Election 2024

Why Trump is ending his presidential campaign in battleground state Michigan



Donald Trump is sunsetting his presidential campaign in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Monday night with a final rally in what his team called a “tradition” for the swing state three election cycles in a row.

The move represents one last attempt to win over voters in a state made up of “coalitions” — including the “largest black city in America, the largest Arab population in America, plus a massive crowd of people and the union workers, autoworkers, Teamsters,” a Trump campaign rep told The Post.

“I think that you can objectively say Michigan is the most left-leaning of the seven [swing states]. However, we’re kind of the weirdest state of the seven just because of how many coalitions are in Michigan,” the Trump representative said.

Donald Trump shakes hands with Dearborn, Mich., cafe owner Albert Abbas in the battleground state last week. AP
Trump looks at a screen showing presidential foe Kamala Harris during a campaign rally at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., on Friday. REUTERS

The 45th president also finished his campaign trail in the state during his 2016 and 2020 bids. Monday’s final rally is expected to feature a speech by Trump around 10:30 p.m.

The Trump rep said his camp expects the turnout to be “huge” in the 20,000-seat Van Andel Arena.

“I’m proud to be able to say that we have that tradition,” the representative said of the candidate’s last campaign stop.

Trump dances his way off stage at the end of a rally in Warren, Michigan, on Nov. 1. Getty Images

Michigan is one of the key swing states both Trump and Harris are vying for, and if she loses even one of the ones considered “blue wall” states, that would only bring her closer to defeat.

The Trump rep said his camp’s easiest path to winning the necessary 270 electoral votes is through the GOP candidate “holding on to Georgia and Arizona and North Carolina and then picking up Pennsylvania” — but that every state counts and that Michigan is also an “opportunity” to get to the simple majority needed.

Trump greets people as he visits Abbas’ restaurant, the Great Commoner, in Dearborn on Friday. AP

Both candidates have spent the last weeks of the election homing in on the swing states and making final efforts to drive up turnout in light of the razor-thin polling margins.

Michigan, where RealClearPolitics has Harris leading by 1.2%, has produced particularly hot headlines in the fight to court Arab American voters.

Trump visited an Arab American coffee shop in Dearborn, vowing to bring peace to the Middle East, while Harris has pledged to do “everything in her power to end the war in Gaza” as protesters continue to heckle her across the country about her stance on the Israel-Hamas war.



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