Trump sets stage for 2020 fight with false claims and recycled attacks
June 27, 2019President kicked off his bid with lies, attacks on the press and claims a Democrat president would shut down your free speech
Donald Trump has set the stage for the nastiest US presidential race in modern times with a campaign rally that recycled old themes and stoked resentment towards Democrats and the media.
More than 500 days before the 2020 US election, the president formally launched his campaign before a capacity 20,000 crowd in a sports stadium in Orlando in the vital swing state of Florida, demonstrating that his base, at least, remains as fervent as ever.
In a sign of that fervour, Trumps campaign raised a staggering $24.8m in the less-than 24 hours after kicking off his re-election bid, according to Republican party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, an amount that dwarfs what the top Democratic 2020 contenders raised over the course of the first three months of this year.
The president spent little effort offering a vision of the future on Tuesday evening. He and his supporters were most energised by his greatest hits: grievance politics, demonising opponents, raging against perceived injustices. There was even a reprise of attacks on Hillary Clinton, his defeated rival in 2016, complete with furious chants of Lock her up!
His vicious, often fabricated, attacks implied that while a referendum on his record would likely end in defeat, his campaign believes that whipping up fear of a Democrat in the White House could yet save his skin.
Just imagine what this angry leftwing mob would do if they were in charge of this country, Trump said. Imagine if we had a Democrat president and Democrat Congress in 2020. They would shut down your free speech, use the power of the law to punish their opponents, which they are trying to do now anyway.
He added, without evidence: They would strip Americans of their constitutional rights while flooding the country with illegal immigrants in the hopes it will expand their political base.
Trump made the comments after saying 145 judges had been appointed under his administration, and recalling the bitterly disputed confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. Kavanaugh had been credibly accused of sexual assault when he was a teenager. On Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed these were fraudulent charges.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us