This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump took aim at familiar targets at a rally in Michigan on Saturday night, following a call on Twitter for the resignation of Democratic senator Jon Tester with a threat to say “things” that would ensure “he’d never be elected again”.

The US president staged the event in Washington Township, north of Detroit, on the same night comedian Michelle Wolf shocked the audience at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington with a brutal routine that roasted Trump and leading members of his administration. Trump skipped the dinner for a second year running, a fact he emphasised in fundraising emails and in his speech to the rally.

“Is this better than that phony Washington White House correspondents thing?” he asked the crowd. ‘Is this more fun?’ I could be up there tonight smiling like I love when they’re hitting you, shot after shot.”

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“These people, they hate your guts,” he continued, referring to the press. “And you know, you got to smile. And if you don’t smile, they say, ‘He was terrible. He couldn’t take it.’ And if you do smile, they’ll say, ‘What was he smiling about?’ You know, there’s no win.”

Wolf was particularly savage about Trump and press secretary Sarah Sanders. But on Sunday morning, the president’s duly tweeted criticism of the comedian and the dinner was relatively mild.

“While Washington, Michigan, was a big success,” Trump wrote, “Washington DC, just didn’t work. Everyone is talking about the fact that the White House Correspondents Dinner was a very big, boring bust … the so-called comedian really ‘bombed’. [Fox News host Greg Gutfeld] should host next year!”

Ahead of his rally, Trump said in a fundraising pitch he did not want to be stuck in a room “with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me”. He would rather spend the evening “with my favourite deplorables”, he said.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton told supporters at a private fundraiser half of Trump supporters could be lumped into a “basket of deplorables … racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it”.

Clinton liked the line and repeated it often, according to the New York Times reporter Amy Chozick in her new book Chasing Hillary. But it was gleefully co-opted by Trump and his supporters.

Michigan was one of the northern “rust belt” states that helped give Trump his surprising victory, which he took in the electoral college despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3m ballots.

Macomb County, the site of Saturday’s rally, is among the predominantly white counties known as a base for “Reagan Democrats” – blue-collar voters who abandoned the Democrats for Ronald Reagan but who can be movable. Barack Obama won the county twice, then Trump carried it by more than 11%.



As the 2018 midterms approach, Trump has been urging voters to advance his agenda. In Washington Township on Saturday, he pointed to Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan as a Democrat who needed to be voted out.



“Debbie Stabenow is one of the leaders for weak borders and letting people in. I don’t know how she gets away with it,” Trump said. “A vote for a Democrat in November is a vote for open borders and crime. It’s very simple. It’s also a vote for much higher taxes.”

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Trump added: “And you people just keep putting her back again and again and again. It’s your fault.”

Earlier, the president tweeted a call for the resignation of Tester, over the Montana senator’s role in the failed nomination of White House doctor Ronny Jackson to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. At his rally, Trump railed against allegations that were aired by Tester against Jackson.

“I know things about Tester that I could say, too,” he said. “And if I said ’em, he’d never be elected again.”

Trump promoted key policies: appointing conservative judges, building a wall on the southern border, ending “sanctuary cities” for undocumented migrants and protecting tax cuts passed by Congress. He also took credit for warming relations between North and South Korea.

Trump repeatedly weaved back into immigration and his support for a border wall, threatening: “If we don’t get border security, we’re going to have no choice, we’ll close down the country.”



On Sunday morning, he tweeted a familiar unverified boast about the size of the crowd. “Great evening last night in Washington, Michigan. The enthusiasm, knowledge and love in that room was unreal. To the many thousands of people who couldn’t get in, I cherish you … and will be back!”

