This was Donald Trump’s first rally following both the failed assassination attempt on July 13 and the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, where he and James D. Vance were officially confirmed as the Republican Party’s president and vice president nominees, respectively.

The rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan was held indoors to improve security – the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania was an open-air event, which allowed 20 year-old Thomas M. Crooks to shoot at Trump from the roof of a nearby building.

“Four hours here – we got here at nine o’clock. I know some people stayed the night… [and] slept on the cement,” Kayden told Harbingers’ Magazine soon after the gates opened. Wearing a military camouflage MAGA hat, the 20 year-old Michigan local was likely to bag one of the stadium’s 12,000 seats.

Those towards the end of the three-mile line stretching through the centre of town would not get to see Trump in person.

Michigan, with 15 votes in the electoral college, will be a key swing state in the election on November 5. The state’s manufacturing plants have been heavily impacted by economic decline in recent decades, and Trump attempted to shore up votes by attacking foreign car makers.

Trump appeared on stage on time, soon after 5pm. Immediately noticeable was that this time, his right ear was covered with a smaller bandage than the one he wore at the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where an ear patch became a trend among Trump supporters.

The latest fashion statement at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was the donning of fake ear bandages, a symbolic gesture of support for nominee Donald Trump by Arizona delegateshttps://t.co/7pCVXOeNk2 pic.twitter.com/x7lcyRIDTc

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 18, 2024

“I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God… I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be here…” he told his supporters about the assassination attempt. Later, he added also that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

Michigan, with 15 votes in the Electoral College, will be a key swing state in the election on November 5. The state’s manufacturing plants have been heavily impacted by economic decline in recent decades, and Trump attempted to shore up votes by attacking foreign car makers.

“We can’t let these companies come in and steal our wealth, steal our jobs, destroy our companies, and then they’re building ten miles across the border [in Mexico], and think we’re going to allow them to get away with it.

“To further protect Michigan auto workers, I will end the Biden-Harris ‘electric vehicle mandate’ on day one. It’s gonna end on day one. And I will immediately terminate the ‘green new scam’, and we’re gonna use that money to build roads and highways and bridges,” Trump promised.

There is no such thing as an “electric vehicle mandate”, but Trump was likely referring to new air-pollution limits issued in March, which, according to critics, will force automakers to sell electric vehicles (EVs) instead of cars with combustion engines.

The “green new scam” line is a term used by Trump to criticise spending on green energy transformation, part of his agenda to deny climate change – and he repeated his promise to increase production of crude oil in the US, and this announcement was met with cheers from the crowd.

Notably, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 – a 900-page document created by conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation – which has been heavily criticised by Democrats as the unofficial manifesto for Trump’s next administration.

If implemented, Project 2025 would (among other things) result in significant tax cuts, ban pornography and sales of the abortion pill, and, most importantly, give the president more power. According to CNN, “Six of his [Trump’s] former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on” the document.

“I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it,” Trump said in Grand Rapids. “The other side is going around trying to make me sound extreme, like I’m an extremist. I’m not, I’m a person with great common sense, I’m not an extremist at all.”

He continued: “Like some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25. And I don’t even know. I mean some of them I know who they are, but they’re very, very conservative, just like you have this sort of the opposite of the radical left, OK. You have the radical left and you have the radical right and they come up with this. I don’t know what the hell it is.”

Simultaneously, the Republican campaign has been promoting Agenda 47, which focuses on what the Republicans will do if Trump becomes the 47th president of the United States.

Trump repeatedly attacked Joe Biden and his administration during his speech in Michigan. He once again accused the Democrats of cheating during the elections in 2020. “A report just came out… we are leading everywhere and nationally we have to keep it that way, got to make sure they don’t cheat,” he said. He added that “the only way [for Biden] to get elected is to cheat and they [the Democrats] are really good at it,” which suggested he might not be willing to accept the result of the November ballot.

Trump also ridiculed Biden’s intellectual fitness during a part of his speech focused on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994) which opened trade between the US, Canada and Mexico.

This line led to to cheers and boos from the audience. The Republican candidate also stated that the president of China, Xi Jinping, who “controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist, makes guys like Biden look like babies.”

A significant portion of Trump’s speech was about immigration. He not only accused the Democrats of inaction regarding the border with Mexico, and aiming to “sign them [migrants] up to vote,” he also claimed that the situation on the southern border amounts to an “invasion”. He said: “With Democrats in charge, the greatest invasion in history is taking place right now.”

He promised to close the US-Mexico border by further developing the border wall. He claimed that depicting the situation in the south as an “invasion” will enable him to tap into the military budget to complete the border fortification.

Trump also said that migrants crossing the border are sent by Latin American governments, who lower their own crime rates by emptying prisons and sending criminals to the United States. He also promised that, if elected, he will start a mass-deportation scheme.

After the rally, Harbingers’ Magazine spoke to 56 year-old Stacey, who observed that his speech was “definitely more divisive, pointing out all of Biden’s faults, which are all true.” “I like this Trump,” she added.

Trump also seems to have a lot of support among young people in Grand Rapids. “I stand for everything he stands for,” said Connor, aged 20. Nicolina, 22, added: “He is the only one who can clean up Biden’s mess.”

Carter, 23, said that the most important thing for him “wasn’t what Trump said, but the experience of seeing him and how powerful he was and willing to represent us, the lower class in the United States.”