TRAVERSE CITY -- With just 11 days to go until the election, Former President Donald Trump was in Traverse City Friday night, rallying Northern Michigan’s support.
It’s the former president’s first rally in the area since the days leading up to the 2020 election. The visit comes as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are polling neck-and-neck in Michigan.
While Traverse City itself has a strong Democrat voter base, areas surrounding the city reliably vote Republican.
The former president was supposed to start giving remarks at 7:30 p.m. near Cherry Capital Airport.
But around 7:19 p.m., Trump’s political adviser tweeted the former president was just leaving Texas after a three-hour-long podcast with Joe Rogan.
“We got tied up, so tied up and I thought you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win,” said Trump.
Regardless of the delay, many supporters stuck it out to see the former president speak.
“It’s obviously just an awesome experience to see Donald Trump come here. I haven’t seen Kamala Harris pull up here so that’s awesome,” said Zack Connor from Traverse City.
Tony Jewell from Benzonia said, “We’re small business owners and we’ve seen nothing but costs increase and sales go down and sales were up and prices were cheap when he was president.”
Trump talked about the big issues his campaign has focused on: the border and the economy.
“I will stop the invasion of criminals into our country, and I will bring back the American dream,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring it back and this is all you really need to know. They broke in and I’ll fix it.”
He also talked about the auto industry in Michigan.
“We’re gonna bring the car industry back to Michigan,” he said. “We’re going to bring it back to Detroit.”
Be sure to watch 9&10 News this weekend and Michigan This Morning Monday for a full recap of Friday night’s rally.