DETROIT (AP) — Donald Trump blamed immigrants for stealing jobs and government resources as he courted separate groups of black voters and hardcore conservatives in battleground Michigan on Saturday.
The Republican former president also made several new baseless claims attacking the country’s voting system.
But Trump’s fiery comments on illegal immigration, long a staple of his unapologetic message, marked a unifying theme in downtown Detroit as he tried to cobble together a delicate political coalition at both a black church and a group known to she attracts white supremacists.
“The people crossing the border – all those millions of people – are doing enormous damage to our black population and to our Hispanic population,” Trump told a cheering crowd of thousands of conservative activists packed into a large convention hall.
“They are not human beings. They are animals,” he said later, referring to members of violent immigrant gangs.
Trump’s varied weekend schedule underlines the evolving political forces shaping this fall’s presidential election as he seeks to deny Democratic President Joe Biden a second term.
Few states matter more in November than Michigan, which Biden won by less than 3 percentage points four years ago. And few voting groups are more important to Democrats than African Americans, who formed the backbone of Biden’s political base in 2020. But now, less than five months before Election Day, black voters are expressing modest signs of disappointment with the 81-year-old Democrat.
Trump, who turned 78 on Friday, is fighting to capitalize on his apparent opening.
His audience was much smaller, but also warmly receptive, when he visited the church earlier in the day. Outside the modest brick building were dilapidated vehicles bearing “Black Americans for Trump” signs. Rap music and barbecue smoke wafted from a pre-event gathering organized by the Black Conservative Federation group.
“It’s a very important area for us,” Trump told the church crowd, which included a significant number of white people. He promised to return “one Sunday” for a sermon.
He argued that the black community is “hurt” by immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“They’re invading your jobs,” he said.
Trump delivered a similar message later in the day when he addressed the “People’s Convention” of Turning Point Action, a group that the Anti-Defamation League says is linked to a variety of extremists.
About 24 hours before the former president spoke, noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes entered the room surrounded by a group of cheering supporters. Security quickly escorted him out, but Fuentes caused political trouble for Trump after attending a private lunch with the former president and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West at Trump’s Florida estate in 2022.
Turning Point has emerged as a force in Republican politics in the Trump era, especially under his “Make America Great Again” movement, despite the Anti-Defamation League’s warning that the group “continues to attract racists.”
“Numerous individuals associated with the group have made bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and other groups,” the ADL, an international anti-hate group, wrote in a background memo. “While TPUSA (Turning Point USA) leaders say they reject white supremacist ideology, well-known white nationalists have attended their events.”
Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet dismissed the ADL’s characterization as “slander and lies.” He added that Turning Point has been preventing Fuentes from attending its events for “years.”
“The ADL is a scourge on America, sowing poison and division. They have completely lost the plot,” said Kolvet, who described the ADL’s criticism as “a badge of honor.”
Meanwhile, Democrats offered a competitive perspective from afar.
“Donald Trump is so dangerous to Michigan and dangerous to America and dangerous to black people,” said Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, an African American. He called it “insulting” for Trump to address the Turning Point conference, which took place at the same convention center that was “the epicenter of their election efforts.”
Dozens of angry Trump loyalists chant “Stop the Count!” descended on the TCF Center, now called Huntington Place, the day after the 2020 presidential election as absentee ballots were being counted. Local media captured scenes of protesters outside and in the lobby. The police prevented them from entering the counting room.
The protests took place after Trump tweeted that “they are finding Biden votes everywhere” in several states, including Michigan.
The false idea that Biden benefited from widespread voter fraud has been widely debunked by voting officials from both parties, the legal system and members of the former Trump administration. Yet Trump continues to promote such disinformation, which was echoed at the conservative convention this weekend.
From the main stage, Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk incorrectly described the conference location as “the scene of a crime.”
Trump moved the conversation forward and raised the possibility of election fraud this fall.
“We have to look at the mood. We have to monitor the vote,” Trump said. “It’s so corrupt, the whole election process.”
Such extreme rhetoric does not appear to have damaged Trump’s standing with black voters.
Among Black adults, Biden’s approval has fallen from 94% when he began his term in January 2021 to just 55%, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released in March.
About 8 in 10 Black voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, with roughly two-thirds saying they have a “very unfavorable” opinion of him, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in June.
According to AP VoteCast, Trump won 8% of the black vote in 2020. And in what is expected to be a close election, even a modest shift could have consequences.
Omar Mitchell, a Detroit restaurant owner who attended the church rally, said he supported Trump because “the money was pumping” when he was president.
“The way we grew up used to be just because you’re black means you’re a Democrat,” Mitchell said. “That’s gone out the window these days.”
Trump claims he can attract more black voters thanks to his economic and border security message, and that his charges make him more recognizable. At church Saturday afternoon, he repeatedly promised to “bring back the auto industry,” while also noting, “Crime is at its highest here and in African American communities.”
Kimberly Taylor, who was invited to the church stage by the Trump campaign, thanked Trump for “coming to the neighborhood,” while pastor Lorenzo Sewell said Biden attended an NAACP dinner in the city “but never came to the neighborhood came’.
The pastor asked Trump how he could “keep the black dollar in the black community.”
The black community, Trump said, “must stop crime.”
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
