Trump appears at Michigan town hall; Walz says Trump lost thousands of jobs in North Carolina – live | US elections 2024

Trump finishes his speech, taking selfies with people and shaking hands as YMCA sounds. According to the livestream, the event appeared well attended and energetic, with loud cheers – and boos for the Democrats – from the crowd.

Trump, as he often does, vacillated between topics and gave confusing and unsubstantiated answers to questions.

One voter says he is concerned about taxes.

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

However, there are loud boos from the crowd.

Trump is changing his mind. He says that if he wins, Michigan will be the most fun place. He talks about car imports and says you can't flood the market with imported cars, which draws loud applause.

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

“The only thing that never goes out of date is walls and wheels. Right now we're talking about walls,” he says.

“Finally, to address the border: When I talk about energy, he says: 'I think the border is of greatest interest.'”

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

A nurse asks Trump how he plans to reduce food and grocery costs.

“So we always have to start with energy,” he says. “Whether you're making doughnuts, whether you're making cars, whatever you're making.”

He says his plan is to reduce energy costs by 50% in 12 months. He doesn't explain how he plans to achieve this.

“We will do what we have to do with the farmers,” he says. He is obviously trying to talk about food exports.

“Interest, energy and common sense,” he says. Then the talk of the border returns.

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

President Joe Biden won by 15 percentage points over Trump among women in 2020, post-election polls show, more than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 13-point margin in 2016. Polls suggest women prefer Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to Trump by a similar margin this year. In an ABC News/Ipsos poll released last Sunday, Harris was 13 percentage points ahead of Trump among women. Before the Democratic National Convention last month, she was six percentage points ahead of him among women, according to the same poll.

He talks about the civilian who took a photo of the suspect's license plate, who was a woman. He says, “Women are smarter than men.”

“This woman was incredible,” Trump says. “She did a great job.”

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

Trump is now talking about yesterday's alleged assassination attempt.

He thanks the secret service once again. “These guys are doing a great job. But now they need more people,” he says.

“Close the border” and “drill, baby, drill” are two things Trump will enforce, he says.

He says: “If we do not introduce the death penalty for drug dealers, we will never get rid of this problem.”

The voter asks what the biggest threat to Michigan's manufacturing industry is.

Confusingly, Trump responds by talking about the threat of nuclear weapons.

When this happens, people will no longer be as interested in making cars, he says.

The first question Trump is asked is from someone in the crowd. The person first notes that he attended one of Trump's rallies and neither fell asleep nor left early.

Trump repeats false, unsubstantiated or unprovable claims about Covid, the October 7 attacks in Israel, inflation, the stock market, immigration, the price of oil and oil quantities in America.

“This is the longest answer to a question in the world,” he says.

Shortly after taking office in January last year, Sarah Huckabee Sanders fired a powerful salvo in the Republicans’ so-called “War on Woke.”

She comes from a well-known Republican family. Her father, Mike Huckabee, was governor of Arkansas for over a decade, from 1996 to 2007.

She served as Trump's press secretary for two years.

To refresh your memory on the US presidential election:

The Referendum is the total number of eligible voters who voted for a particular candidate: in other words, the number of votes cast for one candidate or the other. The most important thing to understand about the popular vote is that victory does not automatically mean the presidency. The presidency is won by the candidate who receives the majority of the electoral college votes. In other words, the US election is decided by the elections in each state. In the 2016 election, Donald Trump received fewer votes than Hillary Clinton but still won the presidency, and in 2000, George W. Bush received fewer votes than Al Gore but also won.

The Electoral College is a group of 538 people, called electors, who officially cast their vote for the U.S. president after citizens have voted. This is a requirement enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The electors are chosen before the election by the political parties in each of the 50 U.S. states.

The number of electoral votes varies from state to state, and is determined based on the census. The number of votes is equal to the entire congressional delegation: the number of senators plus the number of representatives. Although the District of Columbia is not a state, it receives three electoral votes, like Washington DC.

To win, a candidate must receive more than half – or at least 270 – of the electoral college votes. All of the votes in a given state go to the same candidate.

Trump falsely claims that he “did much better” in 2020 than in 2016.

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 Electoral College by 306 to 232 and had a 4 percentage point lead in the popular vote.

In 2016, Donald J. Trump won the Electoral College with 304 votes compared to 227 for Hillary Clinton, and Trump lost the popular vote.

Trump is interviewed by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She says Trump will win because America “needs a fighter.” She asks why he wants to be president.

“Thank you, everybody. There is a lot of love in this room. I love you, you love me,” Trump said.

Trump speaks at City Hall in Flint, Michigan.

Trump to speak at City Hall in Flint, Michigan

“I support the Second Amendment,” he says, referring to the American “right to bear arms.”

Walz is a gun owner and experienced shooter.

“But we cannot hide behind this if our primary responsibility is to protect children,” he says.