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Susan J. Demas, Michigan Advance
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, have three scheduled campaign stops in Michigan this week.
Trump’s first event was speaking on Monday to the National Guard conference in Detroit, where he was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Gabbard, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, has been criticized for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who began a brutal civil war resulting in over 300,000 civilian deaths, and defending Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for invading Ukraine.
She endorsed several Republicans in 2022, including Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon. Dixon lost to incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 11 points. Prior to the endorsement, Gabbard was already helping Trump prepare for his debate next month with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom she ran against in 2020.
“I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war,” Gabbard said. “We cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace.”
Trump echoed that sentiment.
“We’ve never been closer to World War III than we are right now,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing.”
He said he would quickly end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and at least 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 75,000 Russian troops have been killed, although many estimates are much higher.
For the last three weeks, Ukraine has begun a counter-offensive into Russia and says it now controls 100 settlements. Russia launched a massive overnight attack Monday aiming at Ukraine’s electrical grid, resulting in multiple deaths and power outages.
“I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness. Let me be clear: Russia will never succeed in Ukraine, and the spirit of the Ukrainian people will never be broken,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Monday.
In his first term, Trump was close to Putin and often expressed admiration for him. At a February rally this year, Trump said he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries who did not meet funding requirements. While serving in the Senate, Vance has voted against U.S. aid to Ukraine.
In 2019, Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “a favor” to investigate Biden, while withholding $400 million in military aid. Trump was impeached a second time in 2021 for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
On Tuesday, Vance is scheduled to appear in Big Rapids to talk about the economy and manufacturing. Trump is slated to return to Michigan on Thursday for an event in Potterville outside Lansing.
Earlier on Monday, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery to mark the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members. He also spoke about it in Detroit.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump said.
Although Trump said that he believed leaving Afghanistan was the right policy, he blamed Harris and Biden for their execution of the plan and said his administration would have done it with “dignity and strength.” The Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020 about a U.S. withdrawal and timeline.
“The voters are going to fire Kamala and Joe on Nov. 5, we hope, and when I take office we will ask for the resignations of every single official,” Trump said. “We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity, to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job.”
Harris said in a statement that she mourns the 13 service members killed and her “prayers are with their families and loved ones.
“As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” Harris said. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.
