‘I took a bullet for democracy,’ Trump tells first rally since shooting

Grand Rapids, United States – AFP

Donald Trump, holding his first campaign rally Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt, rejected concerns that he is a threat to democracy, triumphantly telling a cheering crowd: “Last week I took a bullet for democracy.

“I’m not an extremist at all,” the Republican continued at the rally in swing state Michigan, dismissing his reported links to Project 2025, a shadow manifesto from figures close to him that has been characterized by opponents as an authoritarian, right-wing wish list.

And he mocked the rival Democratic Party, roiled by unprecedented pressure for President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid amid concerns over his age and fitness to serve, if reelected, until 2029.

“They have no idea who their candidate is,” Trump told the 12,000-strong crowd of passionate supporters.

He also expressed admiration for foreign autocrats including the “brilliant” Xi Jinping of China, whom he praised for controlling “1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”

And he evoked the seconds after a gunman tried to kill him at a rally in Pennsylvania, when, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, he raised a fist and yelled for his supporters to “fight!”

The crowd in Grand Rapids chanted the word back to him Saturday more than once.

He appeared wearing a new, smaller, flesh-colored bandage over his right ear, grazed in the attack by a 20-year-old gunman on a rooftop who also killed one bystander.

– Biden’s ‘big decision’ –

Meanwhile, Biden loyalists continued to defend the embattled president as the drumbeat of calls for him to abandon his campaign grows louder.

The 81-year-old and his team have remained publicly adamant that he is staying in the race, though some reports suggest discussions have begun in his inner circle about how exactly he might step aside.

There has been massive speculation over who could replace him. As vice president, Harris appears best positioned to do so.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive who sought the party’s presidential nod in 2020, gave Harris a boost Saturday without turning her back on the president.

“Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said on MSNBC. “He has a really big decision to make.

“But what gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who is ready to step up, to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump, and to win in November.”

Some Democrats, however, fear that such a late switch could trigger chaos, dooming the party at the polls.

Team Trump, for its part, is effervescent after an exceptional streak of luck — from the failed assassination bid to favorable court rulings and Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.