FREELAND, Mich. — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed his ongoing hush money trial in New York in front of a crowd of Michigan supporters Wednesday, framing the court proceeding as a "Biden sideshow trial" before a corrupt and conflicted judge.

"Here's the good news: It's driven the poll numbers higher than we've ever had before," Trump said, who argued his supporters saw through the "sham."

"The ultimate verdict on this travesty will not come in a courtroom," he said. "It will come at the ballot box and the American people are going to find crooked Joe Biden guilty of trying to destroy our country."

Trump's stop in Freeland marks his first visit to the state since an agent for Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said he's considered an unindicted co-conspirator in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump's campaign stop in Saginaw County came on an off day in his ongoing trial in New York. Trump visited the same location in September 2020, ahead of the last presidential election, drawing an estimated 5,000 people. Trump is on trial in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up an extramarital affair with porn star Stormy Daniels from becoming public before the 2016 election.

The former president also slammed government electric vehicle mandates and subsidies as he kicked off a campaign stop Wednesday in Freeland in the electoral battleground of Saginaw County, a perennial bellwether in Michigan for presidential elections.

Trump said Biden's push for electric vehicles would spur an "economic bloodbath" that would give China a larger foothold in the U.S. automotive industry. Biden's EPA in March finalized rules that would require automakers to determine their sales mix to comply with the greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions limits for light-duty vehicle fleets of model years 2027 to 2032 and beyond.

Separately, Michigan's Democratic-led Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration have authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for electric vehicle battery projects.

Trump said he would instead place tariffs on foreign cars, "keep Chinese cars the hell out of America" and give people the option of internal combustion, hybrid or election vehicles.

"Whatever the hell you want you should be able to get," he said from the tarmac at MBS International Airport.

...continued

©2024 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.