‘We are going to keep on winning’
President launches reelection campaign with familiar themes
President Trump launched his 2020 reelection campaign in Orlando on Tuesday with a new slogan, increasingly vitriolic attacks on Democrats and a vow to “keep on winning, winning, winning.”
A near-capacity crowd in the 20,000-seat Amway Center downtown cheered and stomped their feet to help Trump choose his new theme of “Keep America Great!” for the upcoming campaign. It replaces what Trump called “the greatest theme in the history of politics,” 2016’s “Make America Great Again.”
Trump didn’t speak much about Florida besides introducing Gov. Ron
DeSantis, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, and other office holders including U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-St. Augustine. He also made a confusing reference to an auto plant in a state that does not have one.
He thanked DeSantis for signing a bill banning socalled “sanctuary cities” for undocumented immigrants, even though none exists in Florida.
“Nobody who allows sanctuary cities should be allowed to run for the president of the United States,” said Trump, who had tweeted on Monday that mass deportations of “millions of illegal aliens” would begin next week.
Trump, who is also promoting a controversial measure to ask U.S. Census respondents about their citizenship status, also said his supporters believe “a nation must care for its own citizens first.”
The president mainly used his 78-minute speech to assail the opposing party as “driven by hatred, prejudice and rage,” and “more radical, more dangerous and more unhinged than in any point in the history of our country.”
“They want to destroy you, they want to destroy America as we know it,” Trump said of Democrats,
though he only once mentioned Vice President Joe Biden, who was comfortably ahead of Trump in Florida in both a new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday and Trump’s own internal surveys.
Trump aimed a lot of his attacks on his former opponent Hillary Clinton, which led to several chants of “Lock her up,” and former President Obama. He also criticized “crazy Bernie Sanders,” saying “America will never be a socialist country.”
He also spent several minutes assailing the Mueller investigation, claiming incorrectly that it had completely cleared him.
But he pivoted to tell the loud, exuberant crowd that “they are really going after you, that’s what it’s all about. They tried to erase your vote, erase the legacy of our campaign. … They wanted to deny you the future America [that] demanded, a future America deserved and now America is getting.”
Trump also talked about “the un-American conduct of those who want to undermine our great democracy and undermine you.”
Trump cited accomplishments including the border wall with Mexico, which he said would reach 400 miles by the end of next year, and what he called “perhaps greatest the economy we’ve had in the history of our country.”
He said the U.S. would find the cures for diseases including cancer, which Biden had pledged to do the week before, and said America would land astronauts on Mars – not mentioning the moon, which had been NASA’s goal before Trump tweeted criticism of the moon project this month.
“Nothing would make me happier to work with Democrats to fix our infrastructure, bring down drug prices and [move into] the future as one American team,” Trump said. “It could happen.”
But he said, “a vote for any Democrat is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and destruction of American dream.”
Just after that, he said his campaign was “the only positive vision for America’s future.”
DeSantis, Rubio and Scott didn’t speak during the rally, though outgoing Press Secretary Sarah Sanders spoke to cheers. Vice President Mike Pence also made a rare appearance at the same rally with Trump, showing the importance that the campaign placed on the kickoff in a key swing state.
“It’s on, everybody,” Pence said. “It’s time for Round 2. The 503-day campaign for America’s future starts tonight.”
Trump told the crowd that 120,000 people had requested tickets to the event, but about an hour before he was scheduled to speak, long lines that had persisted all day outside the arena were gone, and there were empty seats inside.
By the time he started, the building was nearly full. A few dozen people watched the event on a big screen set up outside. rally
Before the speech, thousands of Trump supporters spent the day at a “45 Fest” outside the arena, enjoying music and food and buying souvenirs while dodging heavy rain and thunderstorms. Two men carrying guns were questioned and sent away without arrests.
About a half-mile west on Church Street, several hundred demonstrators rallied against the president at an event dubbed “Win With Love Rally.” The gathering at the Stonewall Bar featured a giant “Baby Trump” balloon, local Democratic officials and activists and throngs of sign-waving protesters.
Pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators clashed verbally, with police intervening to keep separate marchers affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys group who tried to crash the anti-Trump rally.
As the rally ended, thousands of Trump supporters filed out of the arena, many elated and electrified by the experience.
Andrew Spence, 20, and Noah Guarino, 19, drove from the Tampa area to see the president.
“It almost felt like we went through hell and high water,” Spence said. “It was sunny, it was rainy, but in the end, it was all worth it.”