An hour after he was supposed to speak at Traverse City’s Cherry Capital Airport, Former President Donald Trump appeared on a huge screen, addressing the crowd from his plane.
“We’re stepping on the gas,” he promised a crowd that was slowly thinning out.
Those still there at around 10:20 p.m. heard a wide-ranging speech about Michigan’s auto industry, border security and getting out the vote.
They also heard Trump label Vice President Kamala Harris as “useless,” refer to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper,” and say that he would get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.”
The audience watched Trump’s plane land right behind the rally’s stage at Avflight, a business on airport property where the rally was held. The jet reached the end of the tarmac and circled back so Trump could disembark just a hundred feet away from the crowd.
He was flying in from Austin, where he was taping a podcast episode with Joe Rogan.
“We got so tied up,” he told supporters. “But I figured you wouldn’t mind, since we’re trying to win.”
Before Trump took the stage, the audience heard from U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra, 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Auto industry
Trump talked about the loss of car manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China.
“We’re going to put the biggest tariffs,” he said. “There won’t be one damn car that’s going to be able to come through our border.”
He mentioned a proposed plant in Mexico that he said would have been one of the biggest in the world, saying the plans had been abandoned because of the threat of his tariffs if elected.
According to Newsweek, the Trump campaign hasn’t confirmed the details of this story and what proposed auto plant he is referencing.
Trump also announced he would “end the mandate for electric cars on Day 1.” The Harris campaign has insisted on multiple occasions that neither Harris nor Biden has implemented, or plans to implement, an electric car mandate.
“Electric cars are great, Tesla is great, Elon is great, and there’s a great market for them,” Trump said. “But they can’t all be electric. We have liquid gold – gasoline.”
In a call with reporters before the rally, Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Harris has no plans for an electric vehicle mandate, calling it a “scare tactic.”
“It’s a smoke screen behind the fact that the oil companies are scared to death they’re going to lose their profits if we all start buying different kinds of vehicles,” Stabenow said.
And she said electric vehicles have already brought investment to Michigan.
“Right in Traverse City, Lear is doing electric vehicle expansion,” Stabenow said. “They’re planning a $112 million expansion of three facilities in Michigan, one in Traverse City to support their growth in electric vehicles.”
In 2022, automotive supplier Lear announced plans to add new production space at its Traverse City facility on Woodmere Avenue. The automotive supplier planned to use the expansion to make components for electric vehicles.
She said anyone “following the money” would see oil companies funding Trump’s campaign, and that Democrats would support the auto industry while also fighting the climate crisis.
Leah Gourlay, Susan Hadden and Laurie Crisenberry attend former President Trump's rally in Traverse City on Friday, Oct. 25. (Photo: Claire Keenan-Kurgan/IPR News)
The rally-goers
The cost of living and border security were at the top of voters’ minds at Trump’s rally.
“I have a nursing degree, and it’s hard to live in Traverse City on that degree being a single female,” said Emily Klintworth, 37, who was attending her first Trump rally.
Tawnya Bennett of Charlevoix said she was concerned about the price of gas.
“That’s the change that happened [since 2020] — the negative change that we’re looking to go back from,” Bennett said.
For 14-year-old Casey Hollenbeck, border security and immigration were the biggest concern.
“You can come in,” he said. “You’ve just got to do it the right way, just not illegally coming in.”
Other voters spoke about concerns with corruption, the education system and election integrity.
Many said they were planning to vote early, either in person or with an absentee ballot. That push is in part due to Trump’s encouragement and his “Swamp the Vote” effort — an attempt to get Republicans’ votes submitted early.
Election Day is Nov. 5. Absentee voting in Michigan is underway, and early in-person voting began in our region today.
