LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Donald Trump visited Michigan on Sunday as part of his attempts to recapture territory that helped him win the White House but got out of hand four years later.
Campaigning to return to the presidency while facing federal indictment for allegedly mishandling confidential documents, Trump delivered a speech in suburban Detroit, where he lost ground between 2016 and 2020 and would need to catch up if he becomes the Republican nominee of 2024. It would have to reverse the recent trend in Michigan, where Democrats have made some of their biggest gains nationally since Trump failed to get re-elected.
Trump spoke at the Lincoln Day Dinner, hosted by the Oakland County Republican Party, where the party honored him as its “Man of the Decade.” The former president frequently attacked President Joe Biden throughout his speech on Sunday, calling Biden a “catastrophe” for Michigan and auto production in the state. Trump also criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign, for approving state funding for a foreign company.
RELATED
It was his first campaign event in Michigan, one of three states, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that reversed their partisan bias in 2016 to put Trump in the White House, and Democrat Biden four years later.
Trump’s popularity in Michigan has suffered since 2016.
“By Trump’s calculations, he needs to win Michigan back to be president. But he’s been very problematic here,” said Dave Trott, a former congressman from the Republican Party. “Trump is very much the reason the Michigan Republican Party is dead.”
Last year, Trump-backed candidates in Michigan were among the loudest in repeating their unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matthew DePerno, spent the final months of his campaign under investigation to determine whether he should be criminally charged for attempting to access voting machines after the 2020 election. Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo, a former college professor, was selected by Trump as the Republican candidate for secretary of state after alleging that she saw voter fraud taking place while she was at a polling place in Detroit, where she monitored voter eligibility to cast their ballots.
In November, state candidates Trump endorsed were defeated by a landslide, including Tudor Dixon, who lost by more than 10 percentage points to Whitmer.
___
Joey Cappelletti is on Twitter as:
