Donald Trump, who celebrated his 78th birthday on Friday, has frequently ridiculed his opponent Joe Biden, casting doubt on the US president’s mental faculties and even making light of his occasional verbal missteps and physical blunders. He continued this trend in a recent address to right-wing organisation Turning Point Action in Detroit, Michigan.
Displaying a touch of sarcasm, Trump questioned Biden’s understanding of the term ‘inflation,’ while suggesting that his 2024 competitor undertake a cognitive test – an evaluation Trump himself confidently passed during his tenure in the White House. He proclaimed that he obtained excellent results in the test, following recommendations from previous presidential physician and current Republican congressman, Ronny Johnson, who Trump mistakenly referred to as Ronny Jackson, from Texas’s 13th congressional district. Trump cited Jackson, who joined the US House in 2021 and is known for being a staunch supporter of the former president, as considering him among the fittest presidents in history.
Trump’s faux pas instantly caught fire on social media platforms, attracting the attention of Biden’s quick-response team who rejoiced in highlighting it. Trump’s criticisms of Biden were voiced during the People’s Convention, a conference organised by Turning Point Action that hosted around 2,000 attendees, predominantly supporting the Make America Great Again (MAGA) philosophy. Despite promising to engage with audience queries, his 80-minute monologue failed to fulfil this pledge.
The convention was strategically located in central Detroit, a deliberate, provocative choice by Turning Point’s founder, Charlie Kirk. It should be noted that Detroit boasts a population that is 77 per cent African American and predominantly Democratic-leaning. Kirk’s recent inflow of racist and sexist remarks, including derogatory comments about Martin Luther King, have earned him significant disapproval.
The significance of Trump’s trip to Detroit cannot be overlooked, given Michigan’s status as one of the pivotal swing states that will likely influence this year’s presidential election. In the 2020 elections, Biden narrowly secured victory in Michigan by a margin of slightly above 150,000 votes.
Recently, the ex-president has strategically utilised his campaign rallies to portray an image of popularity within Black and Latino communities—demographics that recent polls indicate are increasingly showing him support. He organised a rally last month in South Bronx, a predominantly Hispanic and African American residential area in New York City.
Before delivering a speech at the Turning Point conference, Trump visited a Black church in Detroit where a ‘community round-table’ event was held. Simultaneously, his campaign committee announced the establishment of ‘Black Americans for Trump’, a group comprised of African American politicians, religious figures and renowned individuals who gave their endorsement to him.
However, if Trump aimed to gain more popularity amongst Black voters by making a keynote speech at the Turning Point convention, this likely fell flat as the audience was overwhelmingly white. During his speech at Turning Point, Trump restrained himself from tainting Detroit with the same disdain he has shown towards Democrat-led cities with a majority of minority residents.
Controversy followed him on Thursday when he labelled Milwaukee, Wisconsin—a city where he is scheduled to receive the Republican presidential nominee next month—as a ‘horrible city’. He shared this view with other Republicans at Capitol Hill.
Even though he refrained from making similar comments about Detroit, Trump did express disparaging views on the United States’ capital, where 53% of the residents are Black and Latino residents. He described Washington DC as a ‘hotbed of murder and crime’ and forewarned visitors to landmarks such as the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial about the city’s violent end they could meet – shot, beaten or murdered.