Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
In an attempt to leave nothing to chance when it comes to battleground North Carolina, former president Donald Trump held a late Sunday afternoon rally in Kinston, hours after campaigning Saturday in Gastonia and Greensboro.
During his 70-minute speech at the Kinston Jet Center, Trump returned to many of the themes that he has leaned into in the final days of the presidential campaign.
Trump told supporters that North Carolina has brought him luck in the past, predicting the state would deliver him 16 electoral votes when all was said and done on Tuesday.
“We won it twice. We won every primary. We won everything [in] this place. We even named that beautiful little granddaughter, Carolina,” said Trump, repeating a line that he has used during each stop in the Tar Heel state.
Trump promised the audience that with their vote on Tuesday he would end inflation and stop the ‘invasion of criminals’ coming into the country.
“We have some of the worst terrorists in the world in our country right now. They may live right by you. They let them in by the tens of thousands,” Trump said as he blamed the current administration. “If we let this slip away, we should have our heads examined.”
Trump told the crowd that great Republicans were running in the 2024 election. He then mistakenly offered up the name of a Senate candidate from Pennsylvania.
“You have one of the best of all right here, David McCormick. You know, that….David is here someplace. You know, we just left him. He’s a great guy.”
McCormick was not in Kinston at the time.
Trump pivoted briefly to the recent jobs report, before returning to his own grievances.
He told the audience that he has been under investigation more than the late American gangster Al Capone.
“Has anyone ever heard of him? He’s a lovely man,” said Trump.
“If he was with Mike Lindell for dinner and Mike offered and a couple of pillows. And if he didn’t sleep well because he didn’t like Mike’s pillows, Mike had almost no chance of living. He would dispose of Mike somewhere in a foundation of a building or something. You would never see Mike again. Mike does not want to have dinner with Scarface, right?”
The MyPillow CEO was in the crowd to support Trump.
Trump promised that he would cut energy prices in half within 12 months, build 200 additional miles of the border wall, and enact tariffs on companies that don’t make their products in the United States.
Economists have repeatedly said Trump’s tariffs would do more harm to the economy.
“You’re going to be so happy,” Trump said.
Trump is expected to deliver a similar appeal when he addresses supporters on Monday at Raleigh’s Dorton arena.
More than 4.2 million North Carolinians have already cast their ballots during the in-person early voting period.
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