Former President Trump on Thursday was joined by Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) for a town hall event in Wisconsin, previewing how the Trump campaign plans to utilize the former Democratic congresswoman on the trail in the coming weeks.
Gabbard, who endorsed Trump earlier in the week, moderated a town hall event in La Crosse, where she guided the conversation and at times sought to keep the conversation focused on key issues like immigration, inflation and foreign policy.
The former congresswoman opened by sharing her own story of dealing with fertility struggles, teeing Trump up to discuss his brand new proposal for the government to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
Gabbard ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in the Democratic primary in 2020. She announced in 2022 she was leaving the party and has become a regular presence in conservative media, making her endorsement of Trump largely unsurprising.
The Trump campaign has said it expects Gabbard, as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his independent White House bid and backed Trump, to appear on the trail in support of the former president in the coming weeks.
Trump only appeared on stage for roughly 30 minutes and fielded questions on immigration, inflation, crime and preventing terrorist attacks. The former president at one point told the audience he was unaware he was doing a town hall event until aides informed him of the format while flying into Wisconsin.
He hit on familiar talking points, claiming the country was being overrun by illegal immigrants, downplaying the threat of climate change and blasting Vice President Harris as a “Marxist” who has flip-flopped on issues.
“She’s changed on every single one of them. In fact…perhaps we should give Kamala a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat,” Trump said. “But the problem is, that’s not her belief. Her belief is open borders. Her belief is getting rid of Social Security. Her belief is doing all of these plans like for health insurance where you have one big government-run mess.”
Harris has not called for getting rid of Social Security. She has said she supports a bipartisan border security deal that would increase funding for border patrol, and she has distanced herself from her past support for Medicare for All.
Trump's event took place shortly before Harris's first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominee was set to air on CNN. The former president mocked the setup of the interview during his remarks in Wisconsin, telling the crowd Harris "didn’t look like a leader to me."
Wisconsin is set to be a closely contested battleground in November. A Decision Desk HQ/The Hill average of polls from the state show Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points.
