DETROIT (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump plans to campaign on consecutive days Saturday in battleground Michigan in an attempt to piece together a coalition of historically competing interests, winning the support of conservative groups accused of attracting Black voters and white supremacists.
Trump is scheduled to host an afternoon roundtable at an African-American church in downtown Detroit, before appearing at a “people's conference” of Turning Point Action, a group the Anti-Defamation League says has ties to a range of extremist groups.
About 24 hours before President Trump was scheduled to speak at the convention, Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist, walked into the Turning Point conference room surrounded by cheering supporters and was quickly escorted out by security.
Fuentes created a political embarrassment for Trump in 2022 when he attended a private lunch at Trump's Florida mansion with the former president and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Trump's weekend plans underscore the shifting political forces that will shape this fall's presidential election as he seeks to block a second term for Democrat President Joe Biden.
Few states are expected to be more important in the November election than Michigan — Mr. Biden won the state by just 3 percentage points four years ago — and few voting groups are more important to Democrats than African Americans, who became a pillar of Mr. Biden's base in 2020. But with less than five months until Election Day, black voters are showing modest signs of disappointment in the 81-year-old Democrat.
New Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley told Michigan Republicans at a dinner on Friday that the state couldn't be more important.
“We all know that if we don't win Michigan, the Republican Party is not going to get into the White House,” Whatley said. “Or, more bluntly, if we don't win Michigan, Donald Trump is not going to get into the White House.”
“The November elections will decide the fate of the world,” he added.
Trump has argued that his messaging on the economy and border security will attract more black voters, and that his felony indictments make him more approachable.
Democrats offer an opposing view.
“Donald Trump is extremely dangerous to Michigan, to America and to black people,” Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, who is African-American, said Friday.
He said it was “sickening” that Trump spoke at the Turning Point conference, which was being held in the same convention center that is “the epicenter of the vote-stealing effort.”
Indeed, the day after the 2020 presidential election, as absentee ballots were being counted, dozens of angry Trump supporters stormed into the TCF Center (now renamed Huntington Place) yelling, “Stop the count!” Local media captured footage of protesters outside and in the lobby. Police blocked them from entering the counting area.
The protests came after President Trump tweeted that Biden votes were “found all over the place” in several states, including Michigan.
The false idea that Biden benefited from widespread voter fraud has been widely rejected by polling officials from both parties, the judicial system and members of Trump's former administration. Yet Trump continues to spread such misinformation, which reverberated throughout the conservative convention over the weekend.
Speaking from the main stage, Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk incorrectly described the conference venue as a “crime scene.”
However, such extreme statements do not appear to have hurt Trump's standing among black voters.
Among Black adults, Biden's approval rating has fallen to just 55% from 94% at the start of his term in January 2021, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Policy Research poll released in March.
According to an Associated Press-NORC poll conducted in June, about 80% of black voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, and about two-thirds say they have a “very unfavorable” view. About 20% of black voters have a very or somewhat positive view of Trump.
Trump won 8% of the Black vote in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, and in an election that's expected to be close, even small changes could have significant effects.
Maurice Morrison, 67, a lifelong Detroit resident, plans to attend Trump's speech at his church. Morrison acknowledged that Trump is deeply unpopular in his hometown and beyond. He has voted for Trump twice before and plans to vote again this time.
“The moment he decided to run for president as a Republican, he automatically became a racist. It's his middle name now: 'Trump is a racist.' Everyone I talk to, everyone I know, my family believes that,” said Morrison, who is black. “He cares.”
Meanwhile, thousands of mostly young and white conservative activists were eagerly awaiting Trump's keynote speech on Saturday night.
Turning Point has become a growing force in Trump-era Republican politics, particularly within the “Make America Great Again” movement, despite the ADL warning that it “continues to attract racists.”
“Numerous individuals associated with the group have made bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and other groups,” the international anti-hate group ADL wrote in a background memo. “While TPUSA leaders say they reject white supremacist ideology, their events include individuals who are known to be white supremacists.”
Turning Point spokesman Andrew Corbett dismissed the ADL's claims as “slander and lies.”
“The ADL is a scourge to America, spreading poison and division. They have completely lost their way,” Corbett said, describing criticism of the ADL as a “badge of honor.”
Long popular among Trump's MAGA extremists, Turning Point has now become a centerpiece of mainstream Republican politics. The group's weekend speaking program featured a wide array of Republican politicians, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). It also featured Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who is due to enter prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for failing to comply with a U.S. House subpoena.
Vivek Ramaswami, who has emerged as a strong supporter of President Trump since unsuccessfully challenging him for the Republican presidential nomination, called on conservatives in a speech Friday night to reject what he says is the Democratic Party's embrace of diversity.
“I'm tired of celebrating our diversity,” Ramaswami charged. “It means nothing unless there's something great that unites us.”
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Associated Press writer Lynley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
