俄亥俄州惠灵顿——唐纳德·特朗普周六重申了他的无根据选举在他离开白宫后的第一次竞选式集会上，他描绘了一幅民主党控制下的国家的反乌托邦画面。
他的使命，在某种程度上，是对投票支持他历史性的第二次的共和党人进行报复控告。
特朗普周六晚上在离克利夫兰不远的俄亥俄州洛雷恩县游乐场举行的活动是为了支持前白宫助理马克斯·米勒(Max Miller)，他正在挑战共和党众议员安东尼·冈萨雷斯(Anthony Gonzalez)的国会席位。冈萨雷斯是10名共和党众议院成员之一，他们投票弹劾特朗普在煽动1月6日国会大厦致命叛乱中的作用。
特朗普希望他们付出代价。
特朗普在讲话中重温了一些错误的说法，这些说法在他对乔·拜登总统当选的毫无结果的挑战中很常见。“11月3日晚上，选举结束了，然后突然一切都结束了，”他谈到选举之夜时说。"我们取得了巨大的胜利，他们做到了，这是不应该允许的。"
事实上，特朗普描述的是一个合法的计票过程，随着时间的推移，拜登在关键州的民主党倾向城市和邮寄选票的结果得到了报道。特朗普政府选举官员和共和党领导的各州的高级选举官员肯定了选举结果的有效性。
在对过去的另一个呼应中，人群高呼“把她锁起来”希拉里·克林顿，他在2016年击败的民主党人。
从游乐场到镇上的交通受到阻碍，支持特朗普的标志点缀着居民的草坪。支持者到达时，街头小贩出售“特朗普2024”旗帜和其他商品。
这场集会是在特朗普在暴力云下离任五个月后举行的，标志着他的后总统任期开始了一个新的、更加公开的阶段。特朗普在闭门造车建立政治运作并对上次选举感到愤怒后，计划在未来几周内进行一系列公开露面。他将在10月份再举行一次集会佛罗里达州在7月4日的周末，他与一名中期候选人脱离关系，并将在下周前往南部边境抗议乔·拜登总统的决定移居政策。
集会召开之际，特朗普正面临迫在眉睫的法律风险。曼哈顿检察官周四通知他的公司，该公司可能很快面临对这位前总统的商业交易进行广泛调查的刑事指控。《纽约时报》援引知情人士的话说，特朗普组织可能会在几天内受到指控。特朗普谴责这些调查只不过是旨在政治上损害他的“政治迫害”。
尽管特朗普仍然是一个极度两极分化的人物，但他在共和党基础上非常受欢迎，候选人纷纷涌入他在佛罗里达州和新泽西州的家寻求他的支持，因为他试图将自己定位为他的政党的国王。
特朗普表示，他致力于帮助共和党在明年的中期选举中重新控制国会。但他努力支持——并招募——候选人来挑战与他作对的现任共和党人，这使他与其他共和党领导人不和，这些领导人在经历了失去对白宫的控制以及未能控制国会两院的残酷一年后，一直试图团结该党。
迄今为止，投票支持特朗普弹劾的10名众议院共和党人中，有9名已经吸引了主要挑战者。据syracuse.com报道，纽约州众议员约翰·卡特科(John Katko)表示，特朗普愿意支持任何站出来挑战剩余候选人的人。
“我们给予了巨大的支持，”特朗普周五早上打电话给保守的Newsmax频道，解释他的支持理由时吹嘘道。
“假共和党人，任何投票支持弹劾的人都不明白，”他说。“但是没有太多。我认为他们中的大部分，如果不是全部，现在正在进行初步试验，所以这很好。我会帮助他们的对手。”
冈萨雷斯是一名前大学和职业足球运动员，面对来自该党保守派的激烈批评，包括俄亥俄州共和党对他的指责，他一直坚持弹劾投票。
与此同时，特朗普继续痴迷于他正在进行的推翻2020年选举结果的努力，他坚称自己赢得了选举，尽管最高选举官员、他自己的司法部长和许多法官都表示，没有证据表明他指控的大规模选民欺诈。
他公开表示，他可以通过某种方式复职，尽管这样做没有法律或宪法依据。
与此同时，他继续取笑自己在2024年重返白宫的可能性。助手们说，特朗普将在明年秋天的中期选举后做出决定。特朗普在1月6日之后被禁止在推特和脸书上使用。
自特朗普发起2016年竞选以来，他的集会一直有助于他的政治。这位前真人秀明星通过在观众面前表演而充满活力，并经常试播新材料和谈话要点，以了解它们如何引起观众的共鸣。他的政治活动还利用这些活动从与会者那里收集重要的选民联系信息，并作为筹款工具。
他们还催生了一群铁杆粉丝，他们走遍全国，参加数十场集会，经常通宵露营，争夺黄金时段。这些支持者中的一些人在本周早些时候开始在场馆外排队，因为他们为活动而团聚。
其他人参加了他们的第一次集会，因为他们觉得在选举结束后必须出来。
“我们想念他，”55岁的克里斯·拉斯科斯基说，她住在俄亥俄州的麦地那，正和丈夫詹姆斯一起参加她的第一次集会。“我认为他们剥夺了他的选举，他仍然是我们的总统，”她说。
她并不孤单。
“他将在8月份回来，”60岁的佩吉·约翰逊预测道，她从密歇根赶来参加她所说的第七次特朗普集会。“他现在实际上是总统了。”
Trump airs old election grievances at campaign-style rally
WELLINGTON, Ohio -- Donald Trump on Saturday reprised his baselesselectiongrievances and painted a dystopian picture of the country under Democratic control in his first campaign-style rally since leaving the White House.
