President Donald J. Trump held his first rally since being exonerated by the Mueller probe to huge cheering crowds in Michigan. The President took the stage before a loud and lively full house at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, where he proceeded to tear into Democrats and the FBI as unintelligent “frauds” who tried desperately to undermine the results of the 2016 election.
“The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people,” Trump said to thunderous applause.
Trump continued to unload on his opponents, “I have a better education than them, I’m smarter than them, I went to the best schools; they didn’t. Much more beautiful house, much more beautiful apartment. Much more beautiful everything. And I’m president and they’re not.”
Addressing counter-protesters outside the arena and leftist progressives in general, Trump asked, “What do you think of their signs, ‘Resist?’ What the hell? Let’s get something done.”
Winners and Losers
Totally in his element among the roars of the adoring crowd, Trump vowed to “close the damn border” unless Mexico halts two new caravans he said have been approaching the United States rapidly. Trump also hit at fraudulent asylum applicants, saying liberal lawyers often have coached them in a “big fat con job” to claim they’ve feared for their lives when they make it to the border.
The economy, Trump said to sustained cheers, “is roaring, the ISIS caliphate is defeated 100 percent, and after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over. … The single greatest political hoax in the history of our country. And guess what? We won.”
Trump predicted that the former DOJ and FBI officials who pushed the collusion theory and authorized secret surveillance warrants against members of his campaign — whom he incidentally called “major losers” — would soon have “big problems.”
Trump also characterized the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee as “little pencil-neck Adam Schiff, who has the smallest, thinnest neck I’ve ever seen,” and someone who is “not a long-ball hitter.”
Schiff, D-Calif., who fiercely pushed collusion claims despite little evidence of the President’s involvement, has vowed to continue investigating Trump despite Mueller’s findings — even as Republicans have called for his resignation.
Trump’s rally prompted thousands of supporters to line the streets hours beforehand in a festive atmosphere that included vendors selling “Make America Great Again” hats and holding supportive signs.
As the president continued to lambast all of his usual opponents, he made it a point to take a jab at the Fake News noting with great satisfaction that MSNBC and CNN’s ratings “dropped through the floor last night,” while Fox News’ ratings were “through the roof.”
At the end of the rally, Trump remarked, “the Democrats took the people of Michigan for granted. With us, you will never be forgotten again.”
