GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, March 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A vindicated President Trump kicked off in earnest his re-election bid Thursday evening, holding his first political rally since special counsel Robert Mueller concluded earlier this week that there was no Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential election.

In a fiery speech to an 11,000 person packed Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids, the second largest city in the state of Michigan, the president vigorously laid out what are likely to be the major themes of his 2020 campaign.

In typical Trump fashion, the president spent the bulk of the evening tearing into “the Russian hoax” and attacking “radical” Democrats while mocking the Green New Deal, often times to great laughs from his audience. He also touted his administration’s accomplishments on the economy, the auto industry, healthcare, and border security.

President Trump at Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 28, 2019. SOURCE: Stephen Kokx / LifeSiteNews.com

Near the end of his speech, the president called out Democrats for their embrace of infanticide and abortion.

“In recent months, the Democrat Party has also been aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children to be ripped from their mother’s womb up until the moment of birth," Trump said to a smattering of boos.

“In Virginia, the governor stated he would even allow a newborn baby — wrap the baby up, make the baby comfortable — to be executed. After birth. And that is why in my State of the Union Address, I called on Congress to immediately pass legislation prohibiting the extreme late-term abortion of babies.”

Earlier this week the Trump administration strengthened the Mexico City policy, a move that, in effect, bans taxpayer dollars from being used for abortion in any way in the U.S. and overseas.

Kayleigh McEnany, National Press Secretary for President Trump’s re-election campaign, was at the rally and told LifeSiteNews that the Democrat Party’s support for third trimester abortion is outside of what mainstream Americans think is acceptable and that it will backfire on them in 2020.

President Trump at Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 28, 2019. SOURCE: Stephen Kokx / LifeSiteNews.com

The pro-life issue is “a key issue” to the President’s re-election bid, she said, “especially when the Democrats have become so radical.”

Trump echoed McEnany’s remarks during his speech. Democrats are “the party of high taxes, open borders, late-term abortion, crime, hoaxes, and delusions!” he roared. He also said that Republicans believe in religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and that “faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the true American way.”

Holding the rally in Grand Rapids is highly symbolic for Trump, as it was the city where he held his final campaign stop in 2016 during the early morning hours on election day, November 8.

In his speech to the overflowing crowd Thursday, Trump reminded attendees about how he, and not Hillary Clinton, visited the state on multiple occasions.

Trump will need to replicate those efforts in 2020 if he is to win Michigan’s 16 electoral college votes again. In 2016, he won the historically Democratic state by just 10,704 votes and will have a near impossible time getting re-elected without it. Prior to 2016, the last time Michigan supported a Republican for president was George W. Bush in 1988. Pro-abortion Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Beto O’Rourke have already been campaigning in the state.

Trump spent the first half hour of the 82-minute speech blasting the “fake news media” and excoriating what he called “the Russian hoax,” which he referred to as “a sinister effort to undermine our historic election victory and to sabotage the will of the American people.”

Touting “total exoneration, complete vindication,” a riled-up Trump declared that the “collusion delusion is over.” He blamed the Democrats, “the deep state,” and the press for carrying out “the single greatest political hoax in the history of our country.”

The entire investigation was “a plan by those who lost the election to try to illegally regain power,” he exclaimed.

Trump also mentioned the “fake, dirty dossier” paid for by “crooked” Hillary Clinton, which was immediately met with chants of “Lock her up!” Cheers of “Build the Wall” and “CNN Sucks” occurred during the raucous rally as well.

Donald Trump Jr., who introduced his father, held nothing back either, calling out former FBI Director James Comey and Democratic lawmaker Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who has been alleging for several years that Trump-Russian collusion took place.

Trump Jr. recently said he wouldn’t rule out a run for office at some point in the future.

The rally began with a prayer by Kent County Commissioner Harold Voorhees. Voorhees prayed for an end to abortion and infanticide as well as for protection of the aged and those with special needs, to which the crowd enthusiastically cheered.

Approximately 15,000 people outside the arena watched the rally on a video screen.