Rally in Arizona | Donald Trump criticizes politicians who want to “control” the lives of Americans

(Florence) Donald Trump repeated that he had won the last presidential election in the United States and criticized the “politicians of Washington” who want to “control” the lives of Americans, Saturday, during a rally in front of his supporters in Arizona .

“We’re tired of Washington politicians controlling our lives. We are fed up with obligations, ”he thundered.

“Extremist Democrats want to make the United States a communist country,” he also said.

Before singing his lying leitmotif since the last presidential election in November 2020: “We won the elections. We have largely won. We can’t let them off the hook. »

Before him, speakers had already heated the crowd, designating Joe Biden as someone “weak” and “deranged”, and targeting the “lame media”, whistled by supporters of the former Republican president.

Most of the hallmarks of Trumpism have been used, from the stolen election to media injustice, to open borders and the fact that the United States has become “the laughingstock of the whole world”.

Some had arrived in Florence, a rural town southeast of the state capital, Phoenix, several days in advance from Florida or Texas.

In the desert wind floated, on a vast field, the flags “Trump 2020” and “Trump 2024”, to encourage the billionaire defeated at the polls after four years in the White House to run for the next presidential election.

Before the start of the public meeting, the crowd chanted “Let’s go Brandon”, an insulting coded formula for Joe Biden that had become a rallying cry for the Trumpist base.

“It’s almost like a Woodstock MAGA”, a mix between the hippie festival of the 1960s and the “Make America Great Again” meetings of the ex-real estate mogul , enthuses Jonathan Riches, who claims to be in his 40s^and Donald Trump’s public meeting. “These are patriots from all over the country coming together for the good of the country. We love our president,” he says.

Press conference canceled

After having invoked in particular an alleged malice of the media to explain the cancellation of a press conference which he wanted to organize on January 6, during the first anniversary of the murderous assault of his supporters on the American Capitol, Donald Trump therefore this time faces a conquered public.

Among the guests was Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump and who has claimed in the past that she would not have certified Joe Biden’s victory in the key state if she had been in office at that time.

Donald Trump retains great influence over the Republican Party, many of whose elected officials who want to keep their seats in the next elections wish to benefit from his dubbing and therefore often subscribe to conspiracy theories suggesting that the presidential election has been stolen – or at least do not disprove them. not openly.

The Florence rally was the first with a significant audience since October for the billionaire. As he often does, Donald Trump proclaimed it to be the “biggest audience”, going “beyond the eye can see”. No precise figures were provided, however, and the crowd did not have the magnitude of those who came to see him before his victory in 2016.

Donald Trump, banned from Twitter and who, since leaving the White House, preferred to intervene on ultra-conservative media and committed to his cause, granted an interview on Tuesday to public radio NPR.

After recommending that Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19 – a politically sensitive issue in the United States – he cut the interview short when the journalist questioned his unsubstantiated allegations of presidential fraud.

His rally also came 24 hours after the announcement of the abandonment, by a major television service, of the pro-Trump channel One America News Network (OAN).

The ex-president has repeatedly advised his supporters to turn to this ultra-conservative and conspiratorial channel, which tries to compete with Fox News among the right-wing electorate.