5 Takeaways From Trump's Meeting With Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Former President Trump sat down with his former press secretary and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday for a public event in Michigan, marking his first campaign event since an apparent assassination attempt over the weekend.

Trump spoke with Sanders, who has become a popular spokesman for the former president, at an event in Flint, the heart of a key battleground state.

Here are five takeaways from the event.

Trump back in court after latest assassination attempt

Tuesday marked Trump’s first appearance on the campaign trail since an incident Sunday in which a Secret Service agent confronted a would-be assassin who had rammed the barrel of his gun through the fence outside Trump’s golf course.

This is the second time since July that Trump has been targeted by a gunman following an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Only important presidents get shot at,” Trump said Tuesday.

The former president praised the Secret Service, saying the agency “did a tremendous job.” And he had kind words for President Biden and Vice President Harris, saying they had a “very nice” call in which Biden and Harris separately checked in on him after the latest incident.

There is no indication that the latest assassination attempt on Trump will affect the presidential campaign. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in New York on Wednesday and in North Carolina on Saturday. Harris was in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin before the end of the week.

Trump stokes fears about auto industry

The former president painted a grim picture of what would happen to the auto industry, making exaggerated claims about the fate of thousands of jobs across the country if he did not win in November.

“If I don’t win, there will be no automobile industry in two or three years. It will all be gone,” Trump said.

He later called Michigan “a last-minute think tank in the automotive field.”

“If a tragedy happens and we don’t win, there will be no more jobs in the auto sector, no more jobs in the manufacturing sector, all of that will disappear from here,” he added.

The former president warned that the Biden administration’s incentives for automakers to make electric vehicles would have devastating consequences for the industry. Trump has signaled openness to some electric vehicles, crediting Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his support.

Trump’s solution was to increase drilling and gasoline production and impose steep tariffs on competitors who import cars into the United States.

Data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics show that about 8,800 jobs in the auto and parts manufacturing sector were lost during Trump’s first term, while the sector added about 128,000 jobs during the Biden administration.

Leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union endorsed Vice President Harris in the November election.

Trump rejects ‘confusing’ label

Trump’s rallies and speeches often feature long digressions where he goes off-script and off-topic. That was a line of attack for Harris during last week’s presidential debate, when she encouraged viewers to attend a Trump rally and listen to him talk about Hannibal Lecter and complain about his problems.

On Tuesday, Trump gave a long and meandering response in which he talked about withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, appeared to confuse Bagram Air Base with an Alaskan oil reserve, spoke briefly about the latest assassination attempt on him and threatened to impose a 200% tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Concluding his response, Trump said it was more “productive” than what Harris had said at the hearing.

“Fake news likes to say, ‘Oh, he was rambling.’ No, no. That’s not delusion. That’s genius,” Trump said of his own comments. “When you can connect the dots. Now, Sarah, if you can’t connect the dots, you’ve got a problem. But every dot was connected. And there were a lot of stories told in that little paragraph.”

Trump mocks climate change

The former president has long expressed doubts about the effects and reality of climate change, and he did so again at Tuesday night’s event.

Trump has been adamant that the greatest threat to the population is not climate change, which Democrats have portrayed as an existential problem, but a nuclear war that could wipe out civilization.

“I’m not saying that the ocean level is going to rise an eighth of an inch in 400 years, and if that happens, there’s going to be more oceanfront property,” Trump said. “I wondered if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I wondered if it’s a good thing if I have a little oceanfront property. I have a little more property, I have a little more ocean.”

Trump criticized the idea that experts and lawmakers are talking about “climate change” after previously calling it “global warming.”

“These people, I don’t know if they’re serious,” Trump said. “But if they’re not, they’re covered by the words ‘climate change.’ If it’s warmer, that’s good, if it’s warmer, that’s good. Global warming wasn’t that effective.”

Sanders in the spotlight of his campaign

Tuesday’s event marked a landmark moment for Sanders, the Arkansas governor who served as Trump’s press secretary during his first term in the White House.

Sanders has remained popular with Trump’s base, and she was given a prime speaking slot at the Republican convention where she sought to humanize the former president by portraying him as a good boss who supported his female employees.

The Arkansas governor introduced Trump by talking about her children and how they keep her “humble.”

“Unfortunately, Kamala Harris has nothing that keeps her humble,” Sanders said. “You would think that after four years of consecutive failures, she would have some humility. Unfortunately, she doesn’t.”

Sanders later described being a mother as “perhaps the only job harder than being president of the United States.” And she vowed that women across the country “are going to make sure that we do our part” to put Trump back in the White House.

The Arkansas governor’s presence at Tuesday’s event could signal how the campaign plans to use high-profile representatives to attract key voting blocs, such as women, in the final stretch of the election.

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