Saturday, October 12, 2024

Trump appears at town hall in Michigan – as it happened

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Trump speaks at town hall in Flint, Michigan.

Trump is speaking now in Michigan. He claims that there are 8,000 people in the audience, and the same number “walking away”, who could not get in. This seems unlikely, and Trump has made false claims about his crowd sizes before.

Obama has said Trump is obsessed with the sizes of his crowds.

Key events

This blog is closing now, thanks for following along. You can find the latest US elections coverage here.

Donald Trump says he’s meeting next week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Associated Press reports.

Modi is scheduled to be in the United States next week for the Quad Summit in Delaware in addition to events in New York, according to Indian media reports. There was no meeting with Trump previously reported.

Trump referenced his meeting with Modi for the first time while speaking at an unrelated event in Michigan.

Indian officials did not immediately confirm the meeting when asked.

Trump ends, stopping to take selfies with people, shaking hands, to the tune of YMCA. This event appeared from the livestream to be well-attended and energetic, with loud cheers – and boos, for the Democrats –from the crowd.

Trump veered between topics, as he often does, offering confusing and unsubstantiated answers to questions.

A voter says he is concerned about taxes.

Trump says Harris will double your taxes, which is not true.

There are, however, big boos from the crowd.

Trump is winding down. He says “Michigan is going to be the most fun” if he wins. He talks about car imports, saying “you can’t flood” the market with imported cars, to energetic cheers.

“This will be like taking candy from a baby,” he says. It is unclear whether he is talking about the election or car imports.

“The only thing that never gets obsolete is a wall and a wheel. A wall is what we’re talking about right now,” he says.

“Just to finish with the border, when I talk about energy, he says, “I believe the border is of the greatest interest.”

It is difficult to follow this response to a question from a voter about the cost of food and groceries, which is veering between energy and immigration.

Trump is asked by a nurse how he will bring down the cost of food and groceries.

“So we have to start always with energy,” he says. “If you make donuts, if you make cars, whatever you make.”

He says is plan is to reduce energy bills by 50% in 12 months. He does not explain how he will do this.

“We’re going to do what we have to do with the farmers,” he says. He appears to be trying to talk about exporting food.

“Interest rates, energy, and common sense,” he says. Then the talks about the border again.

On American women’s feelings about Trump, via the Washington Post:

President Joe Biden won women by 15 points over Trump in 2020, according to exit polls, up from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s 13-point victory among women in 2016. Polls suggest that this year, women prefer Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris over Trump by similar margins. Harris led Trump by 13 points among women in an ABC News/Ipsos poll released last Sunday. Before the Democratic National Convention last month, the same poll found her leading him by six points among women.

He talks about the civilian who took a photograph of the suspect’s number plate, who was a woman. He says “women are smarter than men”.

“This woman was unbelievable,” Trump says. “She did an amazing job.”

Huckabee Sanders says the takeaway is that the “women of this country love Donald Trump.”

Trump talks now about the apparent assassination attempt yesterday.

He again thanks the secret service. “These guys do a great job. Now, they do need more people,” he says.

“Closing the border” and “drill, baby drill” are two things Trump will get done, he says.

He says, “unless you have the death penalty for drug dealers you’ll never get rid of that problem.”

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