Donald Trump was in Michigan on Sunday, looking to win favor in an area of the country that helped launch him to the White House in 2016 but served as part of his downfall four years later.
Michigan saw a massive blue shift since Trump won it in 2016, with the Rust Belt state being one where Democrats have seen some of their biggest gains nationally in recent years. Trump's event in suburban Detroit on Sunday came as he fends off a federal indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
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Trump spoke at Oakland County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner, where he was honored by the party as its “Man of the Decade.” But much of his time was not spent celebrating but rather attacking his adversaries, such as President Joe Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Trump said Biden was a “catastrophe” for Michigan and business in the state, bashing electric vehicles and saying the push to promote them would mean the destroy Michigan's auto industry.
The former president has also seen his popularity slip among Republicans in the state, with 25 lawmakers having already endorsed DeSantis for president. As he has done for much of the time that DeSantis emerged as a Republican rival, Trump bashed DeSantis, saying he has “no personality” and that his campaign is “falling like a rock.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump additionally criticized Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a co-chairwoman of Biden’s reelection campaign, for approving state funds for a foreign company.
Michigan flipped in 2016 to help propel Trump to the Oval Office but then flipped back again to Biden four years later. It was one of three states that did that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and it was Trump's first campaign stop of this campaign cycle in the battleground state.
Michigan represents a major chess piece for Trump as he looks to take back the White House.
“By Trump’s calculations, he needs to win Michigan again to be the president. But he’s been very disruptive here,” Dave Trott, a former GOP congressman said. “Trump largely is the reason why the Michigan Republican Party is dead.”
Last year, as part of a difficult season for his endorsements, the candidates Trump endorsed in Michigan were among the loudest in echoing his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
In November, the statewide candidates he backed were overwhelmingly defeated, including Tudor Dixon, who lost by over 10 percentage points to Whitmer.
Michigan Republicans controlled all levels of state government from 2011 to 2019. Now, they are powerless for the first time in 40 years. The shift has been particularly evident in Oakland County, home to the largest number of Republican voters in the state.
“People who know Michigan electoral politics would say that it’s pretty important that if Republicans are going to carry the state, they need to win Oakland County,” Trott said.
While Trump lost the county in 2016 and 2020, Biden received nearly 100,000 more votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton did there and won the state by about 155,000 votes, or 2.8 percentage points.
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Trott, who represented Oakland County in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2019, initially endorsed Trump in 2016 but later said Trump was “unfit for office.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.