In his first campaign rally after being convicted of 34 felonies, former president\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0recalled how he just went through a \u201crigged\u201d trial with a \u201chighly conflicted\u201d judge despite there being \u201cno crime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court cases Trump faces have become a mainstay of his campaigning throughout the last year, where he frequently tells his followers that the charges are a form of election interference and designed to tamp down the Maga movement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out, or we\u2019re not going to have a country any longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump spoke at a Turning Point Action event in sweltering Phoenix, at Dream City church, a megachurch where he and Turning Point have held rallies in the past. The extreme heat led to some waiting outside for the venue to open to need medical attention for heatstroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump held a rally at the same church in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, when church leaders\u00a0claimed\u00a0to have an air-purification system that killed 99% of the Covid-19 virus. Turning Point Action is the campaign arm of Turning Point, the conservative youth group founded by Charlie Kirk, a figure in the Maga movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former president also took aim at Joe Biden\u2019s recent executive order limiting asylum seekers, which Trump called \u201cbullshit\u201d and said he would rescind on his first day in office, should he win. He condemned Biden on immigration and ran down Trump administration border policies, saying his Democratic rival could solve immigration problems by reinstating all of his old policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArizona is being turned into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While immigration is a top issue for voters nationwide, it is especially acute in a border state like Arizona, which Trump hit on in his speech. He wistfully recalled the days of former Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, infamous for his strict immigration policies that led to frequent lawsuits and financial settlements, and brought Arpaio on stage for impromptu remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump kissed Arpaio on the cheek, then said: \u201cI don\u2019t kiss men, but I kissed him. We had a real border with this guy.\u201d Arpaio called Trump his hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arizona is a key battleground this year, as Trump tries to win back the once solidly red south-western state from Biden, who beat him by about 10,500 votes. Election denialism has\u00a0gripped the state\u00a0for years \u2013 some Republicans who lost their races in 2022 midterms still have not conceded and have filed lawsuits to try to reverse the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his first campaign rally after being convicted of 34 felonies, former president Donald Trump recalled how