GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — "We're going to take this country, we're going to make it safe again and we're going to make America great again," former President Donald Trump told a crowd of media and invited guests in Livingston County Tuesday.
As Democrats have gathered in their Chicago stronghold for the party's national convention through this week, Trump's remarks came as part of a press conference at the Livingston County Sheriff's Office in Howell on the state's east side.
The campaign had billed his appearance as remarks on crime and safety.
"I will deliver law, order, safety and peace, and I will protect those who protect us," Trump said, flanked by uniformed law enforcement. "These people protect us. These are unbelievable people. They protect us. We need to protect them."
Amid a blitz of events in swing states this week, Trump and his campaign have been seemingly battling for the national narrative against Democrats hoping to generate momentum from the Midwest's largest city.
"[Voters] don't need to watch Donald Trump," Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist (D-Mich.) told 13 ON YOUR SIDE on Monday. "They're just going to hear the same racist stuff they hear from every time he comes to Michigan, every time he goes anywhere. But when you watch the Democratic National Convention for all four of these nights, you're going to see people on this stage who reflect the boldness, the diversity and the beauty and the opportunity that exists all across America."
At least one high-level Democrat said she sees irony in Trump's Tuesday message, given his recent felony convictions on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
"I find it to be the greatest of ironies that Trump is in town to talk about crime and public safety when, you know, the thing we know most about Donald Trump is he is a one-man crime wave," Attorney General Dana Nessel (D-Mich.) said on a press call Tuesday ahead of Trump's visit.
Trump has recently argued to have the convictions thrown out due to a recent Supreme Court ruling regarding presidential immunity, but the judge in the case has yet to make a determination on such an argument.
Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday honed in specifically on what he characterized as crime relating to the border as he thanked local law enforcement for their service.
"We want [immigrants] to come in legally," Trump said. "On day one, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country - bigger than Dwight Eisenhower."
"We want a crime-free America," he said. "We're going to stop violent crime in the United States. And it's people like this that can do the job better than anybody. They do the job justly and fairly."
When it came to the DNC, Trump described the successful calls within the party to have President Biden step off the ticket as a "coup."
"That was a coup," Trump said. "And I'm no fan of [Biden's] at all, and it started with the debate, and from that point on, it just got worse and worse. But that was a coup. It was a vicious, violent overthrow of a president of the United States."
And when it came to the location of Trump's visit, Nessel also drew skepticism over his selection of Howell, given the area's history regarding white supremacy.
Just last month, the City of Howell and local groups responded following what the statement, posted by the Livingston Diversity Council, described as about a dozen people marching through the city carrying white supremacist signs with their faces covered. According to the statement, the marchers had been chanting "Heil Hitler."
Referencing a video shared in one of its articles, reporting from the Livingston Post said that the shout of "We love Hitler, we love Trump" could be heard amidst a group standing on a nearby overpass that day.
"Trump is choosing to rally in a town that was historically known as 'the KKK capital of Michigan,'" the Harris campaign's Michigan Communications Director Alyssa Bradley said in a statement ahead of the visit. "This event on 'crime and safety' isn’t a dog whistle from Trump – it’s a bullhorn."
When asked at the conclusion of his remarks about the situation and the Harris campaign's criticism, Trump's immediate response was a reference to Biden's 2021 visit to the area.
"Who was here in 2021?" Trump said.
"Joe Biden," the reporter responded.
"Thank you, thank you, everybody," Trump said, before stepping away from the podium.