Criminal Justice & African Americans

Trump says the court system is ‘under siege’ in 1st Michigan visit since becoming a felon

Former President Donald Trump said during his first visit to Michigan since becoming a convicted felon last month that the court system in the United States is “under siege.”

“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor, because I’m being indicted for you,” Trump said Saturday at a Turning Point Action conference in Detroit.

“Our enemies want to take away my freedom because, quite simply, I will never let them take away your freedom,” Trump said. “In the end, they’re not after me, they’re after you; I’m just standing in their way.”

New York jurors found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

“I got indicted more than the legendary Alphonse Capone,” Trump falsely claimed before musing that Capone would likely have killed My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell as a result of finding his advertisements annoying.

“Mike’s beautiful new wife would say ‘what the hell happened to my husband?’ He’d never be found,” Trump said. “He’d be buried under the World Trade Center.”

Capone was indicted three times in 1931 alone, CNN reports, including on 22 counts of income tax evasion and 5,000 violations of Prohibition laws. Capone was also indicted in 1926 for conspiracy to violate Prohibition law, in 1929 for carrying concealed weapons in Philadelphia and in 1933 for racketeering.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to have faced a criminal trial.

“All of their persecution of me is only happening because I’m running for president and leading very big in the polls,” Trump said.

“I’m the only one in history who got indicted and my numbers went up,” he added.

Turning Point USA, a right-wing student group founded by Charlie Kirk, has promoted Christian nationalism and extremism, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Other scheduled speakers at the event running Friday through Sunday are: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, GOP former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Roger Stone, Candace Owens, Jack Posobiec, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). 

Trump also campaigned at a Detroit church earlier that day to coincide with the launch of his “Black Americans for Trump” coalition.

Trump likened his conviction to claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election that have been debunked by voting officials and legislators from both parties, the court system, independent experts and members of Trump’s administration.

“We have a rigged country,” Trump said. “We have rigged elections. We have open borders. And the court system now is under siege.”

Trump railed against absentee ballots and called for stricter voter ID requirements.

“We don’t need votes,” Trump said. “We’ve got more votes than anybody’s ever had. We need to watch the vote; we need to guard the vote; we need to stop the steal.”

Michigan is once again a key swing state after Trump won the Mitten in 2016 by more than 10,000 votes over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but lost to President Joe Biden in 2020 by around 154,000 votes.

Following his loss in Michigan in 2020, Trump made numerous false claims about the results of the election, while his supporters inside Huntington Place – then the TCF Center – chanted “stop the count” in reference to absentee ballots being tabulated there.

“It is offensive for [Trump] to come here, him and his Republican allies, when they made Huntington Place the epicenter of their steal the election effort,” Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, a Democrat, said at a press conference Friday.

“It takes a lot of nerve, in my opinion, for [Trump] to come back to Detroit and hope that people don’t remember what he did,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) added.

Prior to his keynote address at the Turning Point Action conference, Trump held a roundtable at the nondenominational 180 Church in Detroit, where members have gone to court over control of the congregation.

He announced his “Black Americans for Trump” coalition shortly before the event, which includes Michiganders Linda Tarver, a former state school board candidate and longtime GOP activist; Bernadette Smith, Michigan GOP ethnic vice chair; and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (C) appears in Wayne County Circuit Court for his sentencing October 28, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. | Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Kilpatrick served as state House Democratic leader prior to becoming mayor in 2002. He resigned from that post in 2008 and was convicted in federal court in 2013 on several public corruption crimes, earning a 28-year sentence

Trump commuted Kilpatrick’s sentence during his final days in office in 2021 following a lobbying effort from leaders including former state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo (D-Detroit).

“I can never thank President Trump enough for what he’s done for me and my family by giving me freedom. But I believe this election and the issues involved are personal to every family and every person in America,” Kilpatrick said in a statement.

Other members of the coalition include celebrities who have been convicted of crimes, including rapper Kodak Black, former boxer Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King.

U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and John James (R-Shelby Twp.) attended the church event, along with Ben Carson.

