Trump in Arizona: Former president predicts apocalyptic future for America if not elected
Former President Donald Trump predicted an apocalyptic future for America if he isn’t returned to office during a speech that included scorn for President Joe Biden and an impromptu kiss for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Trump's characteristically meandering comments on Thursday delighted thousands of supporters at his first political rally since his conviction on 34 felony charges in New York last week. It was his first trip to Arizona since October 2022.
Trump’s remarks preceded questions from the crowd at a time when many polls show Trump leading national polls and in Arizona, though the fallout of his conviction is still being gauged.
“Joe Biden is the worst president in history,” Trump said to cheers. “Jimmy Carter is a brilliant president by comparison.”
By turns, Trump bragged of the nation’s border security on his watch and invoked bloodshed involving immigrants on Biden’s. Trump called his New York trial a “rigged” case and said his only crime was winning the 2016 election.
He promised a wholesale shift of government resources to combating illegal immigration and drug cartels if he returns to office.
“We will put the cartels out of business, and I will make clear to every federal department and agency that we must use any and all resources to stop this invasion of our country, including moving thousands of troops if necessary currently stationed overseas to our own borders,” he said.
“We protect other countries, but we don’t protect our own country.”
Early in Trump’s remarks, the speech took an extended detour when Trump summoned Arpaio to the stage. The two men had an awkward embrace and Trump told the crowd he gave Arpaio a kiss.
During a brief turn at the podium, Arpaio gave an emotional thanks to Trump, who he said showed repeated interest and kindness to his wife.
The two men are linked by their shared interest in a border crackdown and with Trump’s unexpected rise to the White House in 2016. Arpaio was an early vocal supporter of Trump, and Trump gave his first presidential pardon to Arpaio, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for criminal contempt of court for his acknowledged disobedience of a judge's 2011 order that barred his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.
Ahead of Trump’s town hall event at Dream City Church in north Phoenix, Arizona Democrats countered his visit with a news conference of their own.
Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano cast Trump as “unhinged” and a threat to U.S. democracy.
“We know that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans see Arizona as a testing ground for election conspiracy theories and denialism,” Bejarano said. “This is ground zero of what has become our entire country’s struggle against misinformation and false claims.”
Biden’s campaign has reminded voters that Turning Point Action, the organization hosting Trump on Thursday, sent seven buses of students to Washington to participate in the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
None of the Democrats' concerns mattered inside the church, where Trump focused on his core issues of border security and an economy he claimed was better under him.
Trump said the nation has 18 million immigrants living in the country illegally, a figure far above the 12 million estimate usually presumed for the country and a condition he fully blames on Biden.
He cast Biden repeatedly as bumbling and demented, falling out of airplanes and helicopters in Trump’s telling.
“Illegal immigration is hurting Blacks and Hispanics more than anyone else,” Trump said. He underscored his improved standing with both demographics as a sign they are abandoning Biden and Democrats.
Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesperson, shot back that Trump derailed a bipartisan border security bill by encouraging House and Senate Republicans to reject it and deny Biden a political victory.
“Donald Trump is exactly what Americans hate about politicians. He’s the worst of Washington," Munoz said. "He’s in it for himself, not you. He single-handedly killed a bill the American people overwhelmingly supported, and is now crying the system is broken. It’s broken because of you, Don."
Trump didn’t address the hush money payments he paid to a porn star to conceal their sexual relationship ahead of the 2016 election. Instead, he blasted the judge overseeing the case.
“I just went through a rigged trial in New York, with a highly conflicted — and I mean highly conflicted — judge, where there was no crime. It was made up, fabricated stuff,” Trump said.
Trump kicked off his remarks by praising several Arizona congressmen and candidates in turn.
He lauded Republican U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko. He didn’t mention the state’s other two congressional Republicans, Juan Ciscomani and David Schweikert, both of whom could face difficult reelections.
Trump also praised two of his key endorsements: U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake and congressional candidate Abe Hamadeh.
He called Lake “a friend of mine” and a “really incredible woman” amid reports of a cooling of their friendship. While Lake was once rumored to be a possible vice presidential pick, Trump predicted she will be Arizona’s “next senator.”
Hamadeh, he said, is “doing a really terrific job” and repeated the baseless claim that Arizona’s 2022 elections were also “rigged.”
Trump’s visit was a town hall event hosted by Turning Point Action, an Arizona-based group that has promoted his false election claims and is leading a multistate get-out-the-vote effort in the 2024 election.
Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of the Turning Point-affiliated entities, ripped Democrats for prosecuting Trump and likened Democratic rule to the Nazi fascists the U.S. battled on the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago.
Kirk mentioned those who took part in the D-Day invasion in 1944.
“They were fighting against totalitarianism, fighting against a dictatorship,” Kirk said. “But 80 years later, if we are honest with ourselves, that very same totalitarianism is now here in this country.
“The very same dictatorship that our leaders were fighting, our greatest generation was fighting against, are now here in this country.”
Trump’s visit was part of a swing through Arizona, Nevada and California.
Arizona, a swing state in this year’s presidential election, has been roiled by Trump’s charges against the country’s political and legal institutions.
Trump’s false claims about elections continue to fuel conspiracy theories in Arizona races up and down the ballot. A grand jury has indicted the Republicans who falsely certified that Trump won the 2020 presidential election — an accusation that Arizona Republicans dismiss as politically motivated.
Traveling to Valley: 5 questions (and answers) ahead of former President Donald Trump's Phoenix visit
Turning Point Action is taking the opportunity to mobilize supporters in a state where Republicans’ campaign field presence has lagged behind the Democrats’.
The organization encouraged attendees to apply for a job with their multistate get-out-the-vote effort and offered an “expedited” interview process on-site at Thursday’s event.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump in Phoenix: Former president appears at Dream City Church