In his first rally since the end of the 22-month investigation, Trump is likely to lash out at a familiar list of targets: Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; James Comey, the FBI director whom he fired in 2017; John O. Brennan, the former CIA director; and, of course, the “fake news media,” which he accuses of propagating the “hoax” of his collusion with Russia.
In vilifying his opponents, Trump has not been troubled by the fact that the 300-plus-page report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has yet to be released, or that Attorney General William Barr, in his summary of Mueller’s findings, stipulated that the report did not exonerate the president, even if it did not find him guilty of conspiracy or of obstructing justice.
Grand Rapids holds special meaning for Trump, as the site of his final campaign rally before his upset victory in 2016. He won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes — two-tenths of 1 percent — the first Republican to do since 1984. It was one of three Midwestern states — along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that cemented his victory over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Grand Rapids is also the birthplace of another president, Gerald Ford, whose presidential museum sits across the river from the arena where Trump is to speak — a monument to the moderate Republicanism that the president has banished and the Washington establishment that he has upended.
The timing of the rally so soon after Barr’s disclosures has prompted greater-than-usual concerns about security, given Trump’s habit of stirring up the crowd and heaping abuse on reporters. At his last rally in El Paso, Texas, a member of the audience assaulted a BBC cameraman.
The signs of tighter security in Grand Rapids included more visible security personnel and sturdier barriers between the press and the audience. In El Paso, reporters were seated in the stands, unprotected from the crowd.
On Sunday evening, after Barr delivered his summary of the Mueller report, Trump, who was in Palm Beach, Florida, was urged by his aides to avoid a tone of triumphalism in his reaction. That lasted for about an hour, until he delivered an angry denunciation of those behind the investigation before he returned to Washington.
As the days wore on, Trump vilified news organizations, ridiculed the ratings of cable networks like MSNBC and CNN, and demanded the resignation of Democrats like Schiff, whom he accused of lying repeatedly in discussing potential collusion between Trump and the Russians.
In a warm-up rally more than an hour before Trump arrived, Laura Cox, the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, led the crowd in chants of “No Collusion! No Obstruction!” The crowd also chanted “Lock her up!” after Cox denounced Clinton for counting Harvey Weinstein as one of her supporters.
Trump has long savored his victory in Michigan. But the state could be more of an uphill struggle in 2020. Democrats made significant gains in the 2018 midterm elections, including winning the governorship.
General Motors, one of Michigan’s key employers, has laid off workers, despite Trump’s efforts to pressure the carmaker to expand manufacturing in the United States. He also face headwinds in winning congressional passage of the retooled version of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he has promoted as benefiting workers in Michigan.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.