Trump rallies faithful in Arizona with familiar grievances

FLORENCE (Arizona) • Mr Donald Trump delivered a crowd-pleasing speech last Saturday to thousands of adoring supporters in Arizona, insisting yet again that he won the 2020 presidential election.

Some of the faithful had arrived in the area days in advance from as far away as Florida or Texas, waiting to hear him trot out a familiar list of grievances. They were soon rewarded.

"We are done having our lives controlled by politicians in Washington. We are done with the mandates," he said. "The radical Democrats want to turn the United States into a communist country. We won those elections. We won them big. We can't let them get away with it."

Earlier speakers had kept to similar themes, slamming President Joe Biden as "weak" and "deranged", and taking aim at the "lamestream media", which the crowd duly booed.

The event was a greatest hits of Trumpism, playing all the expected notes: a stolen election, the unfairness of the media, open borders and how the US has become "a laughing stock all over the world".

There was a carnival feeling for much of the day.

Flags proclaiming "Trump 2020" and "Trump 2024" fluttered in the desert wind, as chants of "Let's Go Brandon" erupted from the good-natured crowd. The slogan has become code in right-wing circles after a news reporter mistook coarse anti-Biden chants.

"It's just a party atmosphere," said Mr Jonathan Riches, who was attending his 40th Trump rally. "It's almost like a MAGA Woodstock. It's patriots from around the country getting together for the common good of this country. We love our president," he said, referring to the Make America Great Again catchphrase.

Ms Jennifer Winterbauer, who was first in line to get into the rally, said she had come to hear "the truth" from Mr Trump. "He always gives the truth about everything. The economy, the state of the world, the United States."

Mr Trump abandoned a pledged press conference on Jan 6 - the anniversary of the invasion of the Capitol by his supporters - and the rally is his first outing in front of a large crowd since October.

As usual, he proclaimed it to be "the biggest" crowd that went "further than the eye can see", though accurate figures on attendance were not immediately available.

In the lead-up to his election win in 2016, and throughout his presidency, tens of thousands of supporters would throng venues to hear him speak. But crowds have since dwindled, and Saturday's turnout appeared to be far below those of earlier rallies.

The gathering, on farmland 100km from Phoenix, featured a raft of Republicans who have echoed Mr Trump's unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was fixed.

Mr Trump, who lost his Twitter account over his claims about the vote, has been a much lower-key presence in US politics since leaving office. But he still looms large in the Republican Party, where adherence to his theories - or at least not publicly denying them - is often vital to survival for members of Congress and state legislatures.

The former president has largely shunned major media outlets since leaving office. But last week, he ventured onto National Public Radio, where he said he recommends that people get vaccinated against Covid-19 - a hot button issue in the US, where there is widespread vaccine hesitancy on the right.

There were almost no masks or other anti-Covid-19 precautions in evidence among the crowd in Florence, Arizona, despite the Omicron variant wave that is washing over the US. Nationwide, more than 750,000 people a day are testing positive for the disease.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE