In First Rally Post-Presidency, Trump Lays Out Republican Midterm Argument

AMAC Exclusive

If Republicans win majorities in the House and Senate in 2022, they may well look back to a warm summer evening in June 2021 in Wellington, Ohio as the turning point—the day when former President Trump reignited the spirits of the base, laid out the case for the party to prosecute in the midterms, and set Republicans on a course for victory.

On Monday, Trump returned triumphant to rural northeastern Ohio for his first rally since leaving the White House, speaking for more than an hour and a half to an estimated 25,000 people. The setting was Lorain County, which Trump noted had not been carried by a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, until Trump won there in 2020.

In his remarks, Trump vowed that his movement would “send Biden and the media and big tech tyrants a message they cannot ever censor, cancel, or ignore…We will take back the House, take back the Senate and we will take back America.”

In the clearest sign to date that Trump and other Republicans view the issues of crime and border security as the keys to next year’s elections, the former president opened his speech with an extended attack on the Biden administration’s record on “law and order.”

Trump castigated Biden’s “open borders fanaticism” saying, “It is insanity and it is destroying our country.” Trump argued that “the radical left Democrats are doing everything possible to put your family in grave danger: releasing criminal aliens, defunding the police, abolishing cash bail.” “Crime is through the roof,” he said. Yet, Democrats want to “take away your guns.”

“Biden and Democrats are weak on China, weak on trade, weak on the economy and weak on everything else, except on weaponizing law enforcement to go after Republicans. That’s the only thing they are strong on,” Trump said, presumably referring to the numerous politically motivated investigations into those in his orbit both during and after his presidency.

In addition to kicking off Trump’s return to campaigning, the rally was also designed to promote the Congressional candidacy of Max Miller, a former Trump aide who is challenging Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a Republican who voted for impeachment, in the primary next year.

Trump ripped into Gonzalez, calling him “bad news, a grandstanding RINO” who “likes Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden.”

He noted that earlier this year, Gonzalez voted to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, and that “after he voted for impeachment, the Ohio GOP censured Gonzalez. They demanded he resign.”

In another potential preview of an argument he will be making in the runup to the midterms, Trump detailed the slew of media falsehoods that dominated the nation last year. Trump said that “the media and the Democrats are now admitting that I was right about everything” noting they are acknowledging that the “virus came from a Chinese lab.” On hydroxychloroquine, Trump said, “[n]ow reports are coming out that say that it works.” “Lafayette Square was not cleared for photo op.” “The Russian bounty story was a total fake.” “The first vaccine was known to be effective before the election.” “Blue state lockdowns don’t work.” “And our children should be back in school.”

“Everybody knew this during the campaign but the fake news media refused to talk about it because they will say and do everything to destroy our great MAGA movement, which is a movement based on strength and peace and law and order, and above all else, is a movement based on common sense,” Trump said.

After slamming Critical Race Theory and calling on Republicans to ban it, the former president then went into an extended discussion of the 2020 election, which he said was “rigged.”

Finally, Trump laid out the early building blocks of what he suggested would be the party’s platform in the midterms, pledging that Republicans would fight for more domestic manufacturing, “make China pay trillions in reparations,” secure the border, “break up big-tech monopolies,” and “restore the right to free speech in America.”

Reprising a popular line from his 2020 rally speeches, Trump also vowed to “restore patriotic education to our schools, and we will teach our children to love their country, honor our history and always respect our great American flag.”

In a rousing conclusion that brought the crowd to its feet for continuing applause, Trump declared that “No matter how powerful the sinister forces we are up against [may be]… We must never forget this country does not belong to them, it belongs to you, the American people.”

“This is your home. This nation is your heritage, and our magnificent American liberty is your God-given right,” he said. “The people of this land will not be ruled and talked down to by corrupt politicians, petty tyrants, and socialist bureaucrats in a place called Washington, DC.”

“My fellow Americans,” Trump declared, “our movement is far from over. In fact, our fight has only just begun.”