Trump, Harris barnstorm Michigan: What it's like

Even for a state inundated this year with visits from the presidential candidates, Friday, in Michigan, was special.

Both of the major party campaigns didn’t just stop in the state, they lingered. Republican former President Donald Trump, who has been to Michigan more than a dozen times in 2024, held three events, including a roundtable discussion in Oakland County and a rally in downtown Detroit. At that latter event, he paced through a long period when his microphone went out and railed against illegal immigration, proposing the death penalty for anyone in the country illegally who kills an American.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been to Michigan a half-dozen times since the beginning of August as either the official or de-facto Democratic nominee, crisscrossed the state with events in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County after having spent the night earlier in the week so she could tape a radio discussion with Charlemagne tha God. At her rally in Waterford, she cheered union protections and trashed Trump for not preserving abortion rights. And she had more to do Saturday, with CNN reporting she would be attending at least one get-out-the-vote event with rapper Lizzo. Harris was also to be back in a week with Michelle Obama.

It’s not surprising Michigan is getting all this attention: Polling suggests the state is a dead heat and it’s pretty much a must-win for Harris if she is going to succeed President Joe Biden. Trump, obviously, would like to deny it to her. “We win Michigan, we win the whole ballgame,” he said in Detroit and he’s probably right.

With all that in mind, here’s how Friday’s events unfolded and what the voters and others in attendance were saying, as well as some of the highlights from the candidates and what Free Press reporters and photographers saw in a remarkably busy day on the presidential campaign trail:

11:30 a.m., Grand Rapids (Harris)

Blocks away from Riverside Park, a stream of cars and people line up to enter the venue where Harris is scheduled to speak. The weather has fully cooperated — clear, bright skies set a backdrop against the changing leaves on the trees along the Grand River.

The mood of those awaiting Harris’ remarks is noticeably jovial, says Kathy Papa, who drove in from nearby Byron Center to see Harris speak. “To see this turnout, this turnout is just amazing,” says Papa, 62. “It’s very heartwarming.”

The park is north of downtown Grand Rapids, the heart of pivotal Kent County which helped deliver the state to Trump in 2016 but has since trended Democratic in statewide elections.

11:57 a.m., Grand Rapids

Closer to the front of the line, Jason Marlette, 53, of Grand Rapids, says he’s supporting Harris because he believes she will bring a measured approach to the White House.

“I want a grown-up in the room,” he says. “(Former Trump White House Chief of Staff) John Kelly had to check Trump when he came in at every turn. And that’s not what this country needs. We need an adult in the room that just knows the gravitas of the situation.”

A steady stream of supporters are entering the area where Harris will speak. The area around the stage is already full, so those in attendance are packing into overflow areas behind a media riser.

1:35 p.m., Grand Rapids

The program begins. A parade of elected Democrats take the stage — first, U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, of Grand Rapids, then retiring U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and finally, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“This is the place that will decide this election, right here,” says Scholten, who represents most of the county in Congress.

Whitmer recalls the COVID-19 pandemic, which began when Trump was still in the White House. “During COVID, he told states like us, when we were desperate for medical supplies, that we had to find them for ourselves,” Whitmer says.

2:29 p.m., Detroit

Trump impersonator Tim Stevens is selling red “Make America Great Again” caps for $5 outside Huntington Place in downtown Detroit, where Trump will speak later that evening. He’s wearing a blond wig, a navy suit, and a red tie that stretches down below his belt. Are those hats made in China?, a reporter asks Stevens, mindful of reports that “made in China” tags have been found on some Trump merchandise.

“I would assume they’re made in China or southeast Asia,” says Stevens, who drove to Detroit from Dayton, Ohio, to sell his gear. But he adds that his hats are “assembled in the U.S.,” because his wife puts the “MAGA” label on them.

USA TODAY in September looked into reports that Trump hats were coming from China and found that official Trump MAGA hats are made in the United States, in Carson, California. But the investigation found that “unofficial” Trump vendors — which include Stevens — get their products from a range of countries, including China.

2:38 p.m., Grand Rapids

After being introduced by a local union worker, Harris takes the stage.

In remarks lasting around 30 minutes, she reiterates many of her campaign priorities, including supporting the middle class, investing in manufacturing industries and supporting union jobs, and protecting access to abortion. She also repeats her plan, if elected, to expand Medicare coverage to include home care for seniors. Such a plan would also need to be approved by Congress.

She tells the crowd, which is responding with cheers to her every line, the stakes of the Nov. 5 election are too serious to sit out.

“The consequences of him getting back into the White House are brutally serious,” Harris said, of Trump.

