At a packed rally in Salem, Va. Saturday, former President Donald Trump spoke about the state of the economy, immigration and transgender collegiate athletes in a late attempt to make Virginia a battleground state just three days before Election Day. While Trump hopes to boost support for his campaign in this blue-leaning state, Virginia is not expected to be heavily contested, as Vice President Kamala Harris leads Trump by an average of seven points in the polls.
While Trump and Harris have primarily focused on targeting campaigning efforts in seven key swing states — Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona — in the final days before the election, Trump’s Virginia rally marked a departure from this strategy. Despite Virginia voting blue in the most recent presidential elections, with Biden winning by over 10 percentage points in 2020, Trump repeated the assertion that Virginia could still go Republican.
When discussing the election directly, Trump did not hesitate to emphasize the importance of his campaign, calling it “the greatest political movement in the history of our country.” Alongside the sense of confidence in his campaign, Trump repeated false claims that the Democrats steal elections during Saturday’s rally, including that “millions” of mail-in ballots come in from an unknown source to make Republicans lose.
He also discussed the prospect that he could win the solidly-Democratic state of California — another state where Trump held a campaign rally in the final stretch of the election season — if there were “honest” elections.
“If God came down to be our vote tracker for a day … meaning if we had an honest election in California, we would win California,” Trump said.
Trump said the polls suggest he will win both the electoral college and the popular vote, despite polling showing extremely close margins in key swing states. Trump also said that he would “love” to win the popular vote, but attributed a potential loss to Democrats “cheating.”
The former president still encouraged his supporters to vote for him, displaying a graphic on the screens that said “too big to rig.”
Beyond claims of voter fraud, the rally focused heavily on the “failed” policies of the Biden-Harris administration, with Republican speakers blaming Democrats for high inflation and a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border — two points central to Trump’s campaign.
Inflation during Biden’s term was high initially, but has cooled in recent months, with the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates by half a point in response. Discussing the high inflation and cost of living during President Joe Biden’s term, Trump said there would be dire economic consequences if Harris wins.
“If Kamala wins, you’re three days away from the start of a 1929 style depression,” Trump said.
Trump also falsely stated that the economy fell into a depression Friday with the announcement of the October jobs report, which showed an underwhelming 12,000 new jobs added to the market. That figure is far lower than the 254,000 jobs added in September — which exceeded national expectations. While the U.S. labor market has added jobs at high rates as the economy recovers from the pandemic-induced recession, the U.S. economy is neither in a recession or depression. A recession occurs when the nation’s GDP declines for two straight quarters, and the U.S. is currently in a period of increasing GDP.
On the issue of immigration, Trump discussed the surge in migrants crossing the southern border and criticized the policies of the Biden administration. He said if elected, he would take immediate action to close the border. In the past, Trump has proposed mass deportations for those who are currently in the U.S. illegally.
“We’re gonna get the stupid people out of here,” Trump said, though he did not specify to whom he was referring.
Trump also played an emotional video about a 12 year-old girl who was murdered and brought on stage a mother whose daughter was also murdered, both by illegal immigrants, as an emotional appeal to his voters. Trump then called for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen and said he would ban all U.S. sanctuary cities, or cities that have a policy of not detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.
His opposition to sanctuary cities coincided with his support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump criticized Harris, saying she wants to abolish the agency — something she has never said.
Attendees at the rally echoed Trump’s policy position, with someone in the crowd shouting “get the immigrants out.”
Trump did not just attack Harris on policy — he also levied personal attacks against the Democratic nominee, calling her a “low IQ person” on multiple occasions.
“Who the hell is Harris? We’re just gonna call her Kamala,” Trump said while mispronouncing the vice president’s name. “Kamala, you’re gonna get the hell out of here.”
Trump pronounced Harris’s name correctly on other occasions.
Perhaps no subject drew louder applause than the subject of transgender women competing in women’s sports, something Trump strongly opposes. Trump brought out the Roanoke College women’s swim team to share why they oppose the idea from their perspectives as athletes.
Before bringing them on stage, Trump said the Roanoke College swim team previously had a transgender woman on the team — a statement from the college said a transgender woman signed up to join the team, which prompted the school to look into whether it would be permitted. The student withdrew her request before a decision was reached.
Ahead of Trump’s speech, speakers including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Virginia GOP Senate nominee Hung Cao, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares, Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith and John McGuire, Virginia state senator and GOP nominee for the 5th congressional district, gave remarks.
These speakers took a slightly different tone on some issues, one that focused more on policy and included Christian undertones. After one non-political speaker opened the rally with a prayer, multiple Republican officeholders, including Youngkin, prayed for GOP victories this coming Tuesday. And while both Cao and Earle-Sears promoted Christian values early in their speeches, ties between Christianity, patriotism and the election were emphasized by Cline.
“God bless the Commonwealth of Virginia, God bless the United States of America and God bless Donald Trump,” Cline said.
Youngkin spoke the longest of any of the Virginia officials and brought energy to the crowd, dancing and clapping along to the music that played during his walkout. He reminded Virginians of his statewide win in 2021, and how the state of the Commonwealth has changed since then — specifically citing lower taxes and population growth statistics.
“Virginia was staring into the abyss in 2021,” Youngkin said. “Elections have consequences. Virginia came together in such a way that shocked the nation and shocked the world.”
Like Trump, Youngkin said Virginia is winnable for Republicans. Griffith agreed, saying Virginia is in play.
Trump arrived in Virginia from North Carolina and returned to the state after the Salem rally. He has just four scheduled rallies left before Election Day, all in competitive battleground states.
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