In his first campaign rally with Vance, Trump says he took 'a bullet for democracy'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump told supporters here that he "took a bullet for democracy" as he and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, made their campaign trail debut at a rally Saturday.

Trump vowed to save the country from what he described as President Biden’s dysfunctional administration.

"At this very moment, Democratic party bosses are frantically trying to overthrow the results of their own party’s primaries to dump crooked Joe Biden from the ballot," Trump said. "And as you are seeing, the Democrat Party is not the party of democracy. They’re really enemies of democracy."

Donning a tan ear patch, to cover the injury he suffered following last Saturday’s assassination attempt, Trump made a direct appeal to auto workers, and working- and middle- class voters in this crucial swing state that he won in 2016 but which Biden took in 2020.

Trump delivered a nearly two-hour stump speech fresh off the heels of the Republican National Convention, where the party stood in lock step behind its presidential nominee.

Building on that momentum, Trump painted Republicans as a party of unity.

At the same time, he railed against Democrats who are in deeper disarray over President Biden's bid for reelection.

Those attacks extended to personal insults at Biden, Vice President Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump called Harris "nuts" — but not as "crazy" as Pelosi, who Trump said was "selling out Biden" and "turned on him like a dog." Biden’s halting debate performance against Trump has resulted in an increasing number of Democrats calling on him to withdraw from the race. Pelosi has not explicitly done so, but she hasn’t explicitly supported Biden either.

Meanwhile, Trump portrayed himself