Kamala Harris on Donald Trump ‘exhaustion’ and cancelling events

Harris made the comments with a bit more than two weeks to go before Election Day at a rally in Grand Rapids.

2:40 p.m., Detroit

Teresa Rhoades, of Monroe County, and her daughter Casey Couture, of Lenawee County, are in line at Huntington Place, hoping to see Trump speak in person for the first time.

Rhoades, who works at a manufacturing facility that does plastic injection molding, says the YouTube videos she watches are frequently interrupted with messages from Harris, and even on the drive to Detroit on Friday she was disturbed to see freeway billboards promoting Harris. “I feel like she’s putting a lot of money into advertisements,” says Rhoades, while Trump “is doing his campaign in a different way,” holding rallies to communicate with voters directly.

Rhoades says she believes the economy will improve if Trump is elected and more Americans will get the help they need, while she feels the Biden administration has favored undocumented migrants. Couture agrees and says Trump will also reverse the current push for electric vehicles, which she and her mother feel won’t perform as well as gasoline-powered vehicles in cold weather states such as Michigan.

2:54 p.m., Detroit

Kansas City resident Jenny Cole, 37, and her friend Ellen Shortlidge, 42, from Carroll, New Hampshire, have run more than a dozen half-marathons across the country together and done a lot of packet pickups. But pickup for the 47th annual Detroit Free Press Marathon presented by MSU Federal Credit Union at Huntington Place is the first that’s coincided with a Trump rally. As they pick up their packets on one end of the building, they see Trump supporters on the other end decked out in campaign merch, including someone wearing a blond wig replicating the former president’s hairstyle.The two haven’t seen anything like the Trump rallies in Michigan in their cities but are curious to scope it out. “We would never be involved in any Trump rallies,” Shortlidge says. The most they’ve seen in their cities is campaign signs, they say.

3 p.m., Waterford

By midafternoon, the line to get into Harris’ Oakland County event that evening is already winding around the Oakland Expo Center building, a former Home Quarters store off Telegraph Road in Waterford. For security, driveways into the parking lot in front of the building are blocked by large Road Commission snowplows and vehicles entering the parking lot are routed through a tent and searched, while police K9 units wander the parking lot.

It’s 65 and sunny. Dontae Walker, 23, of Mount Clemens, was in line early to see Harris, wearing a T-shirt supporting Kimberly Thomas, who is running for the Michigan Supreme Court. He’s about to start substitute teaching and is on the Mount Clemens Community School Board.

“I hope to hear a little bit about her stance toward unions and her support for education,” Walker says, adding that he thinks she will win. “I feel like she’s bringing support along not just along party lines but from both parties as well as independents.”

3:01 p.m., Detroit Metro Airport

Trump steps out of his plane, saying, “Wow, that’s a lot of press, wow.” He gives a thumbs-up to the reporters gathered to cover his three-stop swing through Michigan.

“I hear we’re leading in Michigan,” Trump tells reporters. He blasts Harris repeatedly as he stops to take a few questions. In defending his own mental fitness, Trump says Harris should take a cognitive test because she wasn’t “born smart.”

He touches briefly on the latest development in the Israel-Hamas war, saying the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar makes peace easier. Trump says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing a “great job” and criticizes President Joe Biden’s handling of the war. “Biden is trying to hold (Netanyahu) back,” Trump says. “He’s trying to hold him back and he probably should be doing the opposite actually. I’m glad that Bibi decided to do what he had to do.”

3:44 p.m., Hamtramck

Trump stops by an Oakland County GOP campaign outpost in Hamtramck where the city’s Mayor Amer Ghalib greets him and says the community he leads has split with Republicans in the past.

“We had a history of disconnect and miscommunication with the Republican Party and the party of common sense. Now we are here to end that disconnect,” Ghalib says. Trump tells those gathered in the office — which is dotted with signs reading “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH” — that he would bring peace to the Middle East if elected.

“We trust you,” one man in attendance shouts back.

4:16 p.m., Lansing

Harris supporter Kay Jay, 40, of Lansing, stands with her fellow UAW 652 members and her son while waiting for the presidential candidate to take the stage. “We’re here to support our girl, you know, Black Girl Magic,” she says.

Jay says she is excited to live in Michigan, one of the most contested states in the nation. She’s been phone banking and spreading information about the Harris campaign and how to vote alongside the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

Lenoris Allen, 48, has worked at the General Motors Grand River plant for 29 years. Although Allen plans to retire soon, she’s worried about the future of the auto industry in Michigan and feels Harris is the only option to secure its future.

4:39 p.m., Waterford

Mike Gonzales, 70, of Waterford, has 37 years with the UAW and currently works at GM’s Tech Center in Warren assembling prototype vehicles. He has been to rallies for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, but his roots go back even further.

