Trump Rallies in Michigan to Put His Stamp on Republican Primary

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump took the stage in Michigan on Saturday to rally his base and get their support for his slate of Republican candidates aiming to take on Democrats in key races this fall.

Trump criticized President Joe Biden for gasoline prices, inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while repeating his false claims of a rigged election. Prior to the event, Trump had endorsed 18 down-ballot candidates in Michigan including rally speakers Kristina Karamo, who is challenging Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Matt DePerno, who's running against Attorney General Dana Nessel.

The former president's speech was met with applause from about 5,000 supporters in the indoor Michigan Stars Sports Center and several thousand more outside as he vowed to help Republicans take back the state from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. If the rally is any indicator, Trump's imprimatur could make a difference in the Republican primaries.

“We have a president who has no idea what's going on, he has no idea what he's doing or what he's saying,” Trump said. “The presidential election was rigged and stolen and because of that the country is being destroyed.”

Despite supporting many candidates for different offices, Trump has yet to endorse James Craig, who currently leads the race to challenge Whitmer for governor. In an interview at the rally, Craig said that he went to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to seek his endorsement but came away without a commitment.

Craig, a former Detroit police chief, has led other challengers in polls, with a dozen candidates in total having expressed interest in the Republican nomination. Trump hasn't weighed in on behalf of any candidates. “I'd certainly accept it if he gave it,” Craig said.

Putin Comments

As he has in other speeches and interview, Trump teased he could run again for president in 2024, at one point asking the crowd: “Would anybody here like to see me run?”

Trump called Russia's aggression in Ukraine “outrageous” and again defended his comments before the invasion that Vladimir Putin was a “genius” and “very savvy,” saying he was referring to what he thought was a negotiating tactic by the Russian president in amassing troops at the border.

“This invasion of Ukraine would never have happened if I was in the White House,” Trump said. “I knew Putin very well. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. We had no conflict, remember?”

Karamo and DePerno both won Trump's endorsement, like many of the candidates he supports, by backing his debunked election fraud claims. DePerno filed a lawsuit in November 2020 challenging the ballot count in Antrim County, Michigan. His lawsuit spurred similar legal actions challenging Biden's victory around the U.S. Karamo was a poll challenger at the TCF Center, now called Huntington Place, in downtown Detroit, where she said she witnessed irregularities in the count of absentee ballots.

“I will restore this state back to a constitutional republic,” DePerno told the crowd to loud applause. “We proved how fraud occurred in this state.”

DePerno's lawsuit was dismissed by county court and by a State Senate committee led by Republicans, which also concluded that the allegations were without merit.

Popularity

Karamo and DePerno came with a message that Whitmer and the other Democrats holding office were radicals. Karamo called Secretary of State Benson “an authoritarian leftist who treats the people of Michigan like the unwashed masses,” because she didn't move to overturn the election.

Benson was prepared for the attacks. Last week, her campaign sent out an email to Democratic supporters, saying that multiple Republican candidates in Michigan are “running on Trump's Big Lie platform, lying to Michigan citizens about the results of the 2020 election and using those lies as a springboard for their own celebrity and power.”

A recent poll shows that Trump is still very popular with state Republicans. Mitchell Research and Communications Inc. in Lansing found that 58% of Michigan Republicans were much more likely to vote for a candidate who supports Trump and another 22% were a little more likely to support candidates who favor the former president. Another 64% of the state's Republicans disagree that Biden won the election.

“Trump has a hold on the Republican party unlike anyone I've ever seen,” said Mitchell Research Chief Executive Officer Steve Mitchell. “That has probably grown a bit because of the low job approval rating that Joe Biden has.”

Michigan Republicans will hold an endorsement convention in Grand Rapids on April 23 to pick nominees for attorney general and secretary of state.

Trump's next scheduled rally is April 9 in North Carolina to support his endorsed candidates including U.S. Representative Ted Budd, who's trailing in the GOP race to replace retiring Senator Richard Burr.