Donald Trump slams Larry Krasner, Jake Tapper, and lies about Philly votes at Temple rally

Former President Donald Trump stood in the heart of North Philadelphia Saturday and described it as a “wild time” in the city, saying violent crime has surged and vowing to send “federal resources” if he’s elected.

In an 85-minute speech that included multiple appeals to Hispanic and Black voters, he slammed his rivals as “despicable,” proposed an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)-style fighting league for migrants, falsely claimed he’d won the city of Philadelphia in past elections, and promised to restore security to the country.

Bonnie Harmon, a performance artist who is in her early 60s and lives in Philadelphia, wore a “Blacks for Trump 2020” shirt at the rally, though she covered it up with an American flag t-shirt for her commute home as a safety precaution, she said.

Harmon, who is Black and has supported Trump since his first presidential run, thinks people who are hung up on racist comments Trump has made in the past should get over it, because nobody is perfect.

Dressed in a shirt full of American flags, Jeremy Lee left Donald Trump's rally in Philadelphia feeling hope for his small business.

As a retail owner, retail theft is one of his biggest concerns.

As he introduced Dave McCormick, former President Donald Trump went to great lengths to note the Republican U.S. Senate candidate's Pennsylvania bona fides amid criticism of his Connecticut residence.

“Dave McCormick is a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian who grew up in Bloomsburg,” Trump noted. McCormick added he’s a “native Pennsylvanian.”

Trump supporters in North Philly went wild when the former president talked about critical race theory and transgender people. They continued to roar when he spoke against vaccine mandates and transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.

"How embarrassing it is to say we will keep men out of women's sports?" Trump said, pledging to sign an executive order on "day one" to prevent transgender women from competing in sporting events.

Former President Donald Trump blasted U.S. Sen. Bob Casey as “a stiff,” saying during his speech in Philadelphia that Pennsylvania’s senior senator is too aligned with President Joe Biden.

“Bob Casey, look, he doesn’t do anything. He’s a stiff. He doesn’t do anything,” Trump said. “You ever have people like that, you meet him, and they put you to sleep? You say, ‘hello, how are you?’ And you fall asleep. That's Bob Casey.”

On Thursday, Donald Trump will take the debate stage for the first time since 2020 to debate President Joe Biden on CNN.

Speaking to supporters at a rally in North Philly, Trump said CNN has “taken so much fun” out of the debate by deciding against having a studio audience.

Former President Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a “total fake,” but said he would like to debate Kennedy, who is running as a third-party candidate but has not qualified for next week’s CNN debate.

“He wants to be in the debate, but he's got bad numbers,” Trump said.

Donald Trump pointed to a group of women sitting in the front row of the lower bowl that seems to be from North Carolina, and praised them for being beautiful. They wore bright pink, blue, and yellow pant suits.

“Are you happily married?” Trump asked them. “Yes!” they shouted with grins.

Trump supporters don't seem affected by Trump’s recent felony convictions.

“[The convictions don't] really faze me because I feel like that was just a way to try and take away from his character and that was supposed to be a move to make you look bad and might make you look like a felon,” said Carla Richardson, 31, a mental health professional from Southwest Philadelphia.

Three generations ago, a Dominican Republic man emigrated to New York. Today, his grandson, Matthew Contreras, drove over two hours to Philadelphia to support Donald Trump.

“He is not racist, he is from Queens,” said Contreras standing across Liacouras Center wearing an American eagle shirt.

Former President Trump slammed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner as a “despicable Marxist” and suggesting the progressive prosecutor is to blame for violence in the city.

“Krasner has the blood of countless men, women, and children on his hands,” Trump said, “including thousands of African American citizens because he refuses to prosecute people.”

Before beginning his typical campaign stump speech, former President Donald Trump entered the arena and almost immediately falsely claimed he won the popular vote in the city.

“We won it twice in actuality,” he said. “We’re going to have the biggest year we ever had.”

It was a tense moment at the Broad Street anti-Trump rally when a man in MAGA attire entered the crowd with another man who was filming him.

An argument between the men and an anti-Trump protester broke out, before other rallygoers helped disperse the interaction.

Carla Richardson, 31, didn't vote until the 2016 election when she cast her ballot for Trump. She says she was initially drawn to the former president because other people were "pushing away" from him.

"I've always been a contrarian anyway so I just wanted to understand what the issue with him was," said Richardson, a mental health professional from Southwest Philadelphia. "The more I started to follow him and understand the policies and the reasons why he's doing what he's doing, it makes sense to me. He seems to care about keeping money in Americans' pockets."

Caldwell Robinson didn’t reserve tickets to see the former president, but he stood outside wearing his red cap in pride.

“I’m going home and I'm watching him on TV,” Robinson, 83, said.

The Liacouras Center, which can hold about 10,000, had not opened the upper-level red seats to attendees as of 6 p.m. and remained empty.

