At a campaign speech in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, former President Donald J. Trump alleged, “Now if I don’t get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole... country.”
In his nearly 90-minute speech, the former president discussed the 2020 election, the US-Mexico border, and the US economy while attacking several government officials, including Fani Willis, the Atlanta prosecutor overseeing his criminal case in Georgia. He attacked President Joe Biden numerous times, calling him “stupid” and even referring to him as a “dumb son of a—" before trailing off.
Trump called Biden a great threat to the United States’ democracy due to his incompetence and his use of the Justice Department to go against his political opponents. He added, “I have more indictments than Al Capone!” regarding the number of indictments against him.
Trump opened his speech by praising the people who are serving sentences in prison in connection to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, calling them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots” while commending their spirit, promising to help them if he is elected in November.
Trump called the 2020 election “fake” and “crooked” numerous times throughout his speech and called the 2020 elections stolen, statements that have been discredited by experts across the political spectrum.
He then changed the subject to the US-Mexican border, saying that it is critical to stop the “invasion of our country” and that he would “send the illegal aliens back home” if he is elected. He called the border the “worst border in the history of the world” and called migrants “the roughest people you’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t know if you call them ‘people’ in some cases. They’re not people, in my opinion.” He later referred to them as “animals."
Trump portrays a dark vision of the United States
Trump claimed that if he did not win this year’s presidential election, “I don’t think you’re going to have another election, or certainly not an election that’s meaningful.” He argued that “November 5 will be the most important date in this country’s history,” referring to the 2024 date for the presidential election.
In his speech, Trump said that progressives are “all bad people” who “want to destroy this country” but said that if he’s elected, this won’t happen.
At the end of the speech, Trump claimed that while he was president, he had the most successful economy in the “history of the world,” although he ignored the economic crash that resulted from the COVID pandemic in 2020 while he was still president. He argued that if Biden remains president, there will be an economic crash “in the likes we have not seen since 1929.”
The former president said he would clean up all the nation's cities that have been “overrun by crime.” He stated he wanted to turn them into “beautiful beacons of hope” and would work with Democratic mayors and governors to do it if he had to.
At the end of his speech, he said that on day one of his presidency, he would sign an executive order to remove federal funding to any school that promotes “critical race theory” and “transgender insanity” and will “keep men out of women’s sports.” He called for his supporters to “vote like you’ve never voted before.”