Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump railed against the judge who slapped him with a $355 million fine in his New York civil fraud trial and went after the long list of prosecutors with cases against him as he campaigned in Michigan Saturday night while facing penalties that, with interest, could exceed half a billion dollars.
Trump was making his pitch in a state that is expected to be critical in November as he pivots toward a likely General Election rematch against President Joe Biden. While Biden narrowly beat Trump here in 2020, the President is facing deep skepticism in the state, especially from Arab-American voters angry over his support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas war as the Palestinian death toll has climbed.
Trump, meanwhile, has been working to appeal to the blue-collar and union voters who were critical to his victory in 2016. On Saturday, he again made his pitch to auto workers, railing against electric vehicle mandates that he argues will ultimately lead to lost jobs and touted tariffs he put in place.
“We have to let them know a freight train is coming in November,” Trump told more than 2,000 supporters gathered in a freezing plane hangar in Waterford Township, in the suburbs of Detroit.
But Trump was again most focused on his grievances, opening with a 15-minute screed about the criminal and civil cases against him.
On Friday, a judge in New York ordered Trump to pay $355 million after concluding he had lied about his wealth for years, scheming to dupe banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth on financial statements. Trump has vowed to appeal.
That penalty came days after Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for damaging her reputation after she accused him of sexual assault.
With interest payments, Trump’s legal debts might now exceed a half-billion dollars — an amount it is unclear whether or not Trump can afford to pay.
Trump cast Friday’s decision as “a lawless and unconstitutional atrocity that sets fire to our laws like no one has ever seen in this country before.”
He called the judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, “crooked,” and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case, a “lunatic.” He called special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against him an “animal,” while mocking the pronunciation of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ name.
Trump has succeeded in the GOP Primary by casting the charges — which include state and federal criminal indictments across four separate jurisdictions — as part of a coordinated effort by Biden and other Democrats to damage his electoral prospects. He has also repeatedly cast them as an attack on his supporters.
“These repulsive abuses of power are not just an attack on me, they’re really an attack on you and all Americans,” Trump said Saturday. “We’re all in this mess together!”
But it’s unclear whether those appeals will work in a General Election, particularly among suburban voters in key swing-state metro areas in places like Oakland County, where Trump was speaking Saturday.
An affluent Detroit suburb and the state’s second-largest county, Oakland County was once a GOP stronghold, but has trended more Democratic in recent elections, in part due to women voters. Trump lost the county to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, both times by eight percentage points.
While Michigan will hold its Primary next after South Carolina, only 16 out of 55 Republican presidential delegates will be determined by the Feb. 27 vote.
The remaining 39 will be distributed by precinct delegates at a Michigan GOP state convention on March 2.
Trump’s visit came as the state’s GOP has been in turmoil, amid competing claims on the chairmanship and financial crisis.
Trump waded carefully into the chaos by offering a shoutout to the newly elected state GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra, a former longtime U.S. House member and Trump loyalist who served as Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands.
Hoekstra was elected after then-Chair Kristina Karamo was ousted after racking up hundreds of thousands in debt.
“A great congressman, and a great ambassador,” Trump said.
A lone man in the crowd still loyal to Karamo, who has said she won’t cede the position, booed and called Hoekstra a RINO. The term is intended as an insult and an acronym for Republican In Name Only.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
2 comments
Michael K
February 18, 2024 at 9:51 am
“These repulsive abuses of power are not just an attack on me, they’re really an attack on you and all Americans,” Trump said Saturday. “We’re all in this mess together!”
Funny, I don’t feel that way at all. I have never gone bankrupt (multiple times), never lied about my wealth to get a loan, cheated on my taxes, stiffed contractors, or abused my position as a public service for personal financial gain. Though far from perfect, I’ve never been a con man, a liar, and a greedy thief. And I’ve I’ve never raped anyone. So no, “we” are not in this mess together.
PeterH
February 18, 2024 at 3:08 pm
After each presidential administration, C-SPAN assembles a large collection of notable historians and academics to rank past presidential performances.
To paraphrase Michael Bloomberg in 2015 when Trump decided to run for America’s highest office, “New Yorkers know a fraud and grifter when they see one!”
Like his fraudulent grifter business acumen, Trump’s ability to run the country ranks in the bottom five of American Presidents.
Trump placed himself in America’s spotlight! He could have remained undercover wallowing in his failed branding of kitsch hotels whose interiors remember the glory days of Marie Antoinette …..but he didn’t. The media investigated his wealth and found fraud and Attorney General’s were compelled to take action.
On a final note, the administration of Republican Ronald Reagan currently holds the record for the number of administration indictments and convictions! Will the three year Trump administration exceed the 150 Reagan criminal convictions? Only time will tell.
Republicans are America’s worst enemy!
Vote all Republicans out of office!
Working with Donald Trump is a good resume builder. Just look at all of the previous “only the best people” success stories:
Roy Cohn – disbarred and indicted
Rudy Giuliani – indicted
Mark Meadows – indicted
Sidney Powell – convicted felon
Jenna Ellis – convicted felon
Kenneth Chesebro – convicted felon
John Eastman – indicted
Jeffrey Clark – indicted
Allen Weisselberg – convicted felon
Steve Bannon – convicted felon
Roger Stone – convicted felon
Michael Flynn – convicted felon and Turkish foreign agent
George Papadopoulos – convicted felon
Michael Cohen – convicted felon
Paul Manafort – convicted felon and obvious Russian intelligence asset.
Rick Gates – convicted felon
George Nader – convicted felon
Bernard Kerik – convicted felon
Dinesh D’Souza – convicted felon
Carter Page – confessed to FBI that he was a Russian intelligence asset
Peter Navarro – convicted felon
Lyn Wood – gave up his law license to avoid disbarment hearings
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