The lower bowl and roughly 10 rows of floor seats at the arena are full.

Republican nominee for Senate David McCormick attacked a host of prominent Democrats from President Biden to District Attorney Larry Krasner during a speech at Saturday’s Trump rally.

He described a country in decline and in desperate need of new leadership, panning Pennsylvania sitting Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, saying, “We got one who won’t wear a suit and one who is an empty suit.”

Ahead of his rally, former President Donald Trump made a stop at Tony & Nicks in South Philly Saturday.

The original location of Tony Luke’s steak shop in South Philadelphia, which goes back 30 years, changed its name to Tony & Nick's in 2022 following a family feud that inspired an IRS tax-fraud case.

An anti-Trump rally has grown to a crowd of around 100 nearly an hour before the former president is set to speak.

A cohort of union leaders and community activists are here. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta arrived around 5:30, shaking hands and snapping photos with supporters.

One Philadelphia business owner who spoke in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s speech praised the former president for coming to North Philadelphia, saying, “We have a president that doesn’t mind going into the hood.”

James Earl Jones, the owner of Silverback Commodities, an energy-buying consortium based in the city, described Trump in fighting terms, saying he’s a “warrior and he fights for us.”

Congressman Dan Meuser (R., Pa.) has taken the stage at the Liacouras Center.

Meuser, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Northeastern Pennsylvania, started off his speech by mentioning the Phillies and the Eagles and that Trump wants to “make Philadelphia great again.”

Kicking off Donald Trump's rally in Philadelphia was Todd Johnson, pastor at First Immanuel Baptist Church in North Philly.

Delivering the invocation, Johnson said the country was “founded on the principles that are found in all Judeo-Christian writings.”

Phillip Jefferson, a city employee and AFSCME member, heard his union was gathering to protest Trump's rally and heeded the call.

But it wasn't a hard ask for Jefferson, who voted for President Biden in 2020 and will assuredly vote for him again in November.

A crowd of around 50 supporters of President Joe Biden are gathering across from the Liacouras Center on Broad Street, chanting "Lock him up" and "Trump is a chump."

A podium is set up for a 5 p.m. rally held by state Democratic leaders.

Tom Mathena, 47, was disappointed that he missed Donald Trump’s Wildwood rally, so when the Wilmington resident saw on Facebook that the former president was coming to Philadelphia, he knew he’d be there, and he brought his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Mathena with him.

Gianna Mathena considers herself to be politically active and is a supporter of Trump at such a young age because of her dad.

As former President Donald Trump’s supporters waited for the 7 p.m. rally to begin, they watched a video of the former president telling the crowd he wants to “swamp [Democrats] in November.” The crowd erupted in boos and cheers when Trump referred to “crooked Joe Biden.”

Notably, the slideshow told attendees that, in addition to making a plan to vote in person, they can request mail ballots.

During a news conference Saturday, Philadelphia elected officials who support President Joe Biden predicted that Philadelphians won't support former President Donald Trump in meaningful numbers.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democrat whose district includes Temple University, recalled that Trump fueled the “birtherism” movement questioning former President Barack Obama’s birthplace. He said Trump then “spent his entire presidency trying to undermine not only [Obama’s] legacy, but undermine the security that Black working families depended on.”

Crowds of supporters of former President Donald Trump are starting to file into the Liacouras Center.

Doors opened around 3 p.m.

Pennsylvania is a critical swing state where every single vote counts. Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by a little less than 1 percentage point and then lost to Joe Biden in 2020 by a little more than 1 percentage point.

Biden will rely on maintaining or growing support in Philadelphia and its suburbs, due to the region’s high concentration of Democratic voters compared to the rest of the state. And even a slight uptick in support for Trump in the Philadelphia area could help him tip the scales in his favor.

Philadelphia and Temple police will work together on security for the Donald Trump rally at the Liacouras Center on Saturday, with city police taking the lead, given that it isn’t a Temple sponsored event, said Jennifer Griffin, Temple’s vice president for public safety.

“We are no stranger to large events throughout the city,” she said. “There is a template already for how we handle this.”

Saturday’s rally will likely also attract Republicans from outside of Philadelphia. While the Temple rally may draw a different crowd than Donald Trump rallies in more rural parts of the state, his supporters are known to travel to see him, and he is ultimately trying to reach all Pennsylvania voters.

One of those traveling supporters will be Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who lives in Pittsburgh and also spends time in Connecticut.

Donald Trump is coming to Philadelphia Saturday for a rally at Temple University, a first for the former president who famously said “bad things happen” here.

The rally comes less than a week ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2024 election, which takes place Thursday in Atlanta. It will be the first time appearing on a debate stage since 2020 for both Trump and President Joe Biden, since Biden didn’t face a serious challenge during the Democratic primary and Trump skipped the debates held during the Republican primary.