Trump makes wild claims on immigration and boasts about Musk donations in first rally since shooting

Donald Trump traveled to Michigan on Saturday for his first campaign appearance since being shot last week, and his first alongside his newly announced running mate JD Vance, the US senator for Ohio.

His ear may have been bandaged, but otherwise, Trump seemed little different than his old self, continuing to mock Democrats, lie about the 2020 election, demonize migrants in racist terms, praise right-wing dictators, and tell bizarre stories of dubious truthfulness.

Trump didn’t waste time in quickly addressing the recent assassination attempt.

“I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God,” he told the crowd in Grand Rapids. “I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.”

“We will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win win,” Trump added, a reference to when he held up his fist and chanted “fight” after being shot at in Pennsylvania last week.

Elsewhere, Trump described the shooting as the moment he “took a bullet for democracy.”

The former president then moved onto mocking the Democratic circus around whether Joe Biden will remain their 2024 presidential candidate.

“They have no idea who their candidate is, and neither do we,” Trump said. Elsewhere, he called Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” and accused her of turning on Joe Biden “like a dog,” after reports she privately told the president he should step aside and can’t beat Trump in November.

Trump seemed to be exceptionally confident in his campaign, even for someone who habitually boasts about himself.

At one point, he told a bizarre story about offering to take the leader of North Korea to a baseball game as a way to stop him from pursuing further nuclear weapons.

“Just relax, chill, you’ve got so much nuclear weapons,” Trump told the crowd. “Let’s go to a baseball