Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump has held his first election campaign rally since he survived a failed assassination attempt last week in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Alongside his new running mate, Republican vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump went to a campaign rally in the battleground state of Michigan on Saturday.
Trump, upon his arrival at the rally in Grand Rapids, attacked what he described as leadership chaos within the Democratic Party.
He said the members of the Democratic Party were lost in a debate over whether Joe Biden should step down from his re-election bid amid concerns over his mental health.
In a dig at the incumbent, Trump called him a “feeble old guy” who should drop out of the race, and be replaced.
In another swipe at Biden, Trump said he would rather be in Michigan giving a speech than sitting “on some boring beach watching the waves coming in,” a reference to the incumbent who is currently recovering from COVID-19 at his beach house in Delaware.
Trump said the Democrats were still undecided about what to do and asked the crowd whether they preferred he run against Vice-President Kamala Harris instead of Biden. The crowd showed displeasure and booed at the notion of Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate.
“They have no idea who their candidate is, and neither do we,” Trump joked.
The former president went on to predict a landslide US election in the upcoming presidential race slated in November.
Trump, who appeared on stage with a bandage on his ear, described the abortive assassination attempt on his life as a “horrific event.”
He said he should not be there now, claiming that he only stood that day before his supporters “by the Grace of God.”
Trump also claimed that his critics call him “a threat to democracy”, but on the contrary, he “took a bullet for democracy.”
Speaking to the crowd before Trump’s arrival, Vance said, “I find it hard to believe that a week ago, an assassin tried to take Donald Trump’s life, and now we have got a hell of a crowd in Michigan to welcome him back on the campaign trail.”
In his speech, Vance criticized both Republicans and Democrats.
Vance insisted that “Both parties were broken in very profound ways until Trump came along.”
The city of Grand Rapids has been historically a Republican stronghold but has trended increasingly towards Democrats, giving the heads up to the GOP to be more active in the area to regain its original voters’ base.