Trump campaign rides on attack, says he ‘took a bullet for democracy’

Washington: Former US president Donald Trump in his first campaign rally since surviving an attempted assassination attempt has dismissed concerns raised by critics that he is a threat to democracy, telling a large crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

In the rally in Michigan on Saturday, Trump, who is the Republican presidential nominee for the November 5 elections, was joined by his running mate J D Vance.

More than 12,000 people piled into the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids to see him and his running mate.

"They keep saying he's a threat to democracy. I'm saying, ‘’What the hell did I do to democracy?' Last week I took a bullet for democracy," Trump said, referencing an often-used Democrat talking point.

"What did I do against democracy? Crazy," Trump, 78, said amidst applause from thousands of his supporters.

Trump’s comments come one week since the former president survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in Pennsylvania. He was shot in the ear less than 10 minutes into his speech, prompting him to be escorted off stage. One attendee and the shooter died during the attack while two others were injured.

The former president also spoke about Project 2025, which his rivals and the opposition Democratic Party claim is an initiative that threatens democracy.

“I don’t want to know anything about it. But what they do is misinformation and disinformation,” he said, as he distanced himself from it.

Overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the multi-pronged initiative includes a detailed blueprint for the next Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

“I shouldn’t be here right now, but something very special happened,” Trump, who wore a bandage on his ear, said at the rally.

Trump, who spoke for nearly two hours, thanked the staff at Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was taken minutes after the shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania.

“Let me begin this evening with a very special thanks to Americans nationwide, including all of you here today, for your extraordinary outpouring of love and support in the wake of the horrific last Saturday event,” he said at the start of the rally.

Trump also alleged that the rival Democratic Party is trying to overthrow the results of their primaries to dump incumbent President Joe Biden from the ballot.

“Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. As you're seeing, the Democrat Party is not the party of democracy. They're really the enemies of democracy,” he said.

“Under our leadership, the Republican Party is now the party of the people. We're the party of hardworking Americans of every race, religion, colour, and creed. We've become a very big party," he claimed.

Michigan is one of the handful of crucial swing states expected to determine the outcome of November's presidential election.