Ten days before the February 27 Michigan Presidential primary, Donald Trump addressed a get-out-the-vote rally of thousands of supporters who stood in line for up to six hours in 20-degree weather to cheer him on in an airport hangar in Waterford, MI. Hundreds, who didn’t make it into the full capacity venue, were turned away.

The rally was Trump’s first Michigan visit of the 2024 primary season. He was last in the state during the United Auto Workers strike in September 2023. As he did then, he directly addressed auto workers with the warning, “Joe Biden has ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing with his insane electric vehicle mandate.” Among those addressing the crowd before the President arrived was Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump, who called out UAW President Shawn Fain for failing to get job security for UAW members in the 2023 contract. Pannebecker warned that auto workers got a “short-term sugar high” with their wage gains, but that many will soon lose their jobs. (The Big Three automakers have already announced layoffs due to slumping sales of EVs.) Trump later brought Pannebecker back onto the stage to underscore his commitment to auto workers. In his speech, President Trump reinforced Pannebecker’s message that, for now, “You’re gonna get nice wages, but then you’re going to be out of a job in two years.”

The President expanded his message to other trade unionists, making clear that they are threatened by more than green mandates and free trade. He drilled down on the effect of illegal immigration on jobs and wages, addressing especially black and Hispanic auto workers, and Teamsters (whose endorsement Trump is hoping to get) as among those who will lose their jobs to illegals who will work for one-third of their wages.

In marked contrast to Nikki Haley and the Wall Street–wing of the Republican Party, Trump strongly defended Social Security: “We have such great wealth in this country, we don’t have to mess around with Social Security.”

There was a real “outreach” quality to Trump’s speech, including his announcement of a recent poll which shows him getting 25 percent of black votes in Michigan, as well as big gains among Hispanic Americans. It has also been reported that representatives of the Trump campaign met with Arab- and Muslim-American leaders who are furious at the policies of Joe Biden, which have left at least 27,000 Palestinians dead in Gaza. 

Perhaps the most important line in the President’s speech was this: “We’re like a new party, by the way. We are getting the workers, we’re getting the manufacturers. The guys that make the products.” LaRouchePAC has long pointed to the need to do what Abraham Lincoln did, in the founding of the Republican Party—to create a movement that represents workers, manufacturers, farmers, creators, and other producing sectors of society. Trump has called on those constituencies to join him in the “ultimate strike against the globalist financier class.” Whether this takes the form of a transformed Republican Party or some other form, remains to be seen. 

The Paradox

But, there was a glaring paradox in Trump’s Michigan appearance and his idea of such a transformed party. Over the past several months, the grassroots and anti-globalist leadership of the Michigan Republican Party (MIGOP) has been challenged by a faction in the party which now asserts that former Congressman and Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is the chairman of the party, not the delegate-elected chair, Kristina Karamo. Hoekstra (a former U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman) is backed by the Republican National Committee and has lined up the donor class and Michigan uniparty leadership behind him. To the surprise of most of the grassroots, Donald Trump recently endorsed Hoekstra and doubled down on his endorsement at the rally. 

For those America Firsters wondering what is going on, take a look at the only State Representative singled out for recognition by Trump at the Waterford rally—Matt Hall, the Republican leader of the Michigan House. Hall, through his control of the Michigan House Republican Campaign Committee, channels donor class money to RINO and uniparty candidates to keep Michigan out of the hands of the America First grassroots movement. The singling out of Hall, rather than solid Trump loyalists who were in the crowd, made it apparent that Trump is being forced to rely on the donor class and establishment Republicans by the pure pragmatics of winning the election amidst a whole-of-government effort to bankrupt and jail both Trump and the nascent MAGA leadership. Trump’s task, and that of the grassroots, is to convert these establishment layers to his Agenda 47 policies and the American System embedded within them, or cast them aside at the appropriate time. 

As of this writing, there are still court cases pending regarding control of MIGOP. But whatever happens, one thing is clear: Donald Trump is going to need an independent movement of mobilized, educated citizens if he is going to truly re-create a Lincoln-like republican movement, and take on the globalist financier class.

Promethean Action organizers brought that challenge directly to the Waterford rally attendees. A team of seven organizers braved the cold along with everyone else. They set up a table outside the main parking area and worked the half-mile long line, distributing a 5x7″ color postcard advertising the explosive new pamphlet, “A Police Dossier: It is the British Who Murder Our Presidents.” That dossier, as regulars on this site know, locates the continuing threat to Donald Trump from the vantage point of the British Empire’s hatred of those American Presidents who actually know how to defend American economic sovereignty. This deeper understanding is what is needed to navigate the tumultuous months ahead. Approximately 1500 cards were handed out, and scores of people signed up to stay in touch.