DETROIT (WWJ) — Friday marks 18 days until the Nov. 5 presidential election. It also marked the biggest day of the election cycle thus far in Michigan, as both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris made multiple stops across the state.
There will be plenty more visits from both campaigns in the final two and a half weeks until the election, but both used Friday as an opportunity to drum up support and encourage voters to turn out on Nov. 5. The visits coincide with the start of early in-person voting Saturday in Detroit.
In front of a crowd of around 400 people during a roundtable event at Engineering Design Services Company in Auburn Hills, Trump spoke on a number of topics, including advocating for the death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer, as well as what he called his “favorite word” — tariffs.
Speaking on the importance of the auto industry to Metro Detroit, Michigan and the country as a whole, the former president reiterated his interest in utilizing “giant tariffs” on Chinese and Mexican-made cars in particular. He vowed those tariffs would be 100%, “and if that doesn’t work, I’ll go to 200%.”
"I don’t care; they’re not gonna be selling cars here. Now, if they want to build their plant here — I hope here (in Metro Detroit) — but at least some place in the United States, that's a whole different ball game, but we’re not gonna have them building them in other countries and sending them into the United States,” Trump said during the late afternoon event.
His stop in Auburn Hills -- preceded by a visit to a Republican office in Hamtramck where he sought to appeal to Arab American voters -- was followed by a rally at Huntington Place in Downtown Detroit.
There, Trump continued to harp on the importance of the auto industry to the city. Trump said his friend John Rakolta -- who owns Detroit-based construction firm Walbridge -- had planned to build "the world's largest" automotive plant in Mexico. But he told the crowd he recently learned those plans have fallen through.
He said Rakolta told him, "it's over, they're not building it. They think Trump is gonna win, he's gonna impose tariffs."
"You owe me. They stopped construction, they're not building it and Detroit will survive," Trump said, telling the crowd he will advocate for large auto plants to be built in Detroit.
While last week Trump made headlines by saying the entire country would "end up being like Detroit," during a speech in front of the Detroit Economic Club, on Friday he said if he's elected, "the days of Detroit’s economic glory will return, greater and stronger than ever before. I will put Detroit first, I will put Michigan first, and I will put America first."
Trump's microphone and sound system cut out for around 15 minutes during Friday night's speech. During the delay, supporters chanted things like "we love Trump," "thank you, Trump" and "can't stop Trump."
When his microphone was restored, he said "so now what's gonna happen is, I won't pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap."
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris also had a trio of stops on her trip to Michigan — a rally in Grand Rapids Friday afternoon, followed by a trip to a GM plant in Lansing and capped off with a nighttime rally in Oakland County.
Speaking to UAW members on Friday, Harris called Trump "no friend of labor" and vowed to protect the GM Lansing Grand River Assembly plant from being shuttered.
On Friday night in Oakland County, Harris referred to herself as "the underdog" in the presidential race.
"It's gonna be tight race until the very end," Harris said, "and we are the underdog and running as the underdog, but make no mistake we will win."
Like Trump, Harris is seeking to pump up voter turnout as the election nears. Their Friday visits come a day before early in-person voting begins in Detroit. Early voting will begin in the rest of the state next Saturday.
Harris is planning to stick around Saturday for an early voting event in Detroit.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for the latest updates as they become available. >>> LISTEN LIVE!