Trump revels in campaign trail return after shooting

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Despite promising during his nomination acceptance speech during last week’s Republican National Convention not to keep revisiting his assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump relived the moment during his first post-shooting rally in Grand Rapids.

“It was exactly a week ago today almost to the hour, almost to the minute,” Trump told a crowd of 13,000 people Saturday in downtown Grand Rapids to chants of “fight, fight, fight,” the same words he uttered before Secret Service ushered him off the stage to safety seven days ago in Butler, Pennsylvania.

When the crowd started booing members of the news media who were present at Trump’s mention, the former president discouraged them, contending that the attempt on his life was covered fairly.

“They keep saying, ‘He’s a threat to democracy,’” he said. “I’m saying, ‘What the hell did I do for democracy? Last week I took a bullet for democracy! What did I do against democracy?’ Crazy.”

Trump, who now has a smaller bandage covering where the bullet grazed his ear, shared with the crowd that he had telephone discussions with Elon Musk, who announced his endorsement of the former president this week. The SpaceX CEO also committed to donating $45 million to his campaign a month, revealing that he does not have a problem with the Republican presidential nominee’s position against electric vehicles, a hot-button issue in Michigan. Trump also welcomed Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of his classified documents case in Florida, claiming, “When you have honorable judges … good things can happen.”

Thousands of people were outside the Van Andel Arena by 9 a.m. Saturday, hours before Trump was scheduled to speak at 5 p.m., expecting stricter security after last week. The indoor venue can be compared with the outdoor Butler Farm Show, which experts describe as a soft target for attacks, such as the one that unfolded.

A week after Secret Service agents, who have been criticized since the shooting, put themselves between Trump and a possible second bullet, the group outside repeatedly cheered and applauded passing police officers.

The second promise Trump broke during his convention address was his aides’ pledge that he would not say President Joe Biden‘s name. Trump made no such promise for Saturday, mocking Democrats for reconsidering the incumbent as their nominee in a county the former president won in 2016 but lost in 2020.

“It’s sort of interesting, this guy goes and he gets the votes and now they want to take it away,” he said of the primary. “That’s democracy. They talk about democracy, ‘Let’s take it away from him’.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), among the rumored Democrats who could replace Biden as the party’s nominee should he decide to step aside, responded to Trump and Vance’s appearance in Michigan in a video, reiterating that her state is for abortion access, lowering costs, and workers’ rights.

“Oh, and one more thing, Michigan is going to reject your extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Whitmer said, referring to policies proposed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Distancing himself from Project 2025 as a plan of the “severe right,” Trump quipped that he would rather run against Whitmer, conducting a poll of the crowd regarding who should be the Democratic nominee.

“I’d like to run against her,” he said, reminding the crowd that Whitmer’s husband could do “whatever he wanted” during her COVID-19 lockdown.

Trump was introduced by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), his running mate, who spoke twice during his campaign trail debut Saturday.

“You’re going to be a fantastic vice president of the United States,” Trump said. “I chose him because he’s for the worker, he is for the people who work so hard.”

During his historically long prime-time acceptance remarks Thursday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, Trump told that arena that “the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.”

“So many people have asked me what happened, ‘Tell us what happened please,’ and therefore I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell,” he said.

After announcing that $6.3 million had been raised for the families of the victims of the Butler rally, including Corey Comperatore, the former fire department chief who was killed, Trump alluded to a chart with immigration statistics. The Republican presidential nominee has taken to projecting the chart at his rallies, and turning toward it last week caused the bullet to sideswipe his head instead of pierce his skull.

“Last time I put up that chart, I didn’t really get to look at it,” he said. “Without that chart, I would not be here today.”

Trump has cemented his position in the 2024 race against Biden as Democrats openly discuss replacing the president as their nominee. Trump leads Biden in Michigan by an average of 2 percentage points, in Pennsylvania by 4.5 points, and Wisconsin by 3.5 points, according to RealClearPolitics.