Donald Trump returned to the election crusade this week with a visit to Arizona, his first appearance in a battleground state since he was convicted in a secret cash scandal, reiterating his claim that the prosecution against him is politically motivated and calling for his conviction to be rejected. revoked on appeal.
“These appeals courts want to step in and change things, or we may not have any countries left,” Trump said Thursday at a meeting in Phoenix that the city’s runner organized through Turning Point, an organization of young conservatives who have noticed their influence grow throughout their lives. Trump’s. Takeover through the Republican Party.
Trump is expected to appeal last month’s conviction on all 34 counts in his secret trial in New York, in which he became the first former U. S. president convicted of criminal offenses. He defiantly responded to the verdict against him a day after a sentencing in New York. The jury found him guilty last week of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by secretly paying cash to a porn actor.
But he had not spoken directly to voters in swing states where the November election will be held ahead of the rally, where he used profanity to denounce what he called a politically motivated “fake” case opposing him.
The crowd of thousands inside a megachurch, where the bass of the music was so loud that it shook seats and photographs from media cameras, chanted the same profanity in response.
The Phoenix Police Department said 11 other people at the event were transported to hospitals, treated and released from heat exhaustion. Officials said an exaggerated heat warning was in effect in the area of Trump’s city hall, where many of his supporters were unable to enter before construction reached capacity. Phoenix set a new record for the date of 112 degrees in the mid-afternoon.
Trump’s conviction angered his supporters, who promptly pumped tens of millions of dollars into his campaign. Trump blames President Biden for his conviction, even though the case filed with the locally elected New York District Attorney and many of his allies are calling for revenge.
Trump focused much of his hour-long speech and ensuing question-and-answer session on the U. S. -Mexico border, blaming a litany of — from inflation to the long-term adequacy of Social Security — on illegal immigration and calling Biden’s policies a “deliberate demolition of our sovereignty. “. ” and our borders.
The influx of foreign-born adults has particularly increased the pool of available personnel after the shortage of hard work in the U. S. has increased the number of people in the U. S. The U. S. government prevented many corporations from filling jobs. The availability of immigrant staff has eased the pressure on corporations to dramatically raise wages and then pass them on. Hard-labor costs rise for its consumers through higher costs that fuel inflation, which remains high in the United States but has fallen from its levels two years ago. Immigrant workers also pay Social Security and other payroll taxes.
Led by Charlie Kirk, the organization harnessed the power of other young people drawn to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement by cultivating conservative influencers and hosting ostentatious events. And it enriched Kirk and his allies.
“The election is now bigger than Donald Trump,” Kirk said, describing the November factor as a “class struggle between you and the ruling class. “
Nowhere is Turning Point’s influence greater than in Arizona, the state followed by the group, where its loyalists have taken on roles in the state’s Republican Party but fought to win the general election. Turning Point’s conservative list of applicants lost midterm in 2022, and Kari Lake was added, who lost the election. He is running for governor and is now running for the U. S. Senate.
The organization is seeking to expand its influence this year to other battleground states and gained a boost when Trump ousted Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in February. He replaced through Trump’s hand-picked successor, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who spoke definitively about running with Turning Point.
Biden won Arizona in 2020 with about 10,000 votes. It was, along with Georgia, one of two states whose vote was less than a share of a percentage point, and is expected to be tied this year.
Ahead of Trump’s visit, Biden’s allies in Arizona blamed the former president for the Supreme Court’s overturning of the nation’s constitution on abortion and by congressional Republicans who rejected a bipartisan border security bill.
Arizona Republicans enthusiastically embraced Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. State lawmakers ordered an unprecedented partisan recount that showed their defeat. And officials in Cochise County, in southern Arizona, are facing criminal fees for refusing to certify the effects of the 2022 midterm elections. elections.
Hours before Trump’s event, Jake Hoffman, a Republican state senator who is also one of Turning Point’s most thoughtful consultants, pleaded guilty to his role in an alleged plot to overturn Trump’s loss in Arizona. Hoffman is accused of being a false voter who signed a document falsely purporting to constitute Arizona’s electorate in the Electoral College.
Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, will be arraigned Friday in the case.
Despite the state’s prominence on the presidential map, Trump hasn’t campaigned in Arizona since 2022, when he held a rally in front of his slate of midterm candidates, both of which ended up losing.
Trump’s West tour includes several personal fundraisers and a rally Sunday in Nevada, another battleground state he narrowly lost in 2020.
The Associated Press Cooper reported from Phoenix and Kinnard from Chapin, S. C. AP Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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