Donald Trump plans to kick off his campaign on Tuesday with back-to-back rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin, two key states in his effort to topple President Joe Biden in November.
Since his rematch with Biden was all but certain about three weeks ago, the former Republican president has only held one of his signature large, packed rallies, and he wants to put a stop to any idea that he is slowing down.
Trump will begin in the northern state of Michigan, in the Great Lakes region, where his campaign organization claims he would focus on “Biden’s border bloodbath” along the border with Mexico.
The expression, which is unsettling, to say the least, is one Trump frequently uses to criticize his opponent’s border policy, with immigration always high on the list of US voter worries.
It is also just one example of Trump’s increasingly heated rhetoric, which has raised concerns about the possibility of violence among his enraged fans.
He has accused migrants of “poisoning the blood” of the country and threatened a “bloodbath” — purportedly in the US car sector — if he is not elected.
Last year, he mirrored Nazi Germany by promising to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
On Friday, he uploaded a photograph of Biden tied up on social media, eliciting additional astonishment and outrage.
But, if the program announced for Tuesday is any indication, Trump is doubling down on his tough tone against migrants in particular, even in a state that is 2,000 miles from the Mexican border.
The swing state rally will take place in Grand Rapids, where he previously conducted his 2016 campaign rally.
He won both the state and the keys to the White House over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.
Biden returned the state to the blue column in 2020, aided by unionized workers and a sizable Black community that helped provide a victory margin of less than three percentage points.
But this time, the Democrat fears losing the backing of the 200,000-strong Arab-American community, which has condemned his support for Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza rises.
Polls presently show Trump in the lead, but the election is still expected to go down to the wire.
It is also expected to do so in adjacent Wisconsin, where Trump is scheduled to hold his second rally two hours later.
Like Michigan, Trump won the Midwestern state in 2016 but lost it to Biden in 2020. According to polls, Wisconsin, with its large population of dairy farmers and other rural voters, will be one of the most closely contested 2024 contests.
The election’s outcome may depend on winning critical swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan, as many states already have a clear preference.
Biden has been on a swing-state tour in recent weeks, stopping in Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, he also raised $25 million at a major fundraising dinner in New York, a significant increase in a country where presidential races may cost billions of dollars.
Biden’s financial lead over his Republican competitor is growing, while Trump is depleting funds as he pays legal fees for various criminal and civil charges.
On Saturday, he plans to host a fundraising event from his luxurious Florida home.
However, any momentum he may have gained may be dashed after his first criminal trial, which begins on April 15 and charges him with manipulating business documents in order to make hush money payments to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.
This will be followed by other potential trials, including two in Florida, Georgia, and Washington, DC, attempting to overturn the 2020 election.