Former President Donald Trump said this year’s election is not a choice between Democrats and Republicans but a choice between communism and freedom during a campaign stop at a steel distributor in rural Michigan on Thursday.
In a freewheeling speech to an enthusiastic crowd on a wide variety of topics, including lobbing insults about his opponent, Vice Preisdent Kamala Harris, Trump said the federal government or individual insurance would pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment.
“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” Trump said. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”
He did not provide details on how the program would work, or how it would be funded, though he also proposed that new parents would be allowed to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes.
Trump's proposals -- as well as his comments about Florida's six-week abortion ban being "too short" when asked about his stance the state's reproductive rights ballot initiative -- come as Harris and Democrats have sought to hammer him on abortion rights. The issue of reproductive rights is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats in November's election.
Harris' campaign called Trump's IVF proposal a "brazen" lie.
“Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide," said Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika, pointing to the Republican Party platform adopted at last month's convention that critics say endorses fetal personhood.
"Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid," Chitika continued. "Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Blaming Harris for inflation, crime, sex trafficking, illegal immigration and electric vehicle mandates that he said will kill the U.S. auto industry, Trump said, “I’m here today with a simple message for the American auto worker and for the American worker. Your long economic nightmare will very soon be over.”
Speaking to workers in the battleground state of Michigan, he promised to “end Kamala’s war on American energy, terminate her green new scam and drill, baby drill,” he said.
Calling Haris a Marxist and a fascist with a political agenda that “looks like it was written by the Chinese Community Party,” he said, “She’s the one who gave us every single disaster that our country is facing right now.”
Trump told the workers they should be able to afford a nice house, a new car and a growing family on a single income while enjoying the highest standard of living on earth. He said Americans deserve safe streets, secure borders, great schools, healthy children, bustling factories and a nation that is confident and strong.
“That’s the future that I intend to deliver and I will deliver,” he said in a speech that leavened promises for a second Trump term with insults for Harris (Comrade Kamala), Gov. Tim Walz (Tampon Tim) and President Biden (Sleepy Joe).
“Do we even have a president?” he said of Biden. “He just got back from California. He was supposed to go to the White House. He never got there. He went to Delaware and he’s laying on a beach sleeping all day long.”
On reproductive rights, Trump accused Democrats of being “radicals” who approve of abortion in the ninth month and even killing a baby after birth. He said abortion rights should be determined by the states and that he believed in abortion ban exceptions for women whose lives were in jeopardy or who were victims of rape or incest.
He then pivoted to border and crime issues, saying Harris’s policies had allowed millions of illegal immigrants to come into the country and commit violent crimes and “endorsed the Marxist crusade to defund the police.”
Airing personal grievances, Trump continued to falsely claim widespread fraud in the 2020 election and complained that polls showing him tied with Harris are also rigged.
Speaking to a cohort of working-class voters in a battleground state who will be critical in November’s election, Trump pledged to be “the automobile manufacturing president” for gas-, hybrid- and electric-powered cars.
He pledged to impose tariffs of 200 to 250% on Chinese automakers who make cars in Mexico and ship them over the border into the U.S. and to make Chinese companies build their cars in Michigan or another U.S. state instead.
“I’m a big fan of electric cars, but they’re limited,” Trump said. “They don’t go far. They’re very expensive and they’re all going to be made in China because they have the material, but we have more liquid gold under our feet than anybody else.”
“I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors and will slash the red tape,” he said. “Under President Trump, America’s future will be energy abundance, energy independence and soon we will be energy dominant.”