Trump, talking tariffs and immigration, enthuses small Wisconsin base

Donald Trump vowed Saturday in Wisconsin to impose unprecedented tariffs and crack down on immigrants he says are stealing jobs and killing Americans, as he sought to shore up support among white working-class and rural people, a key part of his base.

Speaking at a regional airport in Mosinee, a town of about 4,500 people, the Republican presidential candidate warned that even allies like the European Union would face new trade restrictions if he wins the Nov. 5 election against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

He repeatedly portrayed migrants as a grave danger to Wisconsin, warning without evidence that immigrants in the country illegally could evict local residents from their homes.

“Crime is sky high, and you haven’t seen the immigrant crime yet,” Trump said. “It started, and it’s vicious, but you haven’t seen the magnitude of it.”

Trump also warned, as he has at previous rallies, that the 2024 election could be the country’s last.

Support for the former president declined among most segments of the population last summer, when his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.

Nationally, Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters by 13 percentage points, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted in August; Biden led that demographic by just five points in May. Among black Americans, she outperforms Biden by seven points.

But she has barely moved the needle among white voters, the same polls show. Whites without college degrees, long the linchpin of Trump’s coalition, still give him a 25-point lead, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. They gave Trump a 29-point lead when he ran against Biden.

Several of Trump’s advisers and allies have told Reuters in recent weeks that preserving election margins and increasing turnout among white working-class people is critical if he is to defeat Harris.

That’s especially true in the northern “Rust Belt” states, including Wisconsin, which are predominantly white and have large rural populations. Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part by winning these areas on a promise to bring manufacturing jobs back to the region.

“We are not going to stand by and watch our wealth and our jobs be taken from us and sent overseas, and Wisconsin will be one of the biggest beneficiaries,” Trump said of his proposed trade policy.

Mosinee, where Trump spoke on Saturday, is near Wausau, a town of about 40,000 people, but within hours of the state’s largest population centers, Milwaukee and Madison.

Marathon County, where Mosinee is located, used to be a politically competitive area. In 2008, the county voted for Democrat Barack Obama. Since then, the county has swayed to the right, favoring Trump by about 18 points in 2016 and 2020.

While the Trump campaign has identified Hispanics and black men as growth areas for the Republican Party, Trump has campaigned in recent weeks primarily in small towns and villages in the Rust Belt, which have low populations of both demographics.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, is expected to hit the relatively rural areas of the Rust Belt hard in the final weeks before the election, two Trump advisers told Reuters.

Debate on the horizon

Saturday’s rally was one of the last public appearances Trump will make before his debate with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Many of his allies have urged him to focus his attacks on policy and steer clear of deeply personal verbosity.

Trump did not focus on Harris’ racial identity during his grievance-ridden speech. Yet a recording played by the campaign during the rally sounded like an imitation of Harris’ laugh, which Trump has often mocked.

Trump told the crowd he would purge the federal government, including public health and intelligence agencies, of corrupt actors. He repeatedly attacked Fani Willis, the Georgia district attorney who is prosecuting Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in that state to Biden.

Trump also said he would amend the 25th Amendment to make it an impeachable offense for a vice president to cover up a president’s mental incapacity. And he attacked the political leaders of Colorado and Maine.

In both states, his right to vote in the 2024 election was challenged. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last year that Trump should not be on the ballot because of his alleged role in fomenting an insurrection by trying to overturn his 2020 defeat, a decision the U.S. Supreme Court overturned.

Trump told his supporters, without evidence, that authorities in Colorado had handed control of parts of the state to Venezuelan gangs.

“In Colorado, they’re so crazy that they’re taking over parts of the state,” Trump said. “And you know, getting them back is going to be a bloody mess.”