In his first campaign rally since former Vice President Joe Biden entered the Democratic 2020 fray, President Trump slammed his rivals in familiar terms.
“Can you imagine if Sleepy Joe or Crazy Bernie was up here?” he asked supporters filling the 10,200-seat Rausch Center in Green Bay, Wis., referring to Biden and to Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.).
“Two hundred people would show up, and that was if they were president,” he scoffed. “If they weren’t president, nobody would show up.”
“Democrats have never been further out of the American mainstream,” he said later. “Oh, do I look forward to running against them.”
For the third year in a row, Trump blew off the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner to host a rally and bask in the cheers of his supporters.
It was an early campaign trip — 19 months before the general election — to a crucial swing state that helped usher Trump into the White House in 2016, but veered back into the Democrats’ column in the 2018 gubernatorial race.
“The Democrats have never been angrier than they are today,” he said.
“You see, somebody else with a very low level of energy was supposed to be standing here today,” he added — prompting the crowd to launch the “Lock her up!” chant that Trump’s rallygoers reserve for Hillary Clinton.
“The radical Democrats put all their hopes behind their collusion delusion,” he said, “which has been exposed to the world as a complete and total fraud.”
“The witch hunt was never about me, but about stopping you, the millions of freedom-loving citizens who rose up and demanded a government that puts America first.”
Trump predicted his own re-election — and mocked Democrats’ fears.
“They say ‘Oh, he wants to take over the country,’ ” he said. “He wants to have the presidency for life — these are sick people.”
“But I promise you, at the end of six years I’m going to be very happy, and you’re going to be left with the strongest country you’ve ever had.”