Donalds is one of several Republican officials reportedly under consideration to be Trump’s running mate, filling the spot held by former Vice President Mike Pence in 2016 and 2020. Pence has said he will not vote for Trump in 2024, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Florida congressman was met with chants of “VP” as soon as he took the stage, and Trump asked the crowd: “I noticed he happened to be on the list of potential vice presidents. Would anybody like to see him as vice president?”

“He’s on the list, by the way. I don’t know if he’s going to make it, but he’s on a list of a few people. Not too many people,” Trump said, adding that he would be “a good one, too.”

Trump claimed that he has done “more for the Black population than any American president since Abraham Lincoln, while adding that President Joe Biden is “all talk.”

The Republican also criticized Biden’s role as a U.S. senator in sponsoring the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, commonly known as the 1994 crime bill. Some have argued that the law has been a driver of mass incarceration in the United States, and Biden said in 2020 that supporting the bill was a mistake.

“Biden wrote the devastating 1994 crime bill, talking about ‘super predators.’ That was Biden. You know, he walks around now talking about the Black vote. He’s the king of the ‘super predators,’” Trump said.

Biden did not publicly endorse the phrase “super predators,” a CNN fact check shows, using the term only to reject it – a contrast with Clinton, Trump’s 2016 opponent, who did use the term in a 1996 speech.

Trump has previously called Detroit “hell” and “totally corrupt,” a message he reinforced Saturday.

“The crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities,” Trump said. “More people see me and they say, ‘Sir, we want protection. We want police to protect us. We don’t want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread.’”

Data released by the FBI shows violent crime in Michigan increased from 2020 to 2021 but decreased below both years in 2022. Nationwide, violent crime decreased in 2021 and 2022 from a higher rate in 2020.

The Rev. James Perkins of the Greater Christ Baptist Church criticized Trump’s visit to the church in a statement released by the Biden campaign.

“Donald Trump has the nerve to waltz into our city and act like he wants to understand the struggles Black Detroiters face, but the reality is he doesn’t care,” Perkins said. “Every time Trump opens his mouth to talk to Black folks, he demonizes us, insults us, and makes empty promises he’ll never keep.”

Trump was joined at the roundtable by Carlos Chambers, a veteran, postal worker and boxing coach; Itasha Dotson, a convenience store owner; Omar Mitchell, the executive chef at Table No. 2; Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor at 180 Church; Kimberly Taylor, a former schoolteacher who owns a counseling business; and Mario Williams, the owner of Holy Moly Donuts East.

Trump’s events in Michigan marked his second campaign trip since being convicted. He spoke at a town hall in Arizona last week.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, a “Make America Great Again” boat parade, meant to celebrate the former president’s 78th birthday the day before, set sail from Lake St. Clair in Macomb County heading for the coast by Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Crowds at both of Trump’s events in Michigan sang “Happy Birthday” to the former president.

The Democratic National Committee flew a sky banner reading “Trump’s a Crook, Don’t Let Em Sink Ur Boat” over the parade’s route.

A similar parade in Texas in 2020 ended with five boats sinking due to turbulence caused by the participating boats’ wakes.

Census data shows that Detroit – Michigan’s largest city – is 78% Black. Biden defeated Trump in the city by a margin of 94%-5%, picking up 240,936 votes.

But recent polling indicates that Black men may be more open to supporting Trump than they have typically been for Republican nominees. A New York Times/Sienna College survey released last month found Trump winning more than 20% of Black voters in a two-way matchup with Biden, which would set a record high if it materializes in November. Multiple estimates suggest that Trump won roughly 1 in 10 Black voters nationally in 2020.

While Biden is still likely to win Black voters, and Detroit, by large margins, even a modest shift could swing the results of what is expected to be a close election. If turnout is low in cities like Detroit, that could also harm Biden’s chances in November.

“President Trump is not your typical politician,” Carson said. “He doesn’t run around with his finger in the air seeing which way the wind is blowing.”

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