Trump Holds His First Rally Since Mar-a-Lago Search, Calls Biden 'Enemy of the State'

Donald Trump is back soaking in the love of his supporters at a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania rally. The former president held his first rally since last month's FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence on Saturday night to endorse GOP candidates for the state.

Former President Donald Trump is a prolific campaigner, so much so that he held 10 campaign-styled rallies even after he was elected as president, then in 2018 held 40 more campaign-styled rallies during the midterm election year. On Saturday, night Trump returned to the stage to endorse GOP candidates Doug Mastriano who is running for governor, and Dr. Mehmet Oz who is running for Senate.

Before inviting either candidate onstage Trump toted his successes as president, reiterated the "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was rigged, attacked powerful figures both in the United States and abroad including Biden, slammed the media, and told a very long, and very detailed story about his friend's disappointing experience of owning an electric car.

Donald Trump first began his attacks by calling Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook and CEO of Meta*, a “weirdo”, before moving on to Senate Republicans including Mitch McConnell, and bombarding them for not “allowing” Trump to remain president after losing the 2020 presidential election to Biden, adding that “a lot of Republicans” should be “ashamed” of themselves for the stroke of disloyalty.

“And a guy like Mitch McConnell, who allowed this [sic] to happen should be scorned, he should be scorned,” said Trump at his rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “The 2020 election was rigged and sold and now our country is being destroyed by people who got into office through cheating and through fraud.”

“Now watch,” added Trump, who attacked the media earlier in his speech Saturday night. “The cameras will all turn off as soon as I say that, they don’t want to hear that.”

The video, which was streaming live to YouTube, remained uninterrupted.

Trump then endorsed Doug Mastriano as a Republican who “fights” both Republicans and Democrats. Trump’s endorsement of Mastriano remained short and tight-lipped—even as the crowd began chanting the Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate—the former president veered his speech back to the FBI's search of his Mar-a-Lago residence, claiming it was a “distraction” from Biden’s work as president and attacked the president on inflation and policies, such as electric cars.

He would go on to recount his warnings to Germany to not make a deal with Russia on the Baltic Sea gas pipeline NordStream-2 during a NATO Summit in Brussels in 2018, and then segued that subject into an attack on Biden’s decision to end the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline due to health and safety risks as well as major environmental harm.

Trump also peddled a recent conspiracy theory that claims that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents are arming themselves with guns and are going to attack everyday Americans. The conspiracy has been rebuffed by the agency and found to be false.

In the most explosive remark from his speech, Trump also called Biden an “enemy of the state” following Biden’s attack on Trump and his fellow “MAGA” Republicans represented a “semi-fascist” philosophy that threatens American democracy.

"He's an enemy of the state… The enemy of the state is him and the group that controls him, which is circling around him," Trump said during the rally, and claimed Biden’s words were “vicious, hateful and divisive”.

Trump finally invited Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, a TV personality known for his daytime television show "Dr.Oz", to speak to the crowd. Despite Trump’s endorsement, Democrat Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman is leading Oz in the polls by eight points (48 to 40). Oz’s lack of familiarity with both Pennsylvania and its residents has caused him problems with voters.

State Senator Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, was then invited to speak on stage by Trump and toted Trump-like language and policies.

“On day one we’re out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, we’re going to drill and dig like no tomorrow,” said Mastriano at the rally on Saturday. “On day one we’re no longer a sanctuary state,” said Mastriano who then said he would have “illegal immigrants” dropped off at Biden’s “beach house”.

Mastriano’s opponent, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro, is leading him in the polls by about seven points, due in part by the fact that some Republicans have crossed party lines and are now endorsing Shapiro in direct opposition to Mastriano, whose far-right platform includes restricting abortion access, cutting public school funding, and Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.

“All that adds up to someone who is prepared to undermine democratic choice to get what he wants,” said Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary under former President George W. Bush, and is one of 16 former Republican officials who has endorsed Shapiro. “This is someone who shows an antipathy to the core values of the country and undermines democracy.”

*Meta is a company banned in Russia