WASHINGTON — Donald Trump did more than perform his greatest hits Saturday night in Arizona, revving up his loyalists with claims of anti-white discrimination and contending that no U.S. election is legitimate unless Republicans count the votes.
The former president is the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, meaning his first rally of 2022 portends a potential campaign based — even more than his first two White House bids — on unfounded conspiracy theories and volatile claims about race.
Despite headlines about Trump “reaffirming” his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats, even by his own standards, his remarks at his Florence, Ariz., rally went to politically and culturally dark places.
