At a rally in Wisconsin on Friday, Donald Trump called Kamala Harris a “low IQ person” and promised to save the economy “from total destruction” in a 1.5-hour, meandering speech that covered key campaign issues, including the economy and foreign policy. – but also included threats to curb press freedom and a lengthy discussion about his own rhetorical style.
“I will stop the criminal invasion of this country,” Trump said during his opening statement, vowing to usher in a new “golden age.”
“Can you imagine if Kamala won? You would slide into a depression like 1929,” Trump said.
On immigration, Trump’s message was characteristically dark. The campaign featured a painful video of a mother describing the murder of her daughter and blaming Harris for allowing the suspects to enter the U.S. without permission. Studies overwhelmingly refute Trump’s claim that immigrants are disproportionately responsible for crime in the US, but such claims are a hallmark of his campaign.
“The day I take office, the migrant invasion will end,” Trump said. He vowed to launch the “largest deportation program in American history” and said cities and towns had been “conquered” by immigrants, whom he called “animals.”
Since his rally at Madison Square Garden — which featured racist and misogynistic comments from an array of speakers, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” — Trump and his allies have tried to target the former president and his maga rearrange. basis as unfairly maligned.
“Kamala spent the last week of her campaign comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history,” Trump said at the rally in Wisconsin.
“Vice President Harris thinks you’re Nazis and fascists,” said Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who spoke at the rally.
Johnson praised Trump for bringing Robert F Kennedy Jr. had included in his campaign, which ended his presidential bid as a third-party candidate in August; and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who announced she had left the party in 2022. Johnson accused Democrats of “destroying America” and credited Trump with “making the Republican Party the party of the working men and women of America.”
Amid applause and chants of “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby,” Kennedy addressed the crowd, reminding them that even though he has left the race, he will still appear on the ballot and urging them to vote for Trump. “I prayed to God that he would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said. “God sent me Donald J Trump.”
During his remarks, Republican Congressman Bryan Steil urged the audience to support a state constitutional amendment on Wisconsin voting that would ban non-U.S. citizens from voting in Wisconsin elections — a proposal that municipalities want to prevent them from opening their local elections. to non-citizens and comes at a time when Republicans are raising unfounded concerns about non-U.S. citizens committing voter fraud in federal elections.
“We have the opportunity on Tuesday to vote ‘yes’ on an amendment to say that Wisconsin elections and US elections are for US citizens only, do you agree with that?” Steil said. The idea that immigrants threaten the US elections has caught fire among Trump supporters.
Jason Tyler, a Republican activist who attended the Milwaukee rally, said he was concerned about noncitizens voting illegally in the presidential election. Tyler plans to volunteer as a poll worker in Rock County on Election Day, where he said he will be looking for non-U.S. citizens to cast their ballots. “My biggest thing I would look for is someone who can’t speak English and should start there,” said Tyler, who acknowledged that the bar for challenging a ballot measure in Wisconsin is high enough that he probably won’t be able to do it would succeed in preventing a voter from casting a vote. cast a vote.
“It’s very difficult. The only thing I can really do is ask for their information, you know, find out who they are, and I can report that, if I feel like something strange is going on,” said Tyler. . “I can’t really tell that person not to vote.”
Tyler added that he is frustrated by the idea that Trump’s inflammatory comments about immigrants are racist. “It’s ridiculous,” Tyler said, adding that his wife came to the U.S. from the Philippines. “She loves Donald Trump.”
