DETROIT — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaigned in a trio of traditionally Democratic leaning Michigan cities Friday, attempting to win over Arab American voters and saying he could bring a “real comeback” for Detroit.
At his final stop of the day, Trump spoke at a rally inside the Huntington Place riverfront convention center in Detroit. The event came a week after he told another crowd in the city, the whole country “will end up being like Detroit” if Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris wins the Nov. 5 election.
Trump’s remarks drew criticism from Democrats. But Trump contended Friday that bad economic policies had “decimated” Detroit “as if by a foreign army.” The former president said while others have been talking about Detroit’s “comeback,” there will be a “stunning rebirth” for the city, which emerged from the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history 10 years ago, if he gets another term in the White House.
“This is the real comeback,” Trump said. “This isn’t artificial stuff.”
The crowd inside Huntington Place featured a few thousand people. Some of them held signs that said, “Make Detroit Great Again.”
Trump promised to make Detroit more powerful as an automobile capital than it was in its heyday 60 years ago. Yet, the number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan declined during Trump’s first term — including before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At one point, Trump’s microphone stopped working for more than 10 minutes. The big screens inside the convention center ballroom described the situation as “technical difficulties” and “complicated business.”
Also, Trump made appearances in Hamtramck and Auburn Hills on Friday. He labeled Harris, “not a smart person” and touted his plans to use tariffs on products imported into the U.S. to boost auto manufacturing in places like Michigan. Trump fawned over the word “tariff,” calling it a “beautiful word.”
“I think it’s more beautiful than love, the word tariff,” Trump said while speaking inside an Auburn Hills business.
The former president’s plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport at about 2:30 p.m. Moments later, he told reporters that receiving the endorsement of Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, who is Muslim and a Yemeni immigrant, was a “great honor.”
Asked about Arab Americans’ support, Trump said of Harris, “I don’t think they’re going to be voting her because she doesn’t know what she’s doing. I don’t see them voting for her. I don’t see a lot of people voting her. She’s not a smart person.”
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly called Harris, the nation’s first female vice president, “stupid” and “dumb as a rock” and said she was “born” mentally impaired.
In a statement Friday, Lavora Barnes, chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said Detroiters had rejected Trump four years ago. In the 2020 election, 94% of voters in Detroit supported Democrat Joe Biden, while 5% backed Trump.
Without providing evidence to support his accusations, Trump claimed that there was fraud in Detroit’s election and he called the city “totally corrupt.”
“Tonight, Trump will lie to Detroiters and Michiganders to try to make them forget how he degraded and endangered this great city — but we’re not falling for it,” Barnes said. “Michiganders know that Trump is nothing but empty words and broken promises.”
Detroiter Carol Murphy attended Trump’s rally at Huntington Place. She said Trump’s recent comments that Harris would turn other cities into a rundown Detroit didn’t bother her. She said Trump was right about the city’s problems.
Murphy said the former president was criticizing Harris more than Detroit.
“The Democrats ran down Detroit,” Murphy said. “We can’t keep electing the same people and expect different results.”
Stopping in Hamtramck
Trump’s visit to Hamtramck, where he spoke at a Republican campaign office, came as an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas continues to loom over the presidential race in Michigan. The state has over 300,000 residents of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Some Arab American voters in Michigan have demanded Biden’s administration secure a permanent cease-fire and halt arms sales to Israel.
But while speaking to reporters on the Detroit Metro Airport tarmac Friday, Trump said Biden was trying to hold back Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. “He probably should be doing the opposite,” said Trump, who did not elaborate
In Hamtramck, a historically Polish enclave surrounded by Detroit that has become a magnet for other immigrants, Trump spoke briefly inside a Republican political office that’s being run by the Oakland County GOP.
Hamtramck has a diverse population of about 28,000 people. For about 70% of its residents, languages other than English are spoken in their homes, according to U.S. Census data. In January 2022, an all Muslim city council began serving in the city.
