The Grand Rapids event will be Trump and Vance’s first rally as running mates and underscores the Trump team’s hopes that Vance’s Ohio upbringing and populist message will help them win the neighbouring swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Accepting his nomination for vice president at the GOP convention in Milwaukee this past week, Vance took the stage to Merle Haggard’s “America First” and told a story of family hardship in a small town.
Saturday’s rally is taking place with extra safety precautions. The event was moved indoors after the shooting at an open-air event because an arena is easier to secure, The Washington Post previously reported, and Trump’s campaign does not expect to hold any more outdoor rallies soon. Secret Service sought additional help from local law enforcement as well.
“They will be on heightened security obviously,” Kent County commissioner Walter Bujak told The Post. “They’re going to dot the i’s and cross the t’s for this one.”
Trump’s campaign signalled in an event advisory that the former president will focus on Biden’s economic and border policies, attacking him for inflation and an influx of undocumented immigrants during his term.
Biden’s campaign held a news conference Saturday ahead of the Grand Rapids rally to assail Trump’s agenda, saying it would hurt workers while giving breaks to the wealthy. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) shared a video with her “welcome” message for Trump and Vance, saying that “here, we protect reproductive freedom” and making other digs at Trump’s policies.
But Democrats’ own turmoil has been a growing distraction. A dozen more Democratic lawmakers called on Biden to pull out of the presidential race on Friday alone, indicating a party still deeply unsettled by Biden’s struggle to hold his train of thought at a June 27 debate and other stumbles.
A bout of Covid-19 has also taken Biden off the campaign trail while Trump and Vance plan a bundle of events coming out of the Republican convention.
On Monday afternoon, Vance will hold a rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. Then he will head to a Monday evening rally in Radford, Va. – a signal of the Trump campaign’s continued efforts to expand the map of competitive states to places where Democrats usually prevail in the presidential race. Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020.
Trump plans to speak at a rally in Charlotte on Wednesday evening.
Trump, appearing at the convention with a bandage on his ear, used his speech to call for unity after last week’s rally shooting. “The discord and division in our society must be healed,” he said.
But after recounting the assassination attempt and attributing his survival to divine intervention, Trump mostly returned to his usual material. He jabbed at “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and alluded to his false claims the 2020 election was stolen from him – “that horrible, horrible result that we’ll never let happen again.”
