Trump: “I took a bullet for democracy”

“Last week I took a bullet for democracy,” said Trump in front of supporters in the US state of Michigan on Saturday. “I am not an extremist at all.” US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, had to forego further campaign appearances due to his corona infection.

Trump At the event, he denied any links to “Project 2025,” a radical program of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation for a complete restructuring of the government apparatus and a drastic conservative turn.

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The Republican Party’s presidential candidate also mocked his Democratic Party rivals, who are currently discussing whether President Biden might not run again. “They have no idea who their candidate is,” said Trump in front of around 12,000 supporters. Biden won the primaries “and now they want to take it away from him,” argued TrumpThe former president predicted a “monumental landslide victory” for the Republicans in the November election.

• Also read: Trump’s canonization at the party convention

In his fiery but typically digressive speech, the presidential candidate laid out his hardline views on immigration, spread falsehoods about migrant criminality and repeated the widely debunked claim that Democrats “rigged” the 2020 presidential election he lost to Biden. He also expressed admiration for foreign autocrats, including “brilliant” Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he praised for controlling “1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”

It was Trump’s first campaign appearance since the assassination attempt last Saturday and the first since his official selection as the Republican presidential candidate at the party convention this week. Trump narrowly survived the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 78-year-old was slightly injured in the ear by a bullet. On Saturday he wore a small, skin-colored plaster on his right ear.

• From the archive: Attack on Trump: Shooter was 20-year-old from Pennsylvania

“I stand before you only by the grace of Almighty God,” the ex-president told the crowd. “I shouldn’t be here right now, but something very special has happened.”

Trump Ignoring the self-imposed restraint and his call for unity after the assassination, Trump resorted to his usual divisive rhetoric. He hurled insults and abuse, calling Biden “stupid” and a “weak old man” and referring to Vice President Harris as “crazy” and “nuts.”

Biden’s campaign team did Trump’s He dismissed the argument by saying that he was “peddling the same lies” and conducting “the same campaign of revenge and retaliation.”

• More on the subject: What if Biden drops out of the US election campaign?

It was also the first election campaign appearance Trump’s with his vice presidential candidate JD Vance. The US Senator from Ohio fired up the crowd before the ex-president’s appearance and lashed out at his Democratic rival Harris. “I served in the United States Marine Corps and built a company. What the hell did you do besides collect a check?” Vance asked Harris.

Meanwhile, pressure continued to grow on Biden to abandon his candidacy. The incumbent has been under pressure since his erratic and confused appearance in the televised debate with Trump At the end of June, Biden was under massive pressure. In the meantime, more than 30 members of the House of Representatives and four Democratic Senators have publicly called on Biden to withdraw.

• Also read: Biden withdrawal “only a matter of time”

Biden, who is now also suffering from Corona, once again rejected calls for him to withdraw from the race for the White House on Friday. He announced that he would resume his campaign activities next week after his Corona illness.