Ghalib asked Trump to respond to claims, the mayor said, the Democrats were making that he would “come and deport” Hamtramck residents. More than 42% of Hamtramck’s residents are foreign born, according to the Census Bureau.
“Fake news,” Trump replied.
“They never stop,” he added about Democrats.
About 80 people were in the Hamtramck office for the speech by Trump, who spoke in front of Trump signs that were posted on the walls. At one point, someone in the crowd shouted, “We trust you.”
Brian Pannebecker, a retired auto worker from Macomb County and the founder of Auto Workers for Trump, also spoke at the event in Hamtramck. He cited the saying “walk softly but carry a big stick” that was popularized by President Theodore Roosevelt.
“Nobody’s got a bigger stick than this guy right here,” Pannebecker said. “When he starts waving it around, people listen.”
‘A little Arab blood in you?’
At one point Friday, Trump said he was surprised that Pannebecker knew about the large number of Hamtramck residents who work in auto plants. General Motors Co.’s electric vehicle assembly plant, Factory Zero, straddles both Detroit and Hamtramck.
“Do you have a little Arab blood in you?” Trump asked Pannebecker.
“These guys are good workers,” Pannebecker replied.
In a social media post Friday, state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, a Democrat from Hamtramck, blasted Trump.
“Donald Trump has never done a damn thing for working families in Detroit and Hamtramck,” Aiyash wrote on X. “He is a lying, xenophobic, self-serving man who is unfit and unworthy of serving as POTUS.”
In the February Democratic primary in Michigan, 101,623 ballots were cast for “uncommitted, in protest of Biden’s support of Israel in the war with Hamas. In Hamtramck, “uncommitted” got more votes than Biden in the presidential primary.
Harris has defended Biden’s policies supporting Israel, while Democrats in the Uncommitted Movement have continued to withhold their support for her candidacy but said they would mobilize to defeat Trump in the Nov. 5 election. Harris has said Israel has right to defend itself while saying she and Biden were working to end the war in Gaza and to ensure Israel is secure, hostages are released and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security and freedom.
Harris also campaigned in Michigan on Friday with stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Waterford Township.
Michigan’s ‘the whole ballgame’
Michigan, with 15 electoral votes, is among seven battleground states expected to determine whether Harris or Trump leads the country for the next four years.
Four years ago, Biden won Michigan over Trump by 3 percentage points, 51% to 48%. But in 2016, Trump was victorious in the state, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by about two tenths of a percentage point, 47.5% to 47.3%, or about 10,700 votes.
Terrence Carter,a 41-year-old Detroiter who attended Trump’s Huntington Place rally, said the biggest issues in the presidential race are the needs to stop inflation and foreign wars. He believes Trump will do a better job with those issues than Harris.
Carter said he also likes Trump’s bluntness, saying he tells it like it is more so than any other president.
“History speaks for itself,” Carter said about the former president’s truthfulness. “He needs to win. I know he would make the better candidate.”
After visiting Hamtramck, Trump participated in an early evening roundtable conversation at Engineering Design Services Inc. in Auburn Hills. The discussion was supposed to focus on manufacturing but touched on food safety, the pharmaceutical industry and Trump’s plan to institute the death penalty for people who kill police officers.
At the Huntington Place rally, Pannebecker, who spoke before Trump, promoted unproven claims of widespread fraud in Michigan’s 2020 election. Huntington Place, which was then known as TCF Center, was where Detroit’s absentee ballots were counted and saw protests in November 2020.
“The cheating that went on was unbelievable,” Pannebecker said. “I witnessed it with my own eyes.”
During Trump’s remarks, former professional boxer Thomas Hearns and rapper Trick Trick briefly appeared on stage with him.
During his remarks in Hamtramck, Trump highlighted auto plants that he claimed were being planned for Mexico but have since been scrapped.
“What I’ve done is I’ve saved Michigan,” Trump told the crowd in Hamtramck.
In Detroit, Trump added that if he wins Michigan on Nov. 5, “we win the whole ballgame.”
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(Detroit News staff writer Francis X. Donnelly contributed to this story.)
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