By james art Former President Donald Trump spent his Halloween night in Arizona, skipping a treat for a meandering live show with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Arizona on Thursday, making their final pitch to voters in the swing state as polls show the race is locked in a razor-thin margin days before Election Day.
Seated in leather chairs against a backdrop of American flags, Carlson, a former Fox News commentator, threw softball questions at Trump, who for about 90 minutes covered years of familiar material in nonsensical stories. The overall theme presented himself as someone who would return to the White House with a record of past success.
“We’ve defeated ISIS, we’ve had no wars,” Trump said of his four years in office. “We had the best economy in the history of our country.”
If he wins next week, it will be “the biggest event in the history of the country,” he said. Although he was seen as the clear favorite, he also raised concerns about the Democrats’ “cheating.”
The excited fans who packed Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena seemed to enjoy the show, although some left before it was over. The stadium has a capacity of around 18,000 for such events and most of the seats appeared to be full.
Trump spent some time talking about immigration and border control, calling them the biggest issue of all. He claims that countries around the world send prisoners and street gangs to the United States.
“We will have to carry out a very large deportation,” he said. “Cannot be supported.”
He moved seamlessly from immigration to transwomen in sports to SpaceX rockets to the mustache of his former national security adviser John Bolton. He peppered his comments with casual malice, calling Harris, Bolton and others “stupid.”
Trump called Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman from Wyoming and frequent Trump critic, “dumb.” He then added: “She is a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a shotgun standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. okay? Let’s see how she feels. You know, when the guns are pointed at her face.
RFK Jr. pushes the Make America Healthy Again theme
Performers including Utah comedian Jason Hewlett kicked off the event, which began around 6:30 p.m. But the pre-show soon took on a serious tone, with warnings of a conspiracy to sicken Americans with disease and obesity as a new priority along with the economy or the border .
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former Democrat and independent presidential candidate who left his party and endorsed Trump in August, added a health aspect to the evening’s issues, but with a strong conspiracy angle.
“We are being poisoned en masse by Big Pharma and Big Food,” he said, adding that the media has covered up the corruption leading to many chronic diseases such as diabetes. The arena crowd cheered and cheered him on when he said his healthy regimen included 30 minutes of prayer each day.
Trump has promised to put him in charge of health and medicine issues if elected, he said.
RFK Jr.’s former vice president, Nicole Shanahan, also spoke at the event, calling Trump an ally for supporting vaccine skepticism and saying she voted for Trump for the first time.
During the call, Trump indicated he supported the former Democrat as a possible Cabinet member, but said Kennedy would have to accept his administration’s pro-oil stance.
Carlson pumped up Trump for the crowd before a call
Carlson fired up the crowd before Trump chimed in with a lengthy explanation of why government bureaucrats and profiteers disliked the former president. Federal investigators and officials see Trump as a “death threat” because he “tells the truth” and exposes crooks profiting from bad government, Carlson said.
“They think it’s their right to rule,” he said of the unnamed enemies.
Carlson’s speech, like Trump’s, often wandered around a wide range of topics and anecdotes. He took a moment to mention that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has the same last name as a conquistador and that “masculinity is still an indispensable thing.”
Trump is the “brave man” America needs “because the world is rough,” and Trump has proven himself by showing the “instinct” of leadership after being shot.
Halloween event wears costumes
Most of the crowd wore typical Trump rally attire, Trump tracksuits and lots of red, white and blue, but some wore suits for the Oct. 31 event.
Several wore safety vests posing as garbage collectors after President Joe Biden’s apparent statement that Trump supporters were “garbage.” Others carried garbage bags.
Theresa Hilding of Chino Valley wearing a belted toga promoting Kennedy’s “Making America Healthy Again” theme.
The Glendale event was Trump’s third visit to the state in October. He rallied supporters in Prescott Valley on Oct. 13 and returned for a rally at Arizona State University last week.
Trump made national news during his rally in Tempe when he likened the nation to a “garbage can” for the rest of the world when it comes to illegal immigration.
Thursday’s event is also the final stop on Carlson’s national tour and is being billed as a relief effort for people affected by recent hurricanes along the East Coast.
(This story has been updated with new information.)