WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump tried to boost select Michigan candidates running for secretary of state, attorney general and the Legislature Saturday in a nearly two-hour address that aimed to cement his influence in the Michigan GOP.
Three weeks ahead of the Michigan Republican nominating convention, Trump criticized Michigan’s 2020 election as “rigged” and encouraged supporters to ask each state candidate at the April 23 nominating convention “if they will support the Trump ticket.”
“If they won’t give you that assurance, don’t give them your vote,” he said to a crowd of more than 5,000 people at the Michigan Stars Sport Center in Washington Township. Thousands of other attendees stood outside, mirroring the crowds Trump attracted at that location while president in 2018 and 2020.
Candidates and officials reinforced Trump’s message, boosting his permanence in the Republican Party and repeating unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Donald Trump is still the leader of this party,” said Matt DePerno, Trump’s pick for attorney general. “And Donald Trump has come here today and said to every one of you delegates, support Matt DePerno. Support Kristina Karamo.
“…This right here is the continuation of the MAGA movement.”
Current precinct delegates were peppered throughout the crowd as Trump pushed them to support his candidates of choice and attacked those running against his candidates, calling former House Speaker and attorney general hopeful Tom Leonard a RINO.
“He’s a RINO,” Trump said of Leonard. “He’s not going to do a damn thing.”
Trump also took aim at Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and state Attorney General Dana Nessel, all Democrats, on issues that included state-order shutdown during the pandemic, the threatened closure of Line 5 and decisions Benson made ahead of the election.
He pinged Benson for her mailing of unsolicited ballot applications to Michigan voters, signature verification guidance that was overturned by a judge post-election, and the acceptance of third party donations toward election operations.
“Republicans must get tough and smart and not let them get away with the crime of the century,” Trump said.
More than 200 audits by local clerks, several court rulings and a Senate investigation into the 2020 election have upheld the results in Michigan, where President Joe Biden pulled ahead of Trump by about 154,000. Additionally, while a judge did overturn Benson’s signature verification guidance on administrative grounds, other courts upheld Benson’s mailing of ballot applications and the acceptance of third party donations.
Trump also zeroed in on federal issues for a large portion of the address, calling for the ouster of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as he described a country in desperate straits under Biden heading into the midterm elections.
Trump criticized the resettling of Afghan refugees in Michigan as he hammered Biden's Afghanistan military withdrawal.
“The stakes of this year’s midterm election could not be higher," Trump said. "I don’t know of a time we’ve ever felt so low, so dejected. And we have a president who has no idea what’s going on.”
“The choice this November is very simple: If you want high crime, high prices, high taxes, high corruption and high incompetence, vote for radical Democrats,” Trump said. “If you want a country that is strong, sovereign, solvent, safe and secure, you must vote for America-first Republicans.”
Later in his speech, he promised if Republicans retook the U.S. House and Senate that they would "immediately" end "every single COVID mandate."
Trump reminded the crowd that Whitmer's husband tried to use his position to get a boat in the water in May 2020 during the early depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The owner of a Northern Michigan dock company said Marc Mallory placed the boat in the water before the Memorial Day weekend as Whitmer urged residents not to rush to the region.
"...He could go ice skating," Trump said. "He could do whatever.”
“I want to see what this guy looks like,” Trump said of Whitmer’s husband. “He must be a handsome son of a bitch to get away with that.”
Whitmer defended her husband by saying he "made a failed attempt at humor."
Trump accused Biden and Whitmer of imposing rules on everyday citizens "that they did not abide by themselves." In May 2021, Whitmer apologized after a photo emerged showing her at a restaurant with 12 other people gathered around tables pushed together in violation of her health department's epidemic order.
"They totally failed on the pandemic, and now they are trying to walk away from COVID like nothing happened," the former president said.
The Whitmer administration has pointed at studies estimating that thousands of lives were saved by her early stay home orders. But since the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Whitmer's emergency powers unconstitutional in October 2020, the Democratic incumbent has gradually shifted away from public epidemic health orders.
An early focus on his prepared speech hit his trademark issue of immigration, especially Afghan refugees. Michigan officials said in September that up to 1,300 Afghan allies and nationals are expected to be resettled in the state.
“Let there be no doubt the Biden administration is resetting this humongous wave of illegal aliens in communities like yours all across America,” Trump said of the Afghanistan refugees.
He claimed without evidence that "thousands of unvetted, unscreened Afghan refugees" are being resettled all over Michigan.
