Former President Donald Trump has been mocked online after appearing to claim to be in Texas during a campaign rally on Thursday when he was speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, though his campaign spokesperson told Newsweek he meant “‘here’ as in Arizona.”
The event was at Dream City Church in the north of the city and organized by the conservative group Turning Point USA.
The Phoenix rally was the first Trump has held since he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30 in New York, which prosecutors said he did to conceal the payment of hush money sent to former adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump condemned the trial as “rigged” and is widely expected to mount an appeal.
Former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump raises his fist as he walks off stage after participating in a town hall event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 6. Trump has been mocked for appearing to claim he was in Texas during his speech, though his spokesperson insists this isn’t what he meant.
JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY
During the rally, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, remarked about what was happening “here in Texas” before praising the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott , whom he said had “done a very good job.”
A six-second clip of the comments, filmed by the conservative Right Side Broadcasting Network, was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the Biden-Harris HQ account, which is affiliated with the president’s reelection campaign.
“Trump: What they’re doing here in Texas… (He is in Arizona),” the post said.
Trump: What they’re doing here in Texas…
(He is in Arizona) pic.twitter.com/0XZswIeuti
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ)
The Biden-Harris HQ post was widely shared, receiving more than 300,000 views and 7,800 likes.
Alex Cole, a software engineer and self-styled “progressive” with 147,000 X followers, shared the same footage, adding: “If Biden were in Arizona and called it Texas, there would be BREAKING NEWS everywhere, but this a****** says it and nothing.”
A third X user with more than 240,000 followers shared a four-second clip, commenting: “Trump: ‘…here in Texas.’ My guy, you are in Arizona. His brain is cooked.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek: “President Trump was obviously saying ‘here’ as in Arizona and then mentions Texas as well. Sounds like the Biden campaign is trying to distract from Biden allegedly soiling himself in public yesterday.”
Newsweek is not aware of any evidence that Biden “soiled himself” at the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, on Thursday, as has been alleged by some conservative activists on social media.
Ahead of Trump’s rally on Thursday, a number of his supporters were carried away on stretchers after falling ill while waiting in temperatures that reached 102 degrees, according to KNXV reporter Ben Brown.
A Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson told Newsweek they had transported 11 people to the hospital following “reports of heat exhaustion.”
During Trump’s speech, he again hit out at his conviction in the hush money case, saying: “I just went through a rigged trial in New York. It was made-up, fabricated stuff.”
Biden defeated Trump by less than 0.5 percent of the vote to win the 2020 presidential election in Arizona as they head for a rematch in November.
A Data Orbital poll published in May found Biden on track for another narrow victory in the state, with the incumbent getting 38.8 percent of the vote to 38.1 percent for Trump, though it was within the margin of error.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.