Live: Donald Trump speaks at sold-out Alabama GOP event

Former President Donald Trump on Friday night made his first public appearance in Alabama since declaring his campaign to return to the White House, speaking for almost an hour at a sold-out fundraising dinner hosted by the state Republican Party in Montgomery.

Trump blasted his indictments as the acts of a corrupt justice system and said they were timed to hurt his campaign. But he said that was not working.

“Every time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls,” Trump said. “We need one more indictment to close out this election.”

“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me I consider it a truly great badge of honor,” Trump said, drawing cheers.

Trump blamed the Biden administration putting the nation on the wrong course, calling the president incompetent and corrupt.

“We are a failing nation,” Trump said. “We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere in our elections by using law enforcement, the DOJ, and the FBI. It’s totally corrupt and we can’t let it happen to our country.”

Trump touched on two Alabama-specific issues — the Biden decision to keep the U.S. Space Command in Colorado, instead of moving it to Huntsville, which Trump supported, and widening Interstate 65 to six lanes from Huntsville to Mobile, which he said he would support.

Trump closed his speech at Montgomery’s Renaissance Hotel conference center with by a signature phrase.

“With your help, your love, and your vote, we will make America great again, greater, than ever before,” Trump said.

The former president paused momentarily as the crowd approached the stage to take pictures with their phones, then left to the sound of the 1960s song “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Sam and Dave.

Trump drew frequent cheers from what Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl said was the largest ever crowd at a GOP dinner, about 2,700 people.

Trump’s appearance comes one day after pleading not guilty to four felony charges related to what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden.

“The fake charges put forth in the sham indictment are an outrageous criminalization of political speech,” Trump said. “They’re trying to make it illegal to question the results of a bad election.”

Trump last spoke in Alabama at an outdoor rally in Cullman in August 2021, drawing a huge crowd indicative of his overwhelming support from Republicans in a state where he got 62% of the vote in the last two presidential elections.

Wahl said Friday night’s event will raise $1.2 million for the party, breaking the record set by the Cullman event as the largest fundraising event in state Republican Party history.

The program opened with country music artist Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.”

Congressman Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, was the first speaker. Moore called Trump “the greatest president of my lifetime.” Moore noted that he endorsed Trump in 2015 when Trump appeared at a rally in Mobile, early in the 2016 presidential campaign.

“He still loves this country. He is still in this fight, and I am still standing with him,” Moore said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduced the former president. Tuberville said he spent the week traveling in Alabama and was struck by how much support he saw for Trump.

“This is Trump country,” Tuberville told the crowd.

“We need to stand behind him,” Tuberville said. “It’s great he’s here in a place like Alabama that loves Donald Trump.”

“There’s nobody that can get the job done, faster, and more efficient than Donald Trump,” Tuberville said. He blasted Democrats and urged the crowd to stand behind Trump.

“Understand it it going to be a fight for the next year and a half,” Tuberville said.

Trump came out and stood for a standing ovation while a recording of “God Bless the USA,” played.

Trump opened his remarks by saying it was great to be back in Alabama. He greeted Gov. Kay Ivey, who sat at a table at the front. Trump praised Tuberville and named Alabama’s Republican congressmen, who endorsed him earlier on Friday, as well as Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth and other state officials who endorsed him.

Trump received a loud cheer when he said, “On election day 2024 we’re going to evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House.”

Trump called his administration one of the most successful four years in history, noting that the country did not get involved in any wars.

He called the media corrupt and said “fake news” was not a strong enough term. He criticized the press for not reporting enough about what he said was the corruption involving the Biden family.

Trump said he is a fighter and said “It’s one of the reasons I like Alabama. Because you’re fighters.”

Trump recited numbers saying he was far ahead in the polls but said he would not “play prevent defense,” meaning he would not become cautious and would stay aggressive in the campaign.

Trump recognized My Pillow founder Mike Lindell, a longtime Trump supporter, who was seated at the front.

Trump made derisive comments about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him “DeSanctimonious.” He showed poll numbers that showed DeSantis and others far and him.

Trump talked about his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices and praised the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and the ruling in opposition to affirmative action in college admissions.

On abortion, he said he favored three exceptions to a ban, for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.

“The three exceptions to me are very important,” Trump said.

Alabama’s ban on abortions allows exceptions to protect the mother from serious health risks, but has no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

Trump mentioned the Biden administration’s decision to keep the U.S. Space Command in Colorado instead of moving it to Huntsville, which Trump supported. He said the fight was not over.

Trump said he would approve a six-lane Interstate 65 in Alabama, a priority promoted by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth.

Trump said he would propose a border tariff on all foreign made goods, saying the nation is being hurt badly on trade.

Trump got applause when he said he would achieve independency from China and said China unleashed “the China virus,” referring to COVID-19.

Trump talked about illegal immigration and said that as president he would start a large deportation program.

He said on his first day in office he would sign an executive order to cut federal funding to any school that teachers critical race theory.

Trump said he would restore authority on schools to parents, close the Department of Education and return more control to states.

Trump said he would “keep men out of women’s sports.” Trump said he would support a federal ban on “child sexual mutilation,” apparently a reference to transgender therapies for minors.

The indictment announced Tuesday marks the third criminal case pending against the former president, following earlier charges related to alleged hush payments to a porn star in New York and accusations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

The former president has denounced all the cases as politically motivated, and the legal problems have not derailed his status as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Wahl said he was initially concerned that the indictment could affect Friday night’s event.

“I have been on pins and needles all week since that indictment broke, wondering if it was actually going to be able to happen,” Wahl said. “The Trump team has been very supportive. They said it was a priority and never wavered on him coming to the state.”

Trump’s campaign announced Friday that Tuberville and Alabama’s six Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives – Robert Aderholt, Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers and Dale Strong – are backing the former president in his bid to return to the White House. Other endorsements came from Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate, Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh and Public Service Commissioners Chip Beeker and Jeremy Oden.

Biden’s campaign on Friday blasted Trump’s appearance in Alabama as an endorsement of Tuberville’s hold on more than 260 military promotions in protest of new Department of Defense policies on abortion.

““No one is shocked to see Donald Trump endorse Tommy Tuberville’s reckless political antics that put our military readiness at risk,” the Biden campaign said in a statement to al.com.

The indictment announced Tuesday alleges that Trump knew he lost the election in November 2020 but that for more that two months after “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won.”

“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified,” the indictment says.

The indictment also charges Trump with trying to obstruct Congress in its certification of the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after Trump spoke at “Stop the Steal” rally.

Wahl said the indictment is an overreach by the Justice Department.

“It concerns me because I think it’s very close to stepping on the line of free speech and the freedom to have your own opinion,” Wahl said. “I don’t think anyone has the right to tell another person if they do believe something or don’t believe it. So for the Justice Department to say Donald Trump knew and that he shouldn’t believe something, I think that oversteps the bounds of good government and limited government.”

Friday night’s event is the Alabama Republican Party’s summer dinner. The state GOP sold VIP packages of $50,000, $20,000, and $5,000 that included photo opportunities with Trump and tickets to a reception. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination, was the Alabama Republican Party’s speaker at its winter dinner in March.

Friday night’s event comes eight years Trump’s rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile accelerated the momentum that would carry him to the White House over what was then a large Republican field.

Read more: 6 memorable Trump visits to Alabama