The Biden administration has a screening process that critics have blamed for keeping some Afghan refugees overseas. A group of 69 Afghan refugees with connections to Michigan State University arrived in the United States from Albania after they narrowly escaped the Taliban last August when President Biden withdrew remaining U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
"If any part of our country is going to be turned into a migrant camp, it should not be the communities of hardworking Americans," Trump said. "It should be the neighborhoods of the radical left politicians.
“What ever happened to the American Dream?” he added.
The former president suggested Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan — "the way we ran” — may have contributed to Russia’s decision to attack Ukraine. Trump has similarly fought with his military advisers about expediting the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan but ultimately didn't withdraw all of them.
“Who would ever thought this was going to happen?” Trump said, adding that he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was using 150,000 soldiers at the Russia-Ukraine border as a negotiating tactic. “I said, ‘Oh, he's gonna make a great deal.' And he could have made a great deal," the former president said.
“With Ukraine, I sent the javelins,” referring to weaponry, “and Obama sent the blankets,” Trump said.
The former president then pivot to Line 5, the 68-year-old pipeline that carries about 540,000 barrels of light crude and natural gas liquids that serve as a propane source to the Upper Peninsula and lower Michigan after it is processed in Sarnia, Ontario.
“They're trying to shut down Michigan's Line 5, you know this right?” Trump said.
Whitmer and Nessel, who is also running for reelection, have sought to shut down Line 5 in federal and state courts. Legal proceedings have dragged as Canadian officials have sought talks with Biden administration officials because they argue closing the pipeline would violate a treaty.
“But they tried to shut down Line 5 pipeline that provides 55% of all propane gas in the state of Michigan,” Trump said. “They want to close it. What the hell are they gonna do when it's closed? It's crazy.”
Environmental allies of Whitmer have argued that supplies of fuel could be maintained with a minimal increase in price.
Trump swung around to his endorsements about 40 minutes into his speech, bringing his endorsed secretary of state hopeful Kristina Karamo on stage. He repeated his accusation that Michigan's election was stolen from him.
Biden won Michigan 51%-48%, or by more than 154,000 votes, a result that was confirmed by dozens of audits, a series of court decisions and a Republican-led Senate Oversight Committee report. But Trump attacked Benson for a "corrupt election."
The former president criticized Benson for mailing out 7.7 million unsolicited absentee ballot applications to registered voters, "including people that were dead, and those who no longer live in the state. Other than that it was wonderful.”
"You're guaranteed to have a corrupt election, with your radical Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson,” Trump said. He later called Benson a “socialist” and Nessel “lawless.”
“Kristina is running for secretary of state to clean up Michigan's election for us to deliver citizenship confirmation, residency, confirmation, little things like that,” Trump said, calling Karamo back to the podium.
“I am so excited to be your next secretary of state, to make sure that no matter who you vote for what you believe your vote counts and your vote is not nullified by an illegal ballot,” Karamo said.
“Feel good about your vote. Someone voted for you,” Trump joked to Karamo.
Trump argued that Republican voters prefer to vote on election day, and called for a return to that system. Michigan has had no-reason absentee voting after a 2018 vote of the people.
Trump then introduced DePerno, whom he described as “hated by politicians — the weak ones, the RINOs.”
Trump called Leonard, who lost to Nessel by less than 3 percentage points in 2018, a "RINO" or Republican in name only, though he admitted he didn’t know him.
DePerno called Trump “the greatest president in the history of this country.”
“In the spring of 2020 Gov. Whitmer shut down our state, and some of us stood up and fought against it and never submitted to tyranny,” DePerno said. “If elected as Attorney General we will change this in this state we will restore this state, back to what it once was, a constitutional republic. I will return the office back to the law firm for the people.”
Saturday’s visit came three weeks ahead of the Michigan Republican nominating convention in Grand Rapids, where precinct delegates will choose which GOP candidates for secretary of state and attorney general will advance to the November elections. They also will select two nominees for the State Board of Education, the Michigan Supreme Court, as well as the Michigan State, Wayne State and University of Michigan boards.
Saturday night's speech marked the first time the former president has visited Michigan since his election eve November 2020 campaign visit to the state.
Nessel apologized in November and admitted to drinking alcohol to the point of feeling sick and having to be helped out of the Oct. 30 football game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
Michigan Democrats on Friday slammed the former president ahead of his visit, calling Trump a "failed salesman trying to peddle his right-wing extremism to an electorate that already rejected him."
“Michiganders know that Republicans cannot move their state forward, and that’s why they’ll reelect Gov. Whitmer, Attorney General Nessel, and Secretary of State Benson in 2022," said Lavora Barnes, chairwoman for the Michigan Democratic Party.
