Trump makes rally-goers in Michigan wait in the cold for hours to record a podcast

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Donald Trump arrived hours late to a rally in Michigan on Friday, causing thousands of his supporters to leave while others huddled in cold weather to wait for the former president at an outdoor rally in the battleground state.

The Republican presidential candidate was delayed for an interview with Joe Rogan, the country’s most listened to podcaster, that stretched to three hours in Austin, Texas. Trump is aggressively trying to reach younger male voters, among whom Rogan is very popular. The interview was released Friday evening.

Democrat Kamala Harris was also in Texas on Friday for a performance with superstar Beyoncé in Houston at an event highlighting the conservative state’s abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe were nominated by Trump.

Minutes before Trump’s Michigan rally was set to begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, his spokesperson posted on the social media platform X that Trump was just leaving Texas, more than a two-hour flight away. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, “We’re going to have a good time tonight.”

Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech at Traverse City airport, where temperatures dropped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (above 10 degrees Celsius) after dark.

Those who had not left, bundled up, some under blankets, waited for him to land. The crowd sounded and seemed disgruntled as North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon tried to kill time on stage. Hats were thrown at those in attendance.

Some of those who stuck around took over right away.

“Well, we would have preferred if they were on time,” said Karen Targanski of Bay City, Michigan, more than a two-hour drive away. She added that it was still “worth the wait.”

Trump boosts immigration in speech in Texas

With 11 days left until the election, Trump and Harris both took a detour around the battleground states for quick trips to solidly Republican Texas. Neither believes the state is competitive, but they use it as a backdrop to deliver a message about the issues they hope voters will have in mind when they vote. For Trump, that is border security. For Harris, it’s abortion rights.

Appearing in Austin earlier Friday, Trump tried to turn Harris’ event into a line of attack tied to one of his favorite topics: immigration.

Hours before Harris’ star-studded appearance with Beyoncé, Willie Nelson, Jessica Alba and others, Trump accused the vice president of associating with “woke celebrities” but not the families of people killed by migrants.

Trump’s trip to Texas, his second stop in a border state in two days, comes as the former president escalates his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration.

“We are like a dumpster for the rest of the world to dump the people they don’t want,” Trump told his supporters in Austin on Friday. Trump has continued to promote the baseless idea that foreign governments are actively sending criminals to the US

Harris said the comment is “just an example of how he really belittles our country.”

“The President of the United States should be someone who elevates the discourse and talks about the best of who we are, and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who constantly demeans and belittles who the American people are. Harris told reporters in Houston.

Throughout the campaign, Trump has routinely appeared with grieving relatives of people injured or killed by people living in the country illegally. On Friday, he gave up the microphone to the mother of a 12-year-old Texas girl, Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found in June. Prosecutors have charged two Venezuelan men illegally in the US with capital murder.

“She was just a child, and because of the Biden-Harris policies we have here … she’s not here anymore,” Alexis Nungaray said.

At a rally Thursday in Arizona, Trump blasted Harris for the Biden administration’s record on the border, which he said had “unleashed” an “army of migrant gangs” waging “a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens ‘.

Trump sees immigration as the issue that won him the White House in 2016. He accuses Harris of committing “an evil betrayal of America” ​​and “orchestrating the most egregious betrayal ever inflicted on our people by any leader in American history,” even as crime has declined.

Although migrants have been accused of a number of high-profile crimes that Trump repeatedly highlights, research has shown that immigrants — including those who entered the country illegally — are accused of fewer violent crimes than U.S. citizens.

He has also spread false theories that Democrats are registering immigrants without legal voting status.

Rogan interview underlines Trump’s focus on masculinity

His interview with Rogan, who records his podcast in Austin, created another opportunity for the Republican nominee to emphasize the hyper-masculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 bid for the White House.

Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts that target young male voters and surrogates who sometimes use profanity.

At a Trump rally Wednesday, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz a “weak man” and compared Trump’s return to the White House to a father coming home ready to punish his misbehaving children .

“When daddy comes home, you know what he says?” Carlson asked. “You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad girl and now you’re going to get a good spanking.’

Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he previously declined to host Trump on his podcast because he didn’t want to help him.

Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said then-candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. was the only person running for president who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.

“It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets booed the next time he enters the UFC Ring???” Trump wrote on his social media site in August, referencing Rogan’s experience as a commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The podcaster is known for his hour-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed when a comedian friend described how he repeatedly forced young female comics to have sex.