Former President Donald Trump set the stage for a nail-biting final month of the presidential campaign during a return visit to the Pennsylvania site where a gunman tried to kill him this summer.
The trip was Trump’s final visit to the Keystone State, which will be the most crucial in this election cycle. While the rally was underway, Trump’s campaign announced two additional events in Pennsylvania where the president would appear in the coming days.
Speaking to one of his larger crowds of the cycle, Trump attacked Democratic leaders over the federal response to Hurricane Helene, baselessly suggested the party was working to steal the upcoming election from him and repeatedly went after Vice President Kamala Harris because he included a 2019 ACLU questionnaire speech in which she stated she supported taxpayer funding of gender transition care for immigrants in federal detention centers.
“Who wants to perform gender reassignment operations for illegal aliens in dumpsters? I don’t think so,” Trump said during his roughly 90-minute speech. He later returned to the subject: Enlisting billionaire mogul Elon Musk, who was present at Trump’s rally, he said, “I don’t think Elon likes that idea.” These are not ideas that Elon Musk likes.”
Trump hosted a parade of wealthy well-wishers who spoke at the event, including Musk, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and real estate investor Steve Witkoff.
During his remarks, Musk described himself as “not just MAGA, I’m a dark MAGA,” issuing apocalyptic warnings to rallygoers and viewers.
“One request is very important: register to vote,” Musk said. “OK? And drag everyone you know and everyone you don’t know to the registration to vote. … Like, text people now [and] Make sure they actually vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction. Nothing is more important.”
The stop comes nearly three months after Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin at the same location on July 13. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot dead at the scene by police. Two rallygoers were injured while another, Corey Comparatore, was killed.
“Now that you heard the shots, you saw the blood, we all feared the worst,” Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, said in a speech ahead of the former president, adding that he believed God intervened to spare Trump’s life. “But you knew everything was going to be okay when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted, ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!'”
Much of the opening of Trump’s speech was devoted to Comperatore and the two others who were injured at the July rally. Trump also praised the law enforcement officers present at the assassination attempt, saying the counter-snipers were responsible for saving “many lives.”
“We have an angry world,” Trump said. “We have a very sick world.”
Trump also held a moment of silence for Comparatore, who he said has “become a bit of a folk hero.” Before his speech on Saturday, he met with the fallen visitor’s family.
“He was hit hard,” Trump said. “And he gave his life to protect [his loved ones] lives.”
Trump was more subdued than at other recent events, such as when he called Harris mentally disabled and suggested that police would be “really rough” on suspected criminals for “one hard hour.” But other speakers filled the void.
Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, described the election as a battle between “good and evil.”
“And good will win this battle,” she said.
In his speech, Vance condemned Democrats for labeling Trump as a threat to democracy, directly linking these warnings to the second assassination attempt Trump faced last month.
Vance pointed at Harris and said, “How dare you talk about threats to democracy.”
“Donald Trump has taken a bullet for democracy,” he added. “What the hell did you do?”
Trump, meanwhile, said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley is “primarily working on Stop the Steal” as opposed to the get-out-the-vote efforts, which have been the subject of some Republican consternation. (One outside group charged with a significant portion of the GOP GOTV effort is a super PAC tied to Musk.)
“Because we have a lot of votes,” Trump said, adding: “We’re going to win this thing, and the more we win it, you know, it’s too big to manipulate.”
Trump also spent time discussing the federal response to Hurricane Helene, which hit western North Carolina as well as parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. Trump said the government is offering flood victims just $750 “and yet they are sending tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said that $750 is just one type of assistance it is offering, and that there are other programs that victims may qualify for after applying for emergency assistance.
Trump briefly touched on local issues, promoting fracking and saying he would not approve Nippon Steel’s deal to buy US Steel — a hot topic in Western Pennsylvania. Both Harris and President Joe Biden have also spoken out against the foreign takeover.
“I don’t like that,” Trump said of the possibility of a Japanese company owning US Steel.
Looking ahead to the month ahead, the former president predicted that both he and Vance would face some negative press.
“We should be there in a month,” he said. “They’ll still drop all kinds of bombs. They’ll hit you, JD, they’ll hit me. These people will hit and hit, but I think we’ve almost become immune to it, right? We have become immune to it.”
Trump praised the wealthy benefactors present at the meeting, calling Witkoff “one of the great businessmen in the country,” while saying Paulson “is really one of the greats, one of the great pickers, pickers, that is, stocks . He knows what he’s doing.”
He later used Musk to describe his vision of the American dream.
“We’re going to live the American dream,” Trump said of if he wins next month. “So every kid in your family is going to grow up saying, ‘I want to be like Elon Musk. I want $200 billion in cash. I’m going to be like Elon Musk.’ That is the American dream.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
