this year to act as election officials and challengers.
After his speech in Detroit, Trump made a brief stop at his campaign office in Roseville, Macomb County, where volunteers greeted him with applause and supporters lined the streets chanting his name.
“I had a great campaign in 2016, but I’ve had an even better campaign in 2020. Think about it,” he told the small audience inside the venue. Despite his loss four years ago, he said he feels even more enthusiastic about his candidacy this year.
He questioned the legitimacy of Ms. Harris’ late entry into the race after she formally accepted the party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Ms. Harris did not respond to a question posed by the Free Press whether she would accept the results of the upcoming election.
Trump blasted Harris with the same attack lines he has honed against his new opponent since she entered the race, while also returning to a familiar promise: “We will make America great again, better than it’s ever been,” Trump said.
He encouraged volunteers to enjoy the pizza the campaign handed out and vowed to return, but also said the whole group could come to Mar-a-Lago if he won in November.
Before departing for Michigan on Monday, Trump spent the morning at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to mark three years since a terrorist attack outside Kabul airport left 13 U.S. soldiers and more than 100 Afghan civilians dead. Trump on Monday sought to link Harris to Biden’s handling of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, but it was unclear how Harris, as vice president, might influence Biden’s strategy.
Trump said Harris and Biden had “humiliated themselves in Afghanistan” and that the withdrawal threatened America’s credibility around the world.
In a statement paying tribute to the US soldiers who died in a terrorist attack three years ago, Harris expressed support for President Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. “As I have said, President Biden has made the courageous and right decision to end the longest war in American history. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated that we can eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaida and ISIS, without sending troops to combat zones. I will not hesitate to take all actions necessary to counter the terrorist threat and protect the American people and our homeland,” Harris said.
Biden thanked the National Guard in a video during a virtual rally on Monday. “Simply put, we owe you,” he said. Biden ended his campaign against Trump this summer and endorsed Harris as his replacement following a disastrous debate performance that prompted Democrats to call for Biden to drop out of the campaign. The last-minute upheaval in the presidential race has forced the Trump campaign to adapt to a new opponent.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter). @clarajanehen.