Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Tuesday for the first time since a second apparent assassination attempt on his life, boasting that "only consequential presidents get shot at" while expressing gratitude to Kamala Harris for her phone call to check on him. Trump addressed a town hall meeting in Flint, a once-thriving industrial city in Michigan, which has struggled since the closure of its factories due to foreign competition. The former president linked the thwarted assassination attempt at his Florida golf course on Sunday to his promise of imposing heavy tariffs on car imports from Mexico and China.
"And then you wonder why I get shot at, right? You know, only consequential presidents get shot at," Trump remarked. His election rival, Harris, who was campaigning in Pennsylvania, revealed that she had contacted the former president following the foiled attack. "I checked on him to see if he was OK. And I told him what I have said publicly — there's no place for political violence in our country," Harris stated in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). The White House described the conversation as "cordial and brief," with Trump acknowledging Harris's kind gesture.
Trump has suggested that the would-be shooter was influenced by the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Harris, which he claims portrays him as a threat to US democracy. At the town hall meeting, Trump supporters expressed increased support for him following the attack. "I believe that they want to kill Trump so that Trump cannot try to make his second term in office," said retired autoworker Donald Owen, 71. Trump positioned himself as the savior of the US auto industry, warning that without his policies, all car and manufacturing jobs would be lost.
Trump also defended his often convoluted speaking style, and in a tangent about fossil fuel drilling, he mistakenly referred to Bagram, an air base in Afghanistan, as being in Alaska. Meanwhile, Harris used her interview in Pennsylvania to address the false stories spread by Trump about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio, which led to bomb threats and school closures in the town of Springfield.
On Sunday, Trump was swiftly escorted away by the US Secret Service after gunman Ryan Routh was found in a hedgerow at his Florida golf course. This was the second such close call for the Republican nominee in recent months, following a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania in June that left one man dead. Both Trump and Harris are focusing on the swing states critical to winning the election, with a recent poll showing Harris with a slight edge over Trump in Pennsylvania, largely due to strong support from women voters.
