In Flint, former President Donald Trump talks a ruined auto industry and nuclear war

FLINT — Appearing in this Democratic stronghold and old industrial center, former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night made a series of dire and bold predictions, promising to close down the southern border on his first day if he returns to office, save the auto industry from what he called certain ruin and stave off nuclear war.

"The whole world is blowing up," said Trump, speaking at the Dort Financial Center in Flint to a capacity crowd of 6,000 people or more just two days after Secret Service agents foiled an apparent assassination attempt against the Republican former president in Florida and 50 days before the Nov. 5 election between him and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

While the hour-long event was labeled a town hall, which suggested a series of interactions between Trump and members of the audience, instead only three people asked questions along with those from the host − Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Trump's White House press secretary. In his answers, Trump acknowledged he often gives "long, sometimes very complex sentences and paragraphs but they all come together."

"That’s not rambling, that’s genius when you connect the dots," he said.

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Here are some of the highlights from Trump's remarks, with some context added where needed:

∎ Regarding the apparent assassination plot in Florida, for which a suspect was arrested without his firing a shot, as well as the assassination attempt against the former president in Butler, Pa., in July, Trump said, "You know, only consequential presidents get shot at."

∎ Speaking of Michigan's predominant place in the domestic auto industry, he said if reelected he would place higher tariffs on foreign imports, especially those from China, and said Michigan would have more auto plants than during any time in the last 50 years. "If I don’t win you will have no auto industry within two to three years," he said. When Trump was president, Michigan lost auto jobs even before the COVID-19 shutdowns.

∎ When one audience member asked Trump what needed to be done to protect the auto industry, Trump veered into a dire warning about the threat of nuclear war and downplayed the threat of climate change, saying the world is cooling.

"It (a nuclear attack) is the single biggest threat to the world, not only Michigan to the world, and you're not going to care so much about making cars, if that stuff starts happening." While some leaders say the threat of nuclear war is higher than in the recent past , it's also true that the world has been warming, not getting cooler, for decades.

Trump also said he would start his first day back in office by responding to increases in recent years in illegal immigration by closing the southern border, despite a current policy that has substantially reduced the number of people being allowed into the U.S. and a move if attempted which is certain to spark lawsuits to block him, and increasing oil production as a way to lower gas prices and transportation costs overall. In 2023, the U.S. produced more oil than in any year when Trump was president.

Trump continued to blast the U.S. economy, saying it was "not good," but the job creation has been up throughout President Joe Biden's term in office, as has the stock market. Inflation rates were high, however, for years following the COVID shutdowns, though they have been coming down in recent months.

The former president also had kind words for Elon Musk, a supporter and founder of electric car maker Tesla, saying Musk "loves your state," even though Tesla has no Michigan operations despite its connection with the auto industry and has been accused by the UAW of trying to intimidate workers' efforts to unionize.

It was Trump's ninth visit to Michigan this year and his first to Genesee County, where he lost by about 9 percentage points to President Joe Biden in 2020 and by a similar margin to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he narrowly won Michigan and the presidency.

Polls show a close election between Trump and Harris both nationally and in Michigan, which is considered a key battleground state. Harris is due in metro Detroit on Thursday for an event before a small audience with Oprah Winfrey to be telecast online. Democrats and the Harris campaign have been arguing that Trump's proposed tariffs will result in far higher prices and exacerbate inflation and that he cannot be trusted to protect reproductive rights; during the event Tuesday, Trump said it's Harris who wants to raise taxes that will hurt middle class Americans and businesses.

“Under Donald Trump’s watch, Michigan lost 280,000 jobs as he handed out tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations. A second Trump term would be even worse – raising costs on Michigan families by nearly $4,000 a year, crushing auto jobs, and ceding Michigan’s global auto manufacturing leadership to the Chinese government," said U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan. "The only candidate in this race who understands working families is Vice President Harris, who has a plan to lower costs, bring good-paying manufacturing jobs back home and ensure Michigan workers continue to lead the world in auto manufacturing."

Outside, some Trump supporters waited many hours to see him at the Dort Financial Center, which seats about 4,000 people for hockey and about 6,000 for concerts and was rapidly filling ahead of Trump's scheduled 7 p.m. appearance.

Judy Tidball of the village of Genesee and Linda Bain of Davison, both retired nurses, weren't sure they would make it to the front of the line after arriving shortly before 4 p.m. They said they are huge Trump fans and they were anxious to see him speak in person, for the first time.

Bain said she thought Trump did a great job as president and she would have great fears for the future of the nation if Harris was elected president.

Tidball said she's been hurt by high grocery prices since Biden took office and is also concerned about large numbers of undocumented immigrants crossing the border. "I'm all for immigration, but it has to be legal," Tidball said.

Inside the building electronic messages reading "Trump was right," and "Vote Trump for No Tax on Tips," ringed the heights of the arena.

Rod Swanson, who lives in the Clio area and is a semi-retired salesman, said he is looking forward to what he hopes will be a "third Trump term" after the Nov. 5 election.

"I feel it (will be) his third term because the media suggest that everything that's happened the last four years has been Trump's fault," Swanson said.

"Kamala has no experience of any sort and President Trump has," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, spoke with a few hundred supporters at Apple Valley Estates in Sparta, a small community north of Grand Rapids.

While Vance continued to hit Harris for what he described as failures in dealing with inflation and the U.S. southern border with Mexico, a sizeable chunk of his comments focused on a Sunday assassination attempt against Trump.

Vance said Democratic leaders and the mainstream media have not done enough to tone down rhetoric on the campaign trail in the weeks since the first assassination attempt against Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July.

That was before Sunday’s thwarted attempt, when Secret Service agents opened fire after spotting a gun barrel in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club in Florida, causing the gunman to flee before he was arrested in a nearby county later that day.

Suspect Ryan Routh, who appeared in federal court Monday, never fired a shot, authorities said. He was being held on charges of possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, USA Today reported.

Vance called for Trump to have the same level of security detail as President Joe Biden, telling supporters that "assassinations destroy the social fabric of this country." Biden said Monday that the Secret Service needed more resources, and he encouraged Congress to provide them."If people had taken an attempt on Kamala Harris' life, I would be looking in the mirror and saying 'how can we do a lot better?' But here we are, two people have now tried to assassinate Donald Trump, and all the media can talk about is we need more censorship? And they're still talking about Donald Trump like he's a threat that needs to be eliminated? They haven't learned a damn thing, and they're going to get somebody killed."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4 .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: In Flint, former President Donald Trump talks a ruined auto industry and nuclear war