Trump returns to campaign trail with Michigan town hall : NPR

FLINT, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump, in his first public appearance since a thwarted assassination attempt on Sunday, continued to offer an inconsistent but dire outlook for what America will be like if he doesn’t win the November presidential election.

Speaking at a town hall in Flint with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, Trump pointed to threats against him, including the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, as evidence of the strength of his policy proposals such as tariffs on foreign-made cars.

“You know, the only person who gets shot is the president, who matters,” he said. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, right? If you don’t have the courage, you’re not going to have a country.”

Trump said he discussed with Vice President Kamala Harris the incident on Sunday in which a man with a lengthy criminal record allegedly pointed a rifle over a fence a few holes from where he was playing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“I got a very nice call from Kamala a little while ago,” he said. “Very nice, very nice call. I appreciate it, but we have to take our country back. We have to win. We will win, and we will Make America Great Again.”

Trump delivered a lengthy monologue about his relationships with foreign leaders, turnout numbers and why his comments were “genius” rather than incoherent, and also took three questions from the audience.

“What do you see as the main threat to the future of jobs for auto manufacturing workers in Michigan, and what would you do to eliminate it?” asked Isaiah, a Ford worker.

Trump began his response by saying the only big threat is an enemy country having nuclear weapons, then transitioned to talking points from Biden’s speech, including his call about the assassination attempt, that global warming is a “good thing” because it creates more land by the sea, and that the US is closer to World War III. Trump ultimately said he would impose tariffs on Mexico and China, and that he would meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment to confirm the meeting, which had not previously been reported. Modi is due to visit Delaware this weekend to attend summits with the leaders of Australia and Japan hosted by President Biden.

During a 10-minute monologue in which Sanders said his audience would vote for Trump in November’s election, Trump also mislocated Bagram Air Base, saying it was in Alaska, while talking about oil drilling and withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.

With just seven weeks to go until Election Day, the Trump campaign has been mixing up its messaging following last week’s presidential debate.

President Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has come under fire for spreading the false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, a claim that has drawn intense negative attention to the southwestern Ohio city, including multiple bomb threats and the cancellation of numerous events.

Harris said, Panel Interview In a statement released Tuesday, the National Association of Black Journalists said lies about Haitian immigrants are rooted in racist tropes and are a “deplorable embarrassment.”

“When you’re given such a big microphone, there’s a big responsibility that comes with it,” Harris said.

The Trump campaign has sought to highlight Harris’s shifting stance on a number of issues and her attempts to distance herself from Biden’s unpopularity on the economy and immigration, but Trump used the metaphorical microphone in a way that obscured that message.

For example, after Taylor Swift denied endorsing Harris and reposted a fake AI-generated image to imply she supported his candidacy, Trump posted on his Truth Social website: “I hate Taylor Swift!”

President Trump heads to Long Island on Wednesday for another campaign rally.