Donald Trump is making the most of his break from court this week.
The judge in the former president’s first criminal trial is using Wednesday to handle other cases he is presiding over, leaving President Trump in a critical position that could determine the winner of his 2024 rematch with President Biden. Heading to two states.
President Trump is campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan, two key battleground states where he narrowly won the 2016 presidential election but fell short four years later when he lost re-election.
This is the second time in a month that the former president has visited the two Great Lakes battleground states.
“These two states are absolutely critical to both campaigns, followed closely by Pennsylvania,” said David Kochel, a longtime Republican strategist and presidential campaign veteran. “These are the two states that the Trump campaign should live in.”
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Former President Trump speaks at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Romer)
Trump’s surprise victories over 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania shattered the so-called “blue wall” of states that Democrats had counted on for nearly a quarter of a century.
And Trump’s victories in all three states symbolize his ability to flip blue-collar voters and push Republicans toward long-term electoral realignment in the so-called Rust Belt. It gave me hope.
But four years later, Biden narrowly captured all three states as his party partially rebuilt its “blue wall.” And Democrats won gubernatorial races in Michigan and Wisconsin that year, flipping Republican-held governorships and flipping Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, critical to maintaining a majority in the chamber in 2022.
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While enjoying a winning streak, the Democratic Party is taking nothing for granted. Many recent polls suggest Mr. Trump has a slight lead over Mr. Biden in all three states.
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that Michigan and Wisconsin are key swing states in the Midwest in November,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News. “President Trump is leading in both because the weakness is being felt in every town and city.”
President Trump’s first stop on Wednesday will be in Waukesha, Wisconsin, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown Milwaukee, where his campaign said the former president “will deliver what they claim will be peace, prosperity and security in his first term.” “I would contrast that with Joe Biden’s failure.” Presidency. ”
The former president is expected to shine a spotlight on rising prices, which have been persistent problems for the Biden administration over the past three years, and the surge of migrants at the southern border that has shocked the nation.
Former President Trump stops in Grand Rapids, Michigan to speak on crime and border security on April 2, 2024. (FOX News/Paul Steinhauser)
President Trump will then hold an evening rally in Freeland, Michigan, about 190 miles north of Detroit. During a visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, a month ago, President Trump spoke out against what he called “Biden’s bloodshed at the border.”
Hughes said that during his stops in Wisconsin and Michigan, President Trump “will show the people of those states and all of America that we are ready to win and make America great again.”
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Biden has visited Michigan and Wisconsin multiple times this year, and his campaign enjoys a significant advantage in both states in terms of organizing and ground-based efforts.
In a statement, the Biden campaign said, “Trump is headed to states without the election infrastructure to speak of in either battleground state, while President Biden and the Democratic Party have 44 offices in Wisconsin and 30 offices in Michigan. I’m setting up a place,” he said. “President Trump’s former Minority Outreach Center in Milwaukee is becoming an ice cream shop.”
President Biden speaks at an event at Madison Area Technical College Tuax Campus, Wisconsin, April 8, 2024. (AP)
But Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas has strained support among Michigan’s large Arab American voters. And while the president enjoys support from many labor unions, Trump has repeatedly targeted Biden’s push for electric vehicles in the fight against climate change, making inroads with some autoworkers in the state. I’m here.
“There are a lot of opportunities for Trump in Michigan,” Kochel said. “I think Trump made a pretty convincing argument that Biden is going too far with EVs and trying to displace some auto workers.”
Trump also highlighted the spike in crime in both states under the Biden administration, but reiterated the abortion issue and unproven claims that voter fraud was to blame for his loss in the 2020 election. It has come under attack from the Democratic Party.
President Trump’s Republican allies sought to overturn the 2020 election results in both states by pushing fake electoral rolls.
Briana Johnson, Biden campaign communications director in Wisconsin, said last week that President Trump’s visit to the Badger state was a result of “his own efforts to take away women’s freedoms and encourage thousands of rioters to violently overturn the election.” “This is because I am trying desperately not to damage my career.”
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