POLITICS
Takeaways from Trump’s 1st rally speech as president-elect

BY BILL BARROW
Updated 8:01 PM EST, December 22, 2024

PHOENIX (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump came to Arizona on Sunday for his first rally speech since winning the November election.

He was greeted by thousands of adoring supporters who confirmed his popularity across the conservative base. Trump attempted in his 75-minutes on stage to go beyond his core supporters. But he also employed his usual aggressiveness, including ratcheting up threats against Panama and sending a message to billionaire Elon Musk. Here are some takeaways from the speech:

President-elect tests unity message alongside characteristic bombast

Trump spoke for about 75 minutes, much of it a typical Donald Trump speech – plenty of quips about the U.S. being “ripped off” and more false assertions that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential election. But Trump was nonetheless relaxed, relishing his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, especially prevailing in the popular vote after not getting the most votes in 2016 or 2020. He went so far as to offer talk of national unity — though with a sideways compliment to vanquished Democrats.

“We had no riots. We had no anything. It was a beautiful thing to watch,” Trump said. “They just said, ‘We lost.’ And we want to try bringing everybody together. We’re going to try. We’re going to really give it a shot.” … Trump, who likes to say that his clear but close victory was a landslide, argued: “There’s a spirit that we have now that we didn’t have just a short while ago.”

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