Source: Politics<\/p>\n
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN \u2013 Donald Trump closed a years-long presidential campaign early Tuesday following a historic cycle that included two apparent attempts on his life, a pivot to a new Democratic candidate and multiple criminal indictments \u2014 with one last rally where he pushed for immediate election results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the answer tonight,\u201d Trump said from a podium in the battleground state after calling into question the integrity of voting machines and decrying the possibility that results could take up to two weeks.<\/p>\n
Before launching into a nearly two-hour speech that stretched past 2:00 a.m., Trump seemed wistful as he strolled down the catwalk to applause from supporters.<\/p>\n
His voice was raspy after back-to-back rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and finally Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been an incredible journey. It’s very sad in a way. This is the last one,\u201d Trump said as he stood before the crowd. He recalled being in Grand Rapids in 2016, when there were doubts about his election odds.<\/p>\n
The reminiscing didn\u2019t last long before Trump launched a meandering closing speech where he promised to \u201cmake Detroit greater than it ever was,” shared a story about billionaire supporter Elon Musk, described the Lincoln Bedroom, railed against Nancy Pelosi saying he wanted to call her the “B-word,” talked about migrant gangs, threatened to tariff Mexico<\/a> 100 percent over immigration and compared his crowd sizes to that of Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n “They have no enthusiasm. She had a rally today. She couldn\u2019t have had more than a hundred people there. I had all four stadiums full,” Trump said.<\/p>\n Trump, who is known to be superstitious, decided to hold his last rally in the same city in Michigan where he wrapped up his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. The former president was almost two hours late to his Grand Rapids event and kept speaking until the early morning hours. As it continued, people in the audience, some of whom had lined up since early in the morning for a seat inside the arena, began to trickle out.<\/p>\n Trump called on his supporters to get out and vote, and declared \u201cif we win Michigan, we win the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n On Trump\u2019s last day of campaigning, the former president also spoke about his third run for the White House as more of an end of an era that began in 2015 \u2013 and could finally dawn if he doesn’t win the presidency a second time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s now been nine years we have been fighting, step by step together,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThere is love in this room, I think there is love in this country, I think it is a much bigger movement than we understand.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere will never be anything like this,\u201d Trump said. At the end of the rally, he invited his adult children to join him on stage.<\/p>\n Trump has appeared to grow sentimental as he discusses the political movement he has led \u2014 one characterized by his signature rallies where supporters turn up by the thousands, standing in line for hours. Over the last week, Trump reminisced about his nearly decade-long run of holding political gatherings, repeatedly making comments about concluding his campaigning for office.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really the end of a journey,\u201d Trump said Monday, \u201cbut a new one will be starting.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has made it clear he wants to be remembered as the only political figure who could command such a following, even when, he notes, he is eventually succeeded by another Republican.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing something historic. This has never been done before,\u201d Trump said in Raleigh, during the first of four such stops Monday. \u201cThey\u2019ll never have rallies like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Kellyanne Conway, who ran Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign, described his rallies as \u201ccentral\u201d to his campaign. \u201cPeople feel like they are part of something enjoyable and consequential, not a conventional campaign, but.a movement. We are entering the 10th year – and final homestretch – of the Trump rallies. Millions of people have shown up to watch him stand up, put up and speak up. The people are his oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n Colleen Kill, 31, from Rochester Hills, Michigan, was waiting in line to find a seat inside the arena on Monday night and said coming to a Trump rally was on her \u201cbucket list.\u201d Kristi Wackerle, 44, from Grand Rapids, said she wanted to \u201cbe part of history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis could be the last time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Trump boasted about his crowd sizes even as the numbers at some recent events fell. On Monday, Trump claimed he could have filled Milwaukee\u2019s Fiserv Forum \u201cthree times, maybe four times\u201d on Friday night. (He filled much of the 18,000 capacity arena, but there were still open seats inside.)<\/p>\n He made that claim Monday as he stood in a not-full Dorton Arena in Raleigh, where photos show eight years ago, nearly every seat was occupied during his Election Eve rally.<\/p>\n Later, in Pittsburgh, Trump mocked Harris for holding a competing rally in the city, calling it \u201clittle\u201d and \u201cquite embarrassing.\u201d He marveled at the \u201cfrisky\u201d crowd he had drawn to the PPG Paints Arena, which was on its feet cheering and jeering through at least the first hour of his speech. Left unmentioned: the draped-off upper level and the empty seats that dotted the lower bowl.<\/p>\n The Harris campaign turned Trump\u2019s obsession into a frequent campaign trail taunt.<\/p>\n Over the past week, as Trump confronts the possible end of his political career, his demeanor has oscillated wildly \u2014 sometimes within the same day. At times in this final stretch, he has displayed the cutting humor that endeared him to millions of Americans first as an entertainer and then as a politician. On Wednesday speaking to press from a sanitation truck and wearing a bright-orange safety vest at a Green Bay, Wisconsin<\/a> rally, Trump mocked President Joe Biden over his muddled \u201cgarbage\u201d remark.<\/p>\n