His mission, in part, was to exact revenge on one of the Republicans who voted for his historic secondimpeachment.
Trump's event Saturday night at Ohio's Lorain County Fairgrounds, not far from Cleveland, was held to support Max Miller, a former White House aide who is challenging Republican Rep. Anthony Gonzalez for his congressional seat. Gonzalez was one of 10 GOP House members who voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building.
Trump wants them to pay.
In his remarks, Trump revisited some of the false claims familiar from his fruitless challenges of President Joe Biden's election victory. “On the evening of Nov. 3 the election was over and then all of a sudden things started closing down all over,” he said of election night. “We took a massive victory, they did, into something that should never be allowed.”
In fact, Trump was describing a legitimate vote counting process that saw Biden take the lead as the night wore on, as Democratic-leaning cities in key states and results from mail-in ballots were reported. Trump administration election officials and top election officials in Republican-led states affirmed the validity of the election outcome.
In another echo of the past, the crowd chanted “Lock her up” at the mention ofHillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated in 2016.
Traffic was backed up from the fairgrounds into town, where pro-Trump signs dotted residents' lawns. On street corners, vendors sold “Trump 2024” flags and other merchandise as supporters arrived.
The rally, held five months after Trump left office under a cloud of violence, marks the beginning of a new, more public phase of his post-presidency. After spending much of his time behind closed doors building a political operation and fuming about the last election, Trump is planning a flurry of public appearances in the coming weeks. He'll hold another rally inFloridaover the July Fourth weekend unattached to a midterm candidate and will travel to the southern border in the coming week to protest President Joe Biden'simmigrationpolicies.
The rally also came as Trump faces immediate legal jeopardy. Manhattan prosecutors informed his company Thursday that it could soon face criminal charges stemming from a wide-ranging investigation into the former president’s business dealings. The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that charges could be filed against the Trump Organization within days. Trump has denounced the investigations as nothing more than a “witch hunt” aimed at damaging him politically.
Although Trump remains a deeply polarizing figure, he is extremely popular with the Republican base, and candidates have flocked to his homes in Florida and New Jersey seeking his endorsement as he has tried to position himself as his party’s kingmaker.
Trump has said he is committed to helping Republicans regain control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. But his efforts to support — and recruit — candidates to challenge incumbent Republicans who have crossed him put him at odds with other Republican leaders who have been trying to unify the party after a brutal year in which they lost control of the White House and failed to gain control of either chamber of Congress.
So far, nine of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment have drawn primary challengers. And Trump has offered to support anyone who steps forward to challenge the remaining candidate, Rep. John Katko of New York, syracuse.com reported.
“We’re giving tremendous endorsements,” Trump boasted Friday morning as he called into the conservative Newsmax channel and explained his endorsement rationale.
“Fake Republicans, anybody that voted for the impeachment doesn’t get it," he said. "But there weren’t too many of them. And I think most of them are being, if not all, are being primaried right now, so that’s good. I’ll be helping their opponent.”
Gonzalez, a former college and professional football player, has stood by his impeachment vote in the face of fierce criticism from his party’s conservative wing, including his censure by the Ohio Republican Party.
At the same time, Trump continues to obsess over his ongoing efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he insists he won, even though top election officials, his own attorney general and numerous judges have said there is no evidence of the mass voter fraud he alleges.
And he has publicly entertained the idea that he could somehow be reinstated into office, even though no legal or constitutional basis for doing so exists.
At the same time, he continues to tease the possibility that he will mount a comeback run for the White House in 2024. Aides say Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook after Jan. 6, will make a decision after the midterms next fall.
Trump’s rallies have been instrumental to his politics since he launched his 2016 campaign. The former reality star is energized by performing in front of his audiences and often test-drives new material and talking points to see how they resonate with the crowd. His political operation also uses the events to collect critical voter contact information from attendees and as fundraising tools.
And they have spawned a group of hardcore fans who traveled the country, attending dozens of rallies, often camping out overnight to snag prime spots. Some of those supporters began lining up outside the venue early in the week as they reunited for the event.
Others were attending their first rallies, having felt compelled to turn out in the election’s aftermath.
“We miss him,” said Chris Laskowski, 55, who lives in Medina, Ohio, and was attending her first rally with her husband, James. “I think they robbed him of the election and he’s still our president,” she said.
She wasn’t alone.
“He’ll be back in August,” predicted Peggy Johnson, 60, who had traveled from Michigan to attend what she said was her seventh Trump rally. “He actually is president now.”
