Trump says Democrats are using disgusting rhetoric

Donald Trump delivered his closing speech to voters in Atlanta on Monday, leaning heavily on immigration and anti-trans rhetoric.

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump – while attacking all kinds of opponents of the vice president Kamala Harris to former first lady Michelle Obama — claimed Monday that it’s Democrats who are using “disgusting” rhetoric to define his campaign as he tried to woo Georgia’s all-too-important voters just a week before the 2024 election.

Trump’s rally at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta aimed to get voters to the polls ahead of the subsequent Nov. 5 election. “We love Georgia,” he told the audience as he cheered at the opening of his roughly 75-minute speech.

Georgia belongs to the seven crucial swing states Trump and Harris believe this is the key to their respective paths to victory. Trump Georgia narrowly lost in 2020 to President Joe Biden — neither the former president nor Harris have shown a clear advantage in the state recent polls.

Trump’s final speech to voters included attacks on transgender people, tax cut proposals, a dose of nostalgia and a lot of talk about immigration.

Here’s a look at some key moments.

Anti-trans message

In the final days of the election, Trump’s campaign questioned Harris. support for the transgender community and leaned on anti-trans messages. Monday’s rally was no exception.

Early in his speech, Trump called transgender issues a “big thing” and told his supporters: “We don’t want transgender surgeries everywhere… We don’t want men playing in women’s sports.”

He peppered similar lines throughout the speech, suggesting his campaign might view the issue as a rallying cry for Trump’s base. Pro-Trump ads argue that Harris is for “they/them” and say that she is in favor of “gender changes for prisoners.”

But polls have shown that issues surrounding transgender rights are not at the top of the agenda for most voters. A Gallup poll in early October showed that transgender rights were considered the least important issue in the minds of voters in 22 issue areas, including the economy, inflation, abortion, taxes and energy policy.

Criticism of Harris’ rhetoric

Trump used the meeting to dispute attacks from some Democrats who compared his past rallies, actions and comments to those of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler.

Harris described Trump as a ‘fascistLast week after John Kelly, Trump’s ex-White House chief of staff, used the term to describe the former president in interviews with the New York Times. Kelly also said that Trump made admiring comments about Hitler more than once.

“The way they talk is so disgusting, just horrible,” Trump said at his rally on Monday. “This is the kind of outrageous rhetoric that has resulted in two assassination attempts in the last three months.”

Democrats have pointed out that Trump is the one who attacked Harris’ intelligence, ethnicity and competence. He labeled her politics as fascist in August and on Monday called her a fascist.

While denouncing the rhetoric against him, Trump told the crowd in Atlanta about Harris: “She’s a fascist, okay? She is a fascist.”

Previously, Harris said Trump is “fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country,” citing Sunday’s rally at Madison Square Garden as the latest example.

“It is absolutely something that is intended and fuels efforts to divide our country,” Harris said.

Tax cuts for informal care

If he is elected, Trump has made a proposal tax cuts about everything from overtime to social security benefits. A tax credit for informal caregivers can now be added to the list.

During his rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump announced the new policy proposal for caregivers and reiterated it to voters in Atlanta on Monday evening.

“I will support a tax credit, a full tax credit for caregivers who are caring for a parent or loved one. They deserve it,” Trump said jubilantly.

The proposal comes as Trump and Harris try to court two major voting blocs: seniors and women, who make up the majority unpaid informal caregivers in the country.

Harris promised this earlier this year Expand Medicare coverage to include home care costs for seniors if she wins.

MAGA nostalgia

If Trump wins, he will no longer be able to run for re-election under the Constitution. If he loses, he will be told that he will not launch a new presidential campaign in 2028.

The weight of his last eight years in the political spotlight and the end of his campaign days appeared on the ex-president’s mind Monday night.

‘We’re almost done with this. We’ve been doing this together for nine years,” he said, adding that it would be “very difficult” for future Republican presidential candidates to match the size of his audience.

Trump described his rise to political prominence as a “unique situation” and the “greatest political movement.”

Trump called Michelle Obama ‘nasty’

Trump called former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” over comments she made about him at an event for Harris last weekend.

During a speech in Michigan on SaturdayObama described Trump as “erratic” and said he is a convicted felon and in “apparent mental decline,” among other criticisms.

Trump hit back, saying it was “a big mistake she made.” He didn’t elaborate further.

Trump is destroying the Democrats’ immigration record

Immigration has been the central issue of Trump’s campaign since he launched his first presidential bid in 2016. And he stayed true to the message in the final days of the race.

Trump criticized Biden and Harris’ immigration policies and invoked the death of Laken Riley, a University of Georgia nursing student who was killed while jogging on campus in February. A 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant was arrested on murder and assault charges, and federal authorities said he entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had been arrested at least once before.

Trump has used Reilly’s death as an example of violent crimes committed by immigrants in the US — even though they have been found to be committing crimes. less than half the rate of U.S.-born citizens, according to a National Institute of Justice study.

A battle cry to get out of the mood

Because the margins are as small as in Georgia, every vote counts. Trump urged rallygoers on the importance of casting their votes and at one point held a real-time voting poll to see how many people had already voted.

“We are ahead by a wide margin, but get out and vote. We can’t take any chances,” Trump said.

At a religious summit near Atlanta earlier in the day, Trump encouraged Christian voters — a crucial part of his constituency – to go to the polls.

Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY