Trump shifts focus to general election with tour of Midwest
Former President Donald Trump is gearing up for the general election by focusing on key states pivotal to his 2016 victory. He plans to visit Wisconsin for a rally, highlighting immigration issues. Trump aims to secure crucial swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, setting the stage for a closely contested election against President Joe Biden. Trump leads in Michigan polls, reflecting a competitive landscape ahead.
Former President Donald Trump will visit two out of three states that delivered him the White House in 2016 on Tuesday as he pivots to the general election with a swing through the Midwest.
The former president will appear in Wisconsin for an evening rally, his first in the state this cycle. Earlier in the day, he’ll hold an event in Michigan focused on immigration.
Trump visited Michigan in February, ahead of the presidential primary in the state, but now that he has the delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination, he has set his attention squarely on President Joe Biden as the two candidates embark on the longest general election campaigns in modern history.
In Grand Rapids, Trump is poised to criticize Biden for his border policies, what his campaign is calling “Biden’s Border Bloodbath.” The former president raised controversy for using the term “bloodbath” in reference to Biden’s policies on electric vehicles, an important industry in a manufacturing state such as Michigan.
“Joe Biden’s violent criminal illegals are invading backyards and communities across Michigan resulting in death, destruction, and chaos,” the Trump campaign wrote in a press release for the event.
He will later hold a rally in Green Bay as voters head to the polls in Wisconsin’s presidential primary. Biden, too, has received the needed delegates to become the Democratic nominee, but four other states will hold primary elections on Tuesday.
University of Michigan political science professor Ken Kollman expects he and Trump will spend a lot of time in the Great Lakes State this spring and summer, given Biden’s narrow, 3-point victory there in 2020. Trump won Michigan against 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by little more than 10,000 votes.
“Given what they know and we know, Michigan is in play and will be tightly contested,” Kollman told the Washington Examiner.
Trump leads Biden in Michigan, according to RealClearPolitics, with an average 3.5-percentage-point advantage over Biden in five-way polling that includes third-party and independent candidates. Trump has less than a point edge in Wisconsin, a state Trump narrowly won and then lost in his first two bids, respectively.
Part of the liability for Biden will be immigration. The former president made the matter central to his presidency, but he also sees political utility against his 2024 rival. While Biden’s average approval rating is net negative 16 points, his approval regarding immigration is net negative 32.5 points as a crisis unfolds at the southern border.
“Trump has incentives to make immigration a big concern,” Kollman said. “He is trying to focus people’s attention on such issues.”
Biden is also under pressure amid the war in Gaza, with his support for Israel enraging Michigan’s large Arab and Muslim American communities. In February, 13% of Democrats, or 101,000 people, voted “uncommitted” in the party’s primary in protest.
Trump’s wins in Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to Pennsylvania, over Clinton in 2016 secured him that election and the White House, even as he lost them four years later. But Wisconsin might be the most competitive of the battleground states, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden.
“On one hand, Biden is an unpopular incumbent whose public evaluations have fallen since he narrowly won the state in 2020,” Burden told the Washington Examiner. “He also faces some reluctance among Democratic voters. Meanwhile, Republicans are extremely unified in their support for Trump.”
“On the other hand, Trump has not shown an ability to grow his coalition. Even when he won the state in 2016, he earned only 47% of the vote,” he said. “Biden has built a better infrastructure for his campaign in Wisconsin, opening dozens of offices and using sophisticated data analysis and messaging. Trump is behind when it comes to organizing ground operations and taking advantage of early and absentee voting.”
The Biden campaign, which has underscored similar investments in Michigan, has accused Trump of ignoring supporters of former Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Biden started reaching out to Haley’s base after she suspended her campaign, releasing a 30-second ad last week as part of a seven-figure, three-week buy in mostly suburban areas of eight battleground states where Haley performed well against Trump, including Ottawa and Kent counties near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the former president will be on Tuesday.
“Donald Trump has made it crystal clear he doesn’t want support from voters who cast their ballot for Nikki Haley, so let us be equally clear: There is a home for everyone on this campaign who knows Donald Trump cannot be back in the White House,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters last week of the ad.
On Trump’s trip to Wisconsin specifically, Biden campaign Wisconsin communications director Brianna Johnson also condemned him for repeating his unfounded claim he won the state in 2020.
“After completely ignoring Wisconsin for nearly two years, Donald Trump is spreading the same lies that inspired a mob to assault police officers and try to violently overturn an election he knows he lost,” Johnson said. “Trump is reminding voters he has nothing to offer but resentment, revenge, and retribution — and no vision or plan to make life easier for Wisconsin families. Wisconsinites won’t stand for these dangerous and antidemocratic lies peddled by a self-obsessed loser.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Trump campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Biden and Trump will be on primary ballots in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin on Tuesday. Connecticut and Rhode Island Democrats will have the opportunity to vote “uncommitted” over the Israel-Hamas war, whereas Wisconsin Democrats have the option of “uninstructed delegation,” and New York Democrats have been encouraged to cast a blank ballot.
" Conservative News Daily does not always share or support the views and opinions expressed here; they are just those of the writer."
