Grand Rapids, Michigan — Former President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio held their first joint rally in Michigan on Saturday, as the two seek to flip the state to Republican support since President Joe Biden's 2020 victory.

The rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was Trump's first since surviving an assassin's bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, which left the Republican candidate with a wound in his ear and killed former volunteer fire chief and military veteran Cory Comperatore. (Related: President Trump issues tribute to former fire chief killed in rally attack)

Trump took a more critical tone in describing his political opponents than he did during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, when he hit back at his opponents who called him an “enemy of democracy.”

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“They keep saying [I’m] “I am a threat to democracy. What have I ever done for democracy? I took a bullet for democracy last week,” Trump said Saturday.

The Republican candidate distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, calling it “extreme” — comments that will put him at odds with some on the right who expect the president to implement many of the initiatives in the nearly 1,000-page plan.

When asked why he chose Vance as his running mate, President Trump said, “He's a man who is dedicated to working people.”

Vance poked fun at the Michigan attendees, acknowledging the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry and being from the Midwest. “I respect my fellow Ohio State guys, Michigan State. We've got to beat Michigan State,” Vance said.

Police officers patrol the streets on bicycles outside a Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024. (Photo by Ryan Meystrup/Daily Caller News Foundation)

Security appeared to have been stepped up in the wake of Saturday's tragic events, with local police patrolling the city's streets on bicycles, horses and vehicles, and Secret Service personnel shadowing Trump as he approached the stage, while local police stood guard on the deck above the stage.

The Secret Service, Michigan State Police and Grand Rapids Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the DCNF.

Police officers patrol the upper level of Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 20, 2024. (Photo by Ryan Mailstrup/Daily Caller News Foundation)

Trump: “It is by the grace of Almighty God that I stand before you”

“It is by the grace of Almighty God that I am standing before you,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday. “I shouldn't be here. Maybe JD or somebody else could be here, but I shouldn't be here right now,” Trump said.

On July 13, 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire with an AR-15 into a crowd of rallygoers, wounding President Trump in the ear and killing Comperatore. Two others were also injured in the attack. While no clear explanation has emerged since the assassination attempt, much attention has been focused on the role the Secret Service and local police played in the major security failures at the event. (Related article: 'It's too painful to talk about': Trump survives death threat, pledges unity in emotional finale of Republican National Convention)

Crooks Reportedly According to The Wall Street Journal, Crooks had flown a drone to scout the area hours before the rally, before being shot and killed by a police sniper from an adjacent building.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the building where Crooks opened fire had a sloping roof, posing a challenge for police. She argued that the Secret Service was responsible for securing the inner perimeter of the rally, while local police were in charge of the outer perimeter. “That building in particular has a sloping roof at the highest point, so, you know, as a safety factor, you don't want somebody to be climbing onto a sloping roof,” Cheatle said at a press conference on Tuesday. interview From ABC News.

Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump sustained a gunshot wound and was hurriedly escorted off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Political analysts see Michigan as a must-win state for Trump to be elected to a second term as president, as the state was crucial to his election. win In 2016, he defeated then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Trump won by just over 10,000 votes and captured the state's 16 electoral votes, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the Great Lakes state. Since Former President George H.W. Bush in 1988. Trump lost to Biden in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. Votes He unsuccessfully sought reelection in 2020.

Former President Donald Trump holds his first rally with his new vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance, at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 20, 2024 (Photo by Ryan Mailstrup/Daily Caller News Foundation)

Grand Rapids, the state's second-largest city, is in Kent County, an area that had been heavily Republican for decades before Biden's 2020 victory, when he won 70% of the city's vote. according to To Bridge Michigan: Michigan's western district has been represented for decades by Republicans, including former President Gerald R. Kennedy. FordHe represented the region for 25 years before becoming vice president in 1973.

Democrats recaptured Michigan's 3rd Congressional District in the 2022 midterm elections, but Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten defeat Trump has endorsed Republican candidate John Gibbs, whose seat was previously held by businessman Peter Meyer, who lost to Gibbs in the 2022 Republican primary after voting to impeach Trump in 2021.

Scholten, who faces a tough reelection race in November, is one of 35 Democrats who called on Biden to end his administration. motion According to The Hill, this comes after his disastrous defeat in a debate with President Trump on June 27th.

Haley Gomez of the Daily Caller News Foundation contributed to this report.

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