Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

DIMONDALE -- On his second visit to Michigan in two weeks, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday blasted Democratic policies he said have destroyed Detroit and other urban centers and called for African Americans to support him, saying blacks cannot expect change otherwise.

Accusing Clinton of preferring polices that would help refugees instead of blacks who have become "refugees in their own country," a feisty Trump promised job creation and a revitalization of manufacturing centers, saying Democrats are all "talk, talk, talk."

"Only a change in leadership will produce a change in outcomes," he thundered before a raucous suburban audience.

Trump's remarks, however, seemed somewhat out of place, given that he was delivering it in a hall outside Lansing, halfway across the state from the Detroit. He also hammered away on a message than Michigan manufacturing is in the dumps, just days after Gov. Rick Snyder -- also a Republican -- noted that unemployment in the state has dropped to its lowest levels since the early 2000s.

"Your business and plants have been ripped out," said Trump, who repeated earlier promises to stop manufacturing from leaving Michigan -- even though auto jobs are up sharply since the depths of the 2007-9 recession. The North American Free Trade Agreement -- signed into law in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton -- is widely blamed for moving auto production to Mexico, though much of that movement south was underway in the years before the trade pact was signed.

►Related: Trump's Michigan event delayed for Louisiana visit

►Related: Manafort resigns from Trump campaign

Hillary Clinton has also called for a review of NAFTA. Trump said she's not to be believed and again said he would raise a tax -- presumably a tariff -- on car companies that move production to Mexico. He also repeated his charge that Clinton secretly supports a proposed Pacific Rim trade deal -- though Clinton has said she no longer backs it.

Trump said "the Michigan manufacturing sector is a disaster," and no sector has been hurt more by "Hillary Clinton's policies than the auto sector," statements which seemed to ignore that since the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler in 2008-9, auto manufacturing jobs in Michigan have grown from 22,800 to 38,200 and auto parts jobs also have grown, from 73,400 to 162,800.

"Mexico will become the car capital of the world very quickly and Michigan is going to end up with a lot of empty buildings all over the place unless you elect Donald Trump," he said.

The speech -- which lasted about 45 minutes -- ranged widely, with Trump promising that his tax proposals would help the middle class more than Clinton's and repeating his call for "extreme vetting" of refugees and immigrants to ensure that people being let into the U.S. embrace American values. Many experts have called such a proposal unworkable and, as the Free Press reported this week, even supporters of it say it would have no effect on keeping potential terrorists out of the country.

►Related: During Detroit speech, Trump kept his cool

►Related:Anticipation builds as crowds gather for Donald Trump appearance

►Photos: Live from the Donald Trump rally

Early in the speech, Trump focused his attention on African-American voters, perhaps aware that his chances of election are slim if he can't do better with minorities. He predicted that given a chance to govern, he would win more than 90% of the African American vote in the future.

"What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?" he asked of blacks.

Trump noted that Detroit is the most violent city in America -- a statistic he didn't back up but Detroit does show up at or near the top of lists of major cities in terms of violent crime and murders -- and said he could work changes on the city if elected. A recent EPIC-MRA poll reported by the Free Press last week showed Trump behind Clinton in Michigan by a margin on 85%-2%, with 10% undecided.

"It’s time to hold Democratic politicians accountable for what they have done to these communities," Trump said. "At what point do we say enough?"

"I will produce for the African Americans," he said. "All the Democrats have done is taken advantage of your vote. … You have nothing to lose."

Before the event, long lines of cars stretched for miles to get into the rally, and entrepreneurs sold Trump buttons, t-shirts and other novelties to those winding their ways to The Summit arena complex from cars parked blocks away.

Teresa Pierce of Fulton Township, who was holding a sign reading "Border wall construction crew -- ready to work," said she doesn't feel the country is working for her anymore.

Kristin Bronson of DeWitt, a retired radiation safety officer from DeWitt, described herself as "a Trumpeter" as she walked toward the arena complex.

"We're speaking out, the people are rising up and trumpeting out," Bronson said.

The message to the government is: "You work for us; we don't work for you."

Trump's visit to Dimondale comes soon after a retool of the leadership of his campaign, which has been trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton, particularly in many key battleground states.

Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned on Friday, less than one week after Trump named Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman for Breitbart News, as the new campaign CEO, and Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and consultant, as campaign manager.

Trump's arrival in Michigan was delayed several hours so he could visit flood-ravaged Louisiana on Friday. That decision drew criticism from Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, and others, who pointed out that Trump has yet to visit Flint, which for more than two years has faced a crisis over lead-contaminated water, which was first acknowledged by the state government around Oct. 1 of 2015.

It's Trump's second visit to Michigan in less than two weeks. On Aug. 8, Trump visited Detroit and addressed the Detroit Economic Club.

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