Beth LeBlanc,Eleanor WhitakerThe Detroit News
Detroit — Former President Donald Trump warned of increases in illegal immigration, weakened global policy and a struggling economy under another Biden term as he courted both Black voters at a Detroit church and conservative stalwarts at a convention at Huntington Place.
The former president dinged the leader of United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, as doing an "absolutely terrible job" and warned of environmentally-friendly emissions limits implemented under Biden.
"We can’t let these people destroy our country like this," Trump said. "They’re going crazy."
Trump made the comments Saturday during a conservative political organization's convention at Huntington Place, where four years ago Republicans protested and chanted "stop the count" as Detroiters' absentee ballots were still being tallied. His address at the Turning Point Action convention came after he held a roundtable discussion with Black Detroit voters at 180 Church on Stansbury Avenue on the city's west side.
Trump's attacks on electric vehicles and Fain have been featured in several of his Michigan campaign speeches. The UAW endorsed Biden earlier this year, but support from blue collar union voters in Macomb County were considered key to Trump's 2016 victory in Michigan.
Fain scored victories for his union last year in a round of high-stakes negotiations with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV. The UAW's Michigan branchhas about 134,000 members. But a court-appointed watchdog tasked with curbing corruption within the UAW revealed in court filings last week that Fain is under investigation.
Biden's Environmental Protection Agency in Marchfinalized rules that would require automakersto determine their mix of gasoline-powered and electric vehicles to comply with greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions limits for light-duty vehicle fleets for model years 2027 to 2032 and beyond.
Separately, Michigan's Democratic-led Legislature and Whitmer's administration have authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for EV battery projects.
Trump said Saturday that he'd abandon the emission limits and EV push should he win another term in the White House.
"We’re going to bring back your auto industry at a level greater than it was 30 years ago," he said.
Democrats have argued Trump's failures during his first term allowed China to corner the EV industry, a reality that the Biden administration is attempting to counter. They've also argued that Trump, for all his condemnation of Biden's border policy, blew up a bipartisan deal earlier this year that would have implemented policies Republicans had long sought.
Trump's visit was pre-empted Friday by a press conference where Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and some Detroiters criticized the former president's record in Detroit and among Black voters.
"We cannot take a step backwards into a Trump reality that is so narrowly focused on everybody but us," Gilchrist said.
The Biden-Harris campaign also released a statement from longtime pastor James Perkins of the Greater Christ Baptist Church ahead of Trump's roundtable event at 180 Church. Four years ago, Trump labeled the city as "totally corrupt."
"Donald Trump has the nerve to waltz into our city and act like he wants to understand the struggles Black Detroiters face, but the reality is he doesn’t care," Perkins said in the statement. "Every time Trump opens his mouth to talk to Black folks, he demonizes us, insults us, and makes empty promises he’ll never keep."
Kilpatrick endorsem*nt amid Black voter push
Trump's visit to 180 Church in Detroit was preceded by his campaign's announcement of an endorsem*nt of Trump by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick as well as the formation of a Black Americans for Trump coalition.
Kilpatrick, whose sentence was commuted by Trump before he left office in January 2021, was listed among Trump's endorsem*nts and was briefly quoted in the announcement as a former mayor and state representative.
“I can never thank President Trump enough for what he's done for me and my family bygiving me freedom," Kilpatrick said. "But I believe this election and the issues involved are personal to every family and every person in America.”
Kilpatrick, who was sentenced in 2013 on two dozen criminal counts of using his positions as mayor and state representative to carry out a decade-long criminal racket, also attended Trump's rally in Saginaw County last month.
At the time, Kilpatrick declined to say whom he'd vote for in November, but told The Detroit News he wouldn't be voting for Biden, the incumbent Democratic president. Kilpatrick is a longtime Democratic politician who was mayor of Detroit from 2002 until his resignation in September 2008 in the wake of a City Hall scandal that eventually led to his conviction in federal court in a wide-ranging corruption scandal.
Trump's event at 180 Church was designed to try to help Trump cut into Biden's base of support among Black voters in Detroit, the nation's largest African American majority city.
The former president joined local Black leaders at a table in the front of the church's sanctuary, where they discussed issues affecting African Americans and other people of color. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Black Republican congressman from Florida, also participated in the discussion.
"He’s been the worst president for Black people," Trump said of Biden.
Census data indicates Detroit, Michigan’s largest city and a longtime Democratic stronghold, is 78% Black. Biden's 51%-48% victory in Michigan over Trump in 2020 and was aided by getting 240,936 votes in Detroit, defeating Trump there, 94%-5%.
Biden’s campaign has prioritized outreach in Detroit amid reports of lagging enthusiasm among Black voters. The president spoke at the NAACP Detroit Branch's 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner at Huntington Placeon May 19 and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a Michigan Democratic Party fundraiser at Huntington Place earlier this month.
But Trump also has sought inroads with African American voters in his third run for the White House. The former presidenturgedMichigan Republicans in March to reach out to Black voters in Detroit and other areas with predominantly Black populations in the state, the Associated Press reported.
Black voters weigh in on Trump's run
During Saturday's roundtable, Lorenzo Sewell, pastor of 180 Church, asked Trump how to keep the "Black dollar in the Black community" in order to foster entrepreneurship within the community.
The businessman-turned-politician said crime needs to be curbed in Detroit.
"If they stop the crime, they’re going to see more and more stores sprout," Trump said.
Omar Mitchell, the executive chef at Table No. 2, an upscale restaurant in downtown Detroit's Greektown district, said “money was pumping” into Black, Hispanic and Arab communities when Trump was president from 2017 to January of 2021.
Carlos Chambers, a veteran and postal worker, criticized the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and asked Trump, should he return to office, not to allow military members to “walk around wearing red high heel shoes.”
"He does have a point," Trump responded and later added, “Our soldiers are real soldiers. They’re not going woke."
Several speakers ahead of Trump's visit told those in the crowd at 180 Church that Democrats had long taken the Black vote for granted.
U.S. Rep. John James, a Republican and Michigan's only Black congressman, ticked off the number of elected officials who were Democratic and White, alleging their interest was not with the Black community, but with any vote that could help them hold the levers of power.
"Trump is only a threat to liberal elites who want to keep their power and they know it," said James, who represents southern Macomb County and Rochester and Rochester Hills in Oakland County.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, a Detroit native, said the president represents a "substantial threat to the status quo."
Inflation, immigration take center stage
At the Turning Point convention later in the day, Dee Davey, 73, a Republican precinct delegate for Washtenaw County, said she is worried about illegal immigration and the state of the economy as the November election approaches.
“Even though I am a very blessed community, people are still struggling with inflation and the economy,” Davey said.
Noel Davidson, a political science major at the City College of New York, came to the conference at Huntington Place despite disagreeing with most of convention’s political views.
“I came to this conference because as a Black individual, I feel that being able to be in touch with not only the right, but the Black right, will allow me to better understand people that I don’t really see eye to eye with,” Davidson said, referenced the right wing of American politics.
For Chris O’Brien, a Wisconsin native who attended Saturday's convention, abortion is the most fundamental issue on the ballot box this fall.
“I try to be pro-life. I look and see if my candidate is going to defend that and speak out on those issues,” O'Brien said.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
ewhitaker@detroitnews.com
Staff writers Craig Mauger and Marnie Munoz contributed.