“I saw Jimmy Carter in 1975 up in Saginaw,” he says. “There was a large gathering of Mexican Americans and he came to speak.”

Gonzales says he votes for Democrats because they support unions like his and he fears a second Trump administration. Like many voters, he has been bombarded with advertisements, including through the mail. “I can’t believe how many trees they’re killing,” he says.

5:18 p.m, Auburn Hills

Trump joins Republicans for a panel discussion at an engineering consulting company in Auburn Hills for about 45 minutes, hearing from law enforcement officers, a parent activist who rails against local schools and an autoworker praising his policies.

Trump paints an apocalyptic picture of the U.S. if Harris is elected. “This country’s finished if that happens,” he said. Trump champions his plan to impose tariffs, saying they would help Michigan’s auto industry. “I think it’s more beautiful than love. The word tariff,” he says.

Unlike Trump’s raucous rallies, the panel discussion has a more subdued atmosphere with his supporters mostly seated and listening intently interspersed with loud cheers and the sound of a baby crying. The event is hosted by Building America’s Future, a political nonprofit expected to spend tens of millions of dollars targeting potential Harris supporters and supporting third-party candidates’ ballot access, according to reporting from The New York Times.

5:51 p.m., Detroit

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church in Detroit leads the crowd at Huntington Place in prayer ahead of Trump’s speech. He asks God to “put angels around” Trump, as well as “rings of fire,” and to “use him … to make America great again.”

Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, tells the crowd that if Trump wins Michigan’s 15 electoral votes he will certainly be elected the next president of the U.S. “We’re going to win this,” he says. “We can feel it.”

7:50 p.m., Detroit

Detroit is in many ways “a sacred place,” says Trump. “So many things happened in Detroit and it’s been treated so badly.” He says that it was tops for auto production but over the years it’s been plundered of wealth and jobs by crooked politicians. “By the end of my term the entire world will be talking about the Michigan miracle.”

The remarks came after his prior visit to the city, when he was criticized for saying if Harris won, the whole country would look like Detroit.

7:58 p.m., Detroit

Trump’s microphone apparently cuts out, about 10 minutes after he starts speaking. An awkward 18-minute interlude follows, with Trump walking around the stage and the crowd alternating chants of “Trump,” and “U.S.A.” When Trump gets sound again and resumes speaking, he threatens to not pay his bill for use of the facility and promises to sue if it happens again.

Trump’s mic goes out at Detroit rally, crowd chants but some leave

The mic was out for 18 minutes. Here’s how Trump and the rally crowd responded.

8:13 p.m., Waterford

Harris takes the stage in Waterford and the crowd serenades her with “Happy Birthday.” She turns 60 on Sunday.

She kicks off the speech noting how Arab Americans have deep ties in metro Detroit.

“I know this year has been very difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating and now Sinwar’s death can and must be a turning point. Everyone must seize this opportunity to end the war in Gaza … and end the suffering once and for all and I continue to believe diplomacy is the answer to bringing lasting stability across the Israel/Lebanon border,” she says.

8:48 p.m., Waterford

The crowd files out of the venue after Harris finishes speaking. Gail Cowger, 74, of Troy, said she’d seen Harris on television plenty of times but she wanted to hear her with her own ears.

“Being with everybody else, being with people that are on the same wavelength as you, everybody here is supportive,” she says. “And just hearing all the cheering. I feel like so many people complain about her not saying what she’s gonna do. She laid out a lot of things that she’s going to do here. There was definitely substance as well as style.”

8:54 p.m., Detroit

Trump puts his “all-time favorite graph” on the screen at Huntington Place. It’s a graph about “illegal immigration” numbers that Trump turned to look at in Butler, Pennsylvania, In July, as a bullet whizzed past his head in an assassination attempt. “Illegal immigration saved my life, if you think about it,” he tells the crowd.

9:20 p.m., Detroit

Trump supporter John Groves, of Livonia, heads for the exit at Huntington Place after what he said had been a long day. Groves arrived about four hours before Trump’s scheduled speaking time to sell gold-plated pins with an image of Trump’s head on them. Groves, who is retired after 43 years at Ford Motor Co., says he returns all proceeds to the Trump campaign.

He says the campaigning has been worse than usual this election cycle, and he feels it’s a sign of desperation among politicians prepared to promise anything to get elected, such as when Vice President Kamala Harris promises to make the rich pay their fair share. “People are making promises that they can’t possibly live up to,” he says. Asked about Trump’s promise of a “Michigan miracle,” if he is elected, Groves says he believes Trump will be good for Michigan, but as for that promise, “you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

Trump, Harris barnstorm Michigan: